The Influence and Impact of Web 2.0 on e-Research
Infrastructure, Applications and Users

De Roure, D. and Goble, C. (2007) myExperiment
– A Web 2.0 Virtual Research Environment. In:
International Workshop on Virtual Research
Environments and Collaborative Work
Environments, May 2007, Edinburgh, UK.

• Our target users are the large number of scientists conducting the routine processes of science on a daily basis.
• Through sharing we have the potential to enable smart scientists to be smarter and propagate their smartness, in turn enabling other scientists to become better and conduct better science.
• myExperiment currently has
1640 registered users, 138 groups, 651 workflows, 170 files and 50 packs
• Lots of unique IP visits!
• Total viewings: 85168
Most viewed: 2934
Total downloads: 68525
Most downloaded: 3524
• We share process
• There is evidence in papers and talks that people are finding and using workflows to achieve new scientific results

• myExperiment understands that scientists are focused on data, not software or one particular workflow engine.
• Furthermore, workflows themselves are the data of myExperiment and provide its unique value.
• Taverna 1, GWorkflowDL,
Taverna 2 beta, Chemistry
Plan, Trident (Package),
Trident (XOML), WSVLAM
• Packs are our new Intel
Inside?

• myExperiment makes it easy to find workflows and is designed to make it useful and straightforward to share workflows and add workflows to the pool.
• To succeed we draw on the insights into the incentive models of scientists gained through experience with
Taverna.
• Largest public workflow collection
• BUT Upload incentive has long return on investment
• Paul Fisher gets support requests not credit!
• We are prepared to pay expert curators
• Quality triage imminent

• myExperiment aggregates user data as a side-effect of using the VRE.
• The ability to execute workflows from myExperiment, and the integration of tools such as Taverna with myExperiment, further enable us to achieve increased value through usage.
• Google works!
• Privacy restricts recommendation
• Biocatalogue takes this forward

• myExperiment users require protection as well as sharing, but the environment is designed for maximum ease of sharing to achieve collective benefits – workflows are "hackable" and "remixable".
• Initiatives such as Science
Commons provide a useful context for this.
• Compare with OpenWetWare
• E-Lab lifecycle...

• myExperiment is an online service – indeed a collection of online services – and is continually evolving in response to its users.
• To support this, the project commenced with developers being embedded in the user community.
• Through day-to-day contact between designers and researchers, design is both inspired and validated.
• Daily dev meetings, weekly management meetings, monthly hackfests & team meetings with guests
• Test servers (virtualised)
• Friends and family, champions

• myExperiment is a network of cooperating data services with simple interfaces which make it easy to work with content.
• It both provides services and reuses the service of others.
It aims to support lightweight programming models so that it can easily be part of loosely coupled systems.
• It’s not a lightweight set of components
• Nor is Facebook!

XML
`
HTML
API config
Managed REST API tags ratings reviews workflows files packs credits profiles groups friendships
Search
Engine
RDF
Store mySQL
Enactor

• The current model of
Taverna running on the scientist’s desktop PC or laptop is evolving into myExperiment being available through a variety of interfaces and supporting workflow execution.
• Interfaces for iGoogle,
Facebook and Android

Six Principles of Software Design to Empower Scientists
1. Fit in, Don’t Force Change
2. Jam today and more jam tomorrow
3. Just in Time and Just
Enough
4. Act Local, think Global
5. Enable Users to Add Value
6. Design for Network Effects
1. Keep your Friends Close
2. Embed
3. Keep Sight of the Bigger
Picture
4. Favours will be in your
Favour
5. Know your users
6. Expect and Anticipate
Change
De Roure, D. and Goble, C. (2009) Six Principles of Software Design to Empower
Scientists. IEEE Software vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 88-95, Jan/Feb 2009.

 Scientists do share – also see OpenWetWare
 Looking at upload incentives
 Web2 Principles worked
 Privacy, credit, attribution, licensing really matter
 We have chosen a software platform that enables us to spend more time with the users in development and provide agile response in operation
 Next: controlled vocabularies, navigation of results, repository integration, recommendations, ...
 We want to explode myExperiment into an e-Lab – what are the components, services and research objects?
 Contributions of the National Centre for e-Social Science have been crucial

Contact
David De Roure dder@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Carole Goble carole.goble@manchester.ac.uk
Further info wiki.myexperiment.org
Thanks
The myGrid Consortium
National Centre for e-Social Science