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Cyberinfrastructure for the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Workshop on Cyberinfrastructure for the Social and Behavioral Sciences: FINAL REPORT (2.5 MB pdf)
F. Berman and H. Brady, (2005).

Background

The report of the Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Cyberinfrastructure (the “Atkins Report”) found that “a new age has dawned in scientific and engineering research” in which Cyberinfrastructure will play a crucial role. Cyberinfrastructure has the potential to be a fundamental enabler of innovations and new discoveries, and it is just as critical for the advancement of the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences as it is for engineering and the physical, natural, biological, and computer sciences. By participating in the development of Cyberinfrastructure, the SBE sciences can take a giant step forward.

It is equally true that SBE scientists are uniquely situated to work with computer scientists supported by NSF’s Directorate for Computer and Information Science Engineering (CISE) as well as other researchers to develop more effective Cyberinfrastructure. In addition to benefiting from and helping to design successful Cyberinfrastructure for the broad NSF science and engineering community, the SBE sciences can also help assess the effects of Cyberinfrastructure on science, engineering, technology, and society so that its potential can be realized and its benefits maximized.

Process

The National Science Foundation funded the SBE/CISE Workshop on “Cyberinfrastructure for the Social and Behavioral Sciences” in recognition of NSF’s role in enabling, promoting, and supporting science and engineering research and education. The workshop was intended to help identify the SBE sciences’ needs for infrastructure, their potential for helping CISE develop this infrastructure for engineering and all the sciences, and their capacity for assessing the societal impacts of Cyberinfrastructure. Over eighty leading CISE and SBE scientists were brought together at Airlie House in Virginia on March 15 and 16 in 2005 to discuss six areas:

  1. Cyberinfrastructure Tools for the Social and Behavioral Sciences
  2. Cyberinfrastructure-mediated Interaction
  3. Organization of Cyberinfrastructure and Cyberinfrastructure-enabled Organizations
  4. Malevolence and Cyberinfrastructure
  5. Economics of Cyberinfrastructure
  6. Impact of Cyberinfrastructure on Jobs and Income

Before, during, and after the Airlie House Conference, each working group produced reports on Cyberinfrastructure and the social sciences. (All Workshop reports can be found at the Workshop's website). Based upon these materials as well as Workshop presentations (which can also be found on the website), the organizers of the Conference have produced this report.

Links
SBE/CISE Workshop on Cyberinfrastructure for the Social Sciences
National Science Foundation