Is 'Designing' Cyberinfrastructure or, Even, Defining It Possible

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Is 'Designing' Cyberinfrastructure - or, Even,
Defining It - Possible?

• Peter A. Freeman
• National Science Foundation January 29, 2007

The views expressed are the personal views of the
author and are not necessarily those of the
National Science Foundation or the U.S.
Government.
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Outline

• Context
• Etymology of cyberinfrastructure
• Design approach

Draft paper for comment available at Conference
website under Resources.
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Context

• Perspective tool builder
• Viewpoint knowledgeable executive involved in
  building cyberinfrastructure (CI)
• Objective clarify discussion and suggest design
  considerations

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Etymology

• infrastructure has a long history
• Scientific infrastructure fairly recent
• Computers a natural part of scientific
  infrastructure communications gear more recent
• NSF support of infrastructure as an example
• Origin of the term cyberinfrastructure
• Addition of information to the definition is new
  and very important

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History of NSF CI Investments
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Defining CI

• Constructive approach take a concrete and
  practical approach - a platform on which other
  things are built
• Very different definitions for different groups
  of users
• Rapid advance in underlying technology leads to
  change in characteristics of CI
• Todays advanced CI are tomorrows commodity
  tools
• Atkins Report and NSF activities provide the
  context

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Cyberinfrastructure the integration of hardware,
middleware, software, data bases of information,
sensors, and human resources, all interconnected
by a network (the Internet in almost all cases)

Initial Definition
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Working definition cyberinfrastructure consists
of

• Computational engines (supercomputers, clusters,
  workstations capability and capacity)
• Mass storage (disk drives, tapes, ) and
  persistence
• Networking (including optical, wireless,
  ubiquitous)
• Digital libraries/data bases
• Sensors/effectors
• Software (operating systems, middleware, domain
  specific tools/platforms for building
  applications)
• Services (education, training, consulting, user
  assistance)
• All working together in an integrated fashion.

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Design Considerations

• Separate actual engineering design from
  speculation about the future
• Start with a practical, but general definition
• Underlying technology defines the envelope
• Policies and laws then shape the result
• Change process is crucial

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Additional Considerations

• Multiple CIs will exist - interfaces are crucial
• Policies, laws, procedures should be considered
  during basic design
• Greatly improved communication and cooperation
  between policy and technical communities needed
• Greater understanding of who the users are is
  needed

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Summary

• It is possible to define CI
• It is possible to design CI
• All players are important and must communicate
• Creating infrastructure has the potential of
  having great and long-term impact