Overview
• Communication problems between computer scientists
and scientists who use computers
• Facilitator: Matthew Habgood, Scribe: Simon Hettrick
• Matthew Habgood, Gillian Sinclair, Louise Price, Tim Parkinson, Steve
McGough, David Ferguson, Gabor Terstyanszky, Elizbeth vander Meer,
Tiejun Ma, Simon Mueller, Steve Wilson, Edoardo Pignotti)
• Further breakouts:
• Continuation of the same breakout after the sub-topics have been
discussed
• Production of a pamphlet, glossary, etc. (tomorrow maybe, potential
attendees: Simon H., Gillian S, David F., Louise P.)
• “How to deal with scientists”
1
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Scope
• Started off with a quick discussion about the definition of a computer
scientist and what’s a scientist
• Started off with an example from Louise Price – she worked with Steve
McGough and had conversations that were peppered with computerscience terms that she did not understand
• Scientists are interested in getting the job done, they don’t really want to
know what’s going on under the hood of the software they use
• However, to get the software they need, they’ve got to communicate
with computer scientists – which is where communication problems
arises
2
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Documentation
• It needs to be understandable by the scientists that use it, rather than
the computer scientists that write it
• Writing the documentation needs to be part of the software
development process
• Documentation is often not accessible to scientists – so maybe we need
bilingual documentation: one bit for the scientists and one for the
software developers
• Maybe collaborate on a document/pamphlet that describes ‘What is
Grid/e-Research’ to scientists (a big job – so spread the load)
3
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Software
• Need to be developed so that there’s the least possible overhead
involved for the scientists having to understand the software
• Shouldn’t we just develop the software so that it doesn’t need to be
understood? (Bit of a split in the group here)
• Need to train up the software developers so that they can communicate
with scientists without using computer science language
• One solution: could have a ‘good practice’ guide developed by OMII-UK
4
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Interpretation
• One solution would be to have interpreters who are trained in the
domain science and in computer science
• Prepare a dictionary – describe the common themes that come up at a
level understood by scientists, such as:
• Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting
• Condor, PBS, GridSAM
• Workflow language
• Web Services
• Portals and portlets
• APIs (see list on the right for more)
• Also be good to include replicated words i.e. the ones that are used in
different disciplines but mean different things
5
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Dissemination
• Perfect solution would be to get the research
councils to publicise us
• We need to publicise the resources that are out
there
o
NGS and EGEE do a lot of training for scientists
– but (at
least for the scientists in the room) don’t know about
• People generally don’t know about Grid/eScience, etc.
o
o
Go to domain science events – spread the word to the
unconverted
Research councils could help with too
6
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Conclusions
• There’s certainly work to do…
• Better external publicity about e-Research
o
Collaborators could use a slide in their presentations
to emphasise the role played by OMII-UK
• Better internal publicity
o
o
o
Produce a pamphlet that describes – at a high level –
Grid, e-Research and a glossary
Better documentation – written from the scientist’s
point of view
Policy for better software development – so that
developers produce understandable software
7
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Future work
• e-Research pamphlet
• Slide for scientists to publicise the part played by
OMII-UK in their collaboration
• Guides for software developers that will lead to
better development policies
• Q&A area – like Yahoo answers – where
scientists can post a question and have it
answered
8
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk
Continuation
• Continuation of the same breakout after the
sub-topics below have been discussed
• Production of a pamphlet, glossary, etc.
(tomorrow maybe, potential attendees:
Simon H., Gillian S, David F., Louise P.)
• “How to deal with scientists”
9
web: www.omii.ac.uk
email: info@omii.ac.uk