Center for Embedded Network Sensing

E-Research is intended to facilitate collaboration through distributed access to content, tools, and services. Findings from two large, long-term digital library research projects are used to illustrate ways in which access to such resources does and does not facilitate collaboration. Both the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype Project (ADEPT) and Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) project on data management leverage scientific research data for use in teaching. Two types of collaboration are considered: direct collaboration, in which faculty work together, and indirect or serial collaboration, in which faculty use or contribute shared content such as teaching resources, ontologies, or research data. Implications for collaboration in e-Research are divided into five categories: (1) differences in use based on discipline or specialty, (2) incentives to use e- Learning and e-Research technologies, (3) differences in use of information by role, (4) selecting and sharing of information, and (5) functionality and architecture requirements. Reuse and repurposing of content from research to teaching are proving to be even more complex than anticipated. Better tools and services to manage content can improve capture, management, and preservation. Making content more shareable increases the likelihood that it will be shared. Significant barriers and disincentives to sharing exist, including scientific priority, intellectual property, lack of standards, and the effort to implement systems compared to perceived value. Personal digital libraries offer a middle ground between private control and public release of content. We are just beginning to understand how e-Research can facilitate collaboration. The next step is to understand why.