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Real Work / Web Work: Getting It Done in the Interim

Real Work / Web Work: Getting It Done in the Interim. Jim Coleman Project Manager Science and Technology in the Making. Theses. “Real World” work is well-understood and has a social infrastructure

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Real Work / Web Work: Getting It Done in the Interim

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  1. Real Work / Web Work:Getting It Done in the Interim Jim ColemanProject ManagerScience and Technology in the Making

  2. Theses • “Real World” work is well-understood and has a social infrastructure • “Web World” work searches for the question to which it is the answer, and has, at best, an emerging social infrastructure • Work — and its outcome — needs capture in the interim • Sloan projects test both the membrane between the two worlds and our ability to succeed “in the meantime” Real Work/Web Work

  3. “Real World” Work • Occurs within the established context of research/scholarly communication • Is supported by organizations within a social infrastructure • Tends to be outcome based, with desirable outcomes established through community standards Real Work/Web Work

  4. “Web World” Work • Has no established context along the communication channel • Has in the best instances a technical robust infrastructure, but lacks community • Has an ambiguous relationship to outcomes and products in the academic world • Wants to blur the line between the other and the self Real Work/Web Work

  5. What Makes “Web Work” Real? • Pre-formed communities enhance/continue work (face-to-face) • New communities can evolve/self-evolve • Outcomes and products can be given definition through communities • Boundaries between “real” and “web” work cross over Real Work/Web Work

  6. “Web Work” Communities • It is difficult to transform “real world” communities into “web world” communities • Interactivity is a prerequisite — members must form their world — but is not enough in itself • What encourages “stickiness” ultimately are products, outcomes, and the community itself Real Work/Web Work

  7. STIMCore Site Objectives • Offer consulting and design services for PI’s • Provide core technical infrastructure/support • Provide “toolkit” approach for interactivity • Point to “best practices”in the digital library experience • Help sites to move past the granting period into the “interim” Real Work/Web Work

  8. STIM Realities (Core Site) • Original project team lacked some necessary skills • Original technology solution was unviable • Team and PI’s often lacked same understanding of roles • Real costs of core team work/infrastructure were significantly underfunded Real Work/Web Work

  9. STIM Conclusions (Core Site) • Supporting research projects should not be a research project in itself • Project management skills are a prerequisite • Agreement on needs and implementation plans are necessary • Stronger integration into research agenda and concomitant infrastructure should be required (by Sloan/other granting agencies) Real Work/Web Work

  10. Needs • Right Technology • Right Staff • Unflagging willingness to mix “real world” work with “web world” work • Clear vision of when the current research goal is met • Understanding of “web work” product life cycle Real Work/Web Work

  11. What Makes the Projects Real? • Making connections to the communities, through either “real world” or “Web world” means • Developing content-rich sites that both accumulates and publishes data • Self-sustaining sites OR sites that have an archival presence • Supporting and furthering the research understanding of the PI’s • PI’s “real world” work becomes “Web work” Real Work/Web Work

  12. Economics of “Web Work” • Costs of infrastructure are not small • Team/staff skill set required for success is large • Success of “Web Work” is largely dependent on success in “real world” interactions • “Interim” costs are essentially unknown and potentially unbounded Real Work/Web Work

  13. How Long IS the Interim? • “Real World” economics work against persistence • Market forces require obsolescence to remain competitive (MP3/White Album) • Market hegemony is both a blessing and a curse (Microsoft vs. Linux) • In comparison with past information systems, the interim is forever Real Work/Web Work

  14. What Helps? • Standards-based activities offer some help where they have market support • Economic/community model of scholarly information interchange is subject to change/influence • Greater depth of publishing/archiving is possible, but the tensions of doing more and retaining more presents a conundrum Real Work/Web Work

  15. Leveraging Reality with “Web Work” • “Web Work” has reinvigorated many scholarly practices • “WW” can renew concern for/interest in collecting and creating primary documentation • The products of “WW” can be more open to scrutiny of the community at large • Incremental costs can be insignificant in the interim Real Work/Web Work

  16. Getting It Done (Institutions) • Decide your level of risk • Develop an economic model locally that reflects globally • Build bridges between “real work” and “Web Work” • Risk behaving “as if” the community, business model, and infrastructure were in place Real Work/Web Work

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