Introducing Pegasus: An
ethnographic study of the ‘use’
of Grid technologies by the UK
particle physics community
Will Venters
Department of Information Systems
London School of Economics and Political Sciences
Email: w.venters@lse.ac.uk
Department of
Information Systems
Pegasus Team
• Three year project funded by the EPSRC programme:
“Usability challenges from e-science”
• Project started 1st June for 3 years.
• Participants:
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Dr Will Venters (Lecturer – LSE)
Dr Tony Cornford (Senior Lecturer – LSE)
Dr Mark Lancaster (Senior Lecturer in PP – UCL)
Dr Yingqin Zheng (Project Research Officer -LSE)
Avgousa Kyriakidou (Project student -LSE)
Yingqin
• Advisory Group:
– To be arranged.
Tony
Will
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
What is Information Systems?
• Study of ICT’s development and use in the real world of
people, e.g.
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Systems development methods and their reshaping
ICT and global outsourcing
Business strategy and ICT
Mobile technology and work
ID cards debate
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
IS at the LSE
• ICT in use influences and is influenced by the social
context as well as by its technical characteristics
• We draw on the social sciences (e.g. economic, social,
organisational, and political viewpoints)
• We have worked in, and done research on, complex
infrastructures:
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knowledge management
financial networks
health information systems
systems development
open-source processes
• Pegasus builds on and will contribute to this stream of
work
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
Why is GridPP interesting to us?
• Our interest is in how complex infrastructures
develop and evolve
– particle physicists are pragmatic: contrast to other developers
(e.g. consultancies, corporations)
– particle physicists are distributed and have for a long time
worked together as a "virtual organisation"; of great interest to
others in e-science.
– GridPP has to deliver on time for LHC
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
Pegasus Project
• We aim to study GridPP’s approach to e-science
infrastructure development, deployment and use, and
as a mix of technology, practices, knowledge, people,
cultures, institutions, and politics…
• We study GridPP as a means to “do” science.
• Relevant for improving the potential of other Grids,
and to inform other large infrastructures (e.g. NHS
“connecting for health”, financial clearing and
settlement …).
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
What are we planning to do?
• We trace:
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development of GridPP;
what influences the technology;
how GridPP comes to be used for the LHC;
how this use affects GridPP
• We are interested not just in the rationalistic processes
of design, but in the emergent behaviours, the “drift” in
practices, the dynamic competences which evolve
• For many areas of IS development these are crucial
issues:
– global and distributed approaches, collaborations, and
contingent ways of processes of innovation
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
How do we intend to do this
Ethnography /
Interviews
Data Collection
Qualitative analysis
using tools
Analysis
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Journals
E-Science guidance
Education
Publication
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
‘Data’ Collection
• BUT…the particle detector is looking at “objective”
particles: we are looking at messy, complicated humans
• We cannot do a science experiment – instead we
employ a technique from anthropology: Ethnography
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Not devolved objective observers (we know that doesn’t work!)
observe, discuss, experience and participate
Interest in cultures, values, ways of working
Concerned with people’s interpretations
Confidentiality and Impartiality
Avoid bias from dominant opinions, or the researcher
• We are not from particle physics or computer science –
so we can and will ask the “stupid” questions
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
‘Data’ Collection
• Over the next two to three years we will be:
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Attending GridPP Meetings etc.
Visiting workplaces
Asking questions
Observing the technology in development and in use
Reading and analysing documents
Interviewing (usually around an hour)
Tape recording (and maybe even video!)
Taking lots of notes!
• And analysing the results!
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
Specific Outputs
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From all this observation we will write a set of “thick
descriptions” describing:
1. How the needs of the LHC shape GridPP
2. How GridPP is understood by, and comes to be used by,
particle physicists preparing for the LHC
3. How GridPP is actually put to use by particle physicists in
research using the data from LHC
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Using these reports to produce a framework and set of
guidance for others developing similar Grids (including
engineering, businesses and government).
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
Wider Contributions to IS
• Existing theories of infrastructure suggest infrastructure
must be (Star and Ruhleder):
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Embedded inside both technologies and social arrangements
Built upon the installed base reflecting an inertia.
Transparent in use (and not reinvented for each task)
Only visible upon breakdown.
Reach beyond a single event or practice.
Learnt as part of “becoming” a member of a community.
Embodied in standards (negotiated with other infrastructure)
• We aim to draw upon, and contribute to such literature
using, e.g. concepts such as bricolage, situated actions,
virtual organisations, translation and inscription, and
distributed cognition!
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)
Finally...What’s in it for GridPP?
• The lessons of your hard work and insight will of value to
others following (after) you.
• Help promote the work of GridPP.
• Help demystify GridPP, and let the public learn about the
process of technological innovation and contemporary
science.
• Help GridPP to reflect on its practices, and improve its
own understanding.
• Provide an alternative perspective on your work.
27th June 2006 – GridPP Collaboration Meeting
Will Venters (w.venters@lse.ac.uk)