Title: Future Profiles of e-Research
1e-Science
UK
8-11 September, Edinburgh, UK
ALL HANDS MEETING 2008
"Crossing Boundaries"
JISC
- Future Profiles of e-Research
Ian Miles Manchester Institute of Innovation
Research Manchester Business School University of
Manchester Ian.Miles_at_mbs.ac.uk
2WHAT SORT OF BEAST IS e-RESEARCH?
Using e-infrastructure
3WHERE ARE WE WITH e-RESEARCH?
Using e-infrastructure
4WHERE ARE WE WITH e-RESEARCH has
Using e-infrastructure
Implications for the ways in which we can think
about sorts of community and practice, sorts of
application and effect, whether we expect change
to be incremental or (potentially) revolutionary,
how problems and opportunities may be identified
and addressed
5Two other thoughts about these trajectories - 1
Envelope Curves
6The other thought about these trajectories
Trajectory of Hype
Peak of .Inflated ..Expectations
Plateau of Productivity
Slope of Enlightenment
Trough of Disillusionment
Technology Trigger
7In Forsociety, we explored scenarios for
e-Infrastructure
- ForSociety http//www.eranet-forsociety.net/ForSo
ciety/index.html
What is ForSociety ForSociety ERA-Net is a
sustainable and dynamic network, where national
foresight programme managers co-ordinate their
activities and - on the basis of shared knowledge
on relevant issues, methodologies, legal and
financial frameworks - regularly develop and
implement efficient trans-national foresight
programmes that significantly enrich both the
national and the European research and innovation
systems.
Future dialogues develop understanding of areas where Foresight may be used to assist transnational cooperation e.g. The Future of Nutrition Production, Consumption, Innovation European Energy Future Electronic Infrastructures from ICT to collaborative science and innovation networks Towards a transnational foresight analysis task force for Agronomic Knowledge in ST The dynamics of the national and regional research innovation systems (RIS) and the emergence of the European Research Area (ERA) The future of multinational innovation clusters in Biotechnology and Life Sciences Future dialogue on European infrastructures - Assess tasks for an integrated Europe-wide foresight network on infrastructures
8ForSociety future dialogue
- Small group met and explored alternative
scenarios for e-infrastructure - Identified drivers and issues
- Explored 4 scenarios using archetype method
rather than 22 driver method - Avoiding Business as usual, asked participants to
work on identifying PLAUSIBLE paths of
development that would be better then, worse
than, or different from expectations - Uncertainty about the field demonstrated by the
results that (a) ALL paths of development were
seen as possible outcomes (we did not take this
out to wider rating of likelihood or extent of
realisation) (b) Most interest was generated by
the futures out there, where the bus doesnt
run, which were felt to be particularly
challenging and liable to be realised in one or
other way!
9Future Dialogue on e-Infrastructures (FORSOCIETY
2006-7)
- Scenarios
- Elephant - Positive development, rapid (faster
than expected) uptake Research-dedicated e-I - Tiger ?Utopia - Positive development, rapid
uptake multipurpose, public-private
e-infrastructures - Panther/Snake ?Interesting times -
Substantially different path of development - Donkey - Disastrous (much slower than expected)
development
OSI TCP/IP Linux Internet bubble
10Scenario 1 Elephant - The main theme
- Seamless access to the e-Infrastructure i.e.
integrated resources (networking, computing,
data, etc.) and services offered to the
scientific users - Users should be satisfied (easy access)
- Without the providers frustration
Drivers
- Grand challenge applications drive the need for
seamless integration - EC has a clear integrating role
- Seamless integration provides equal opportunities
in using the e-Infrastructures
11Scenario 1 Elephant - Issues arising, problems
- Positive features (Strengthening Science and
Education in Europe) need to be offset by Risks - Risk to privacy Scientists ambitions vs.
users/beneficiary privacy (e.g. Medical patient
records) - Risk of over-satisfaction / sustainability
- Victims of our own success Who pays at the end?
- Change of social behavior, need for new norms
- Now Reading e-mails when someone presents,
getting mobile phone calls during the meetings..
Future Submit job through the mobile phone and
get results while being - Health hazards?
- Increasing digital divide? Incl specific
Countries or applications being left behind.
Open Questions
- Single, general purpose eInfrastructure or
several interconnected application/discipline-spec
ific eIs? - User empowered or not?
- Virtualisation everywhere?
12Scenario 2 Tiger - The main theme
- For eI providers safe investments (equipment
will have long-term users). - Focus on core research, industry collaboration
very easy (same standards, both academia and
industry have healthy market for computing
services). - Larger array of services available, easier to
launch and access services through common
standards. New value added services. - PC will disappear?
