e-Science Institute 14 th -15 th January 2004
The workshop was attended by 34 delegates from the UK, European and US e-
Science community. Keynote presentations were given by Frank Bisby, Tom
Rodden, John McDrermid and Michael Lynch. Thirteen papers were presented and topics ranged from studies of collaborative practices in science and user experiences of taking part in e-Science projects to evaluation studies of Grid toolkits and the barriers to successful technological innovation. Breakout sessions were held to discuss three major threads identified in the presentations:
Toolkit issues, Understanding scientific practice and User-developer relations.
Two particular issues with potentially major significance for e-Science were highlighted in the discussions which followed the presentations. The first was the lack of understanding of the nature of collaborative scientifc work and of the likely impact of Grid technologies on practice. Past studies of technological innovation processes suggest that this state of affairs presents a real threat to the success of the e-Science programme. The second was that users’ requirements – whether they be scientists or people who will be expected to deploy, configure and manage Grid infrastructures – have not yet been adequately factored into the process of Grid technology development. One consequence is that the technology is often difficult to deploy. As one delegate memorably put it “using
[Grid] toolkits is like trying to make a bookself out of mash potatoes.” Delegates agreed that these issues can only be addressed by encouraging Grid users and developers to work more closely together. A fuller report summarising these and other issues is in preparation.
Delegates rated the quality of the papers as excellent and found the overall programme very interesting. The workshop was also seen as a valuable priming exercise for the newly launched e-Science Usability Task Force.
The workshop will be followed up by a CfP for a special issue on the topic of e-
Science requirements for publication in a journal in the field e-Science or
Requirements Engineering.
Rob Procter