 |
Overview |
|
|
Initiated in 1992, the Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory (UARC) is the oldest and most successful use of human-centered design philosophy in the arena of collaborative technology.
The Collaboratory links a group of atmospheric, space, and meteorological researchers with each other and with a remote set of monitoring instruments in Greenland. Whereas researchers once had to meet face-to-face at a given location and had regularly to make the arduous trek to the Arctic Circle, collaboration technology and the World Wide Web have now linked them together, along with a global network of observational instruments that incorporate data from satellite and ground-based instruments with real-time modeling data to give researchers a clearer and more cohesive picture of what is happening in the upper limits of Earth's atmosphere.
The UARC system has allowed researchers to graduate "from a pinhole view to a mail slot," according to CREW investigator Tom Finholt.
But what a view from that mail slot. With real-time atmospheric conditions broadcast on the UARC Web pages side by side with the most advanced real-time computer models, UARC collaborators actually now post the "space weather forecast."
|
Methods |
|
|
The high quality of the UARC collaboration is in no small measure due to the front work of CREW investigators. CREW expertise in human-computer interaction (HCI), drawn from work in human factors design, was critical in creating a collaboration system that meets the needs of real researchers. This philosophy emphasizes regular redesign of human-computer interfaces based on a user feedback loop.
During the years of UARC's operation, CREW investigators have also been conducting a sociological and longitudinal study on the effects of the adoption of this technology on the UARC community itself — what can be labeled the "second-order effects." What has the collaboratory done to the science that comes out of UARC?
- This type of asynchronous collaboration reduces the cost of accessing complementary expertise (e.g., bringing together the radar experts with the optical experts), partly by relieving scheduling difficulties and the strain of travel.
- It also creates more opportunities for students to get involved in high-level research. It gives grad students experience with real-time data and interaction much earlier in their careers.
As near space becomes home to an ever greater number of communications satellites (think of the plans for Iridium and Teledesic), UARC's work on upper atmospheric disturbances — especially its interface for space weather forecasting — will likely prove even more valuable.
The UARC Project is supported by the National Science Foundation under the cooperative agreement IRI-9216848.
|
, 