Drivers
- Globalisation
- Grand challenge applications drive the need for
seamless integration which provides equal
opportunities in using the e-Infrastructures - EC has a clear integrating role
- Shared commercial interests (incl. research
community) and understanding. Immediacy, low
cost IT services. Driven by profit motive where
both large and small companies see advantages for
business efficiency, etc. - Commodification of services as academics see
benefits Big firms are prepared to go beyond
traditional data centres (outsourcing these data
centres to the grid) SMEs have access to IT
power on pay per use basis - Economies of scale important issues of
security and quality solved in widely acceptable
ways. Trust in and desire for advanced
technology - Low cost specialisation of services -
Agent-auction mechanism.
13Scenario 2 Tiger More info
- Storylines
- Bootstrap as we did with Internet and web, from
RD community to wider use - The first limited applications will be
public/private initiatives - Self-propelling development others want to
emulate network externalities. - Commodification and de facto standards for a
second layer of services control of usage,
payments and micropayments - Virtues Problems
- Scenario seen as having mostly virtues, but.
- Privacy?
- Legal problems?
- Critical factors
- Open de facto standards for metering and secure
billing for services. - International resolution of legal problems like
IPR, patents, licensing - Avoidance of national hegemony control of
underlying infrastructure protectionism as
important parameters - Barriers like protectionism, security and trust
14Scenario 3 Panther - The main theme
- Traditional infrastructure providers become
irrelevant. - Research might be stuck with obsolete
technologies - From society perspective opportunity, crisis.
Drivers
- Open and difficult scenario with several possible
routes to it - Much in common with Tiger, but stress on new
factors influencing economies of scale (technical
innovation, large emerging countries) - Mixed model with public private sector
participation - but industry has superior
momentum that forces public sector to apply it.
New classes of research(er)? - Storylines
- Market discontinuity some player offers the
world very low cost data centre/computer facility
could be Sony thin client server or Google
sales platform In Plan 9 from Outer
Playstation, the idea is that of using a
powerful processor like Playstation with some
open source software as a cheap and accessible
platform for all sorts of applications. Another
model is BOINC. Another is P2P and Planetlab
the model here is that all Playstations are left
on and used as elements in a distributed
computing system (like the SETI project) a
data swarm which would be user driven, and
perhaps be difficult due to problems of
authentication and control
15Scenario 3 Panther - Varieties
- Storylines 2
- Changed technological paradigm, e.g. quantum
computing or similar major architecture change,
massive data storage (exabytes for a few euros)
meaning that we only need data grids (unless
local storage prices are also radically reduced)
much individual P2P multilateral activity. - Going East E and SE Asia (China, Japan, Korea)
driven market driven mechanism outgrowing from
manufacturing to a new trading tool, new IPR from
Asia-centred computing science quasi Grid-based
computing sold to all suppliers in China market
spreads worldwide, driven by economies of scale
and low costs, together with the market strength
of C21st major growth centre (?). - Virtues Problems
- New opportunities for new types of businesses
- Handling investments on technologies that become
obsolete overnight danger of triggering a
recession. - Europe might have difficulties in adapting to
technology that has been developed in different
environment (e.g. facing the copper limit in
interconnecting systems). - Policies Ensure contact between cutting-edge
research and infrastructure providers. - Uncertainties incl Barriers in, e.g., power
consumption. (resistance to leaving processors
turned on all the time).
16Scenario 4 Donkey - The main theme
- Total inability of e-Infrastructure to fulfill
user requirements
Drivers
- Grand challenge applications fail to drive the
need for seamless integration - No grand challenges left or no funding for these
- EC stops funding for research infrastructures
- Nations gradually discourage collaborative
research - Nations gradually discourage research funding
- Electronic war
- Immense spam, virus, denial of service attacks,
electronic pollution in the air, etc. ) - Technical failures in computer science to provide
integrations (e.g. scalability issues) - Legal issues work as a barrier (privacy, IPR,
etc.) - Risk of massive Single Point of Failures
- Destruction of a major memory chip factory led to
a major memory price increase and corresponding
computer configurations
Implications
- Stall research development need toKeep openness
and co-operativeness Awareness and rapid actions
on behalf of governments in case of undesired
events Maintain a democratic basis of governance
on the political, social, market, and regulatory
aspects
17Implications
- Where are we? This will have a major impact on
what sorts of mapping and assessment, forecasting
and planning, we undertake. Can evaluation and
research into e-research elucidate? What methods
for planning follow? - How distinguishable is e-research from a whole
range of other factors shaping research? - If the range of alternative futures really is so
wide, how best to develop strategy and monitor
progress? - How far are there liable to be different futures
for different fields? - What are the new paradigms that may elude
established categorisation and measurement, and
how can these be identified and shaped (for what
goals?)?
18End of presentation