How do you build an information system that works? Lessons from environmental case studies

1. How do you build an information system that works? Lessons from environmental case studies Karen I. Stocks San Diego Supercomputer Center kstocks@sdsc.edu Karen S. Baker Scripps Institution of Oceanography kbaker@ucsd.edu

2. Task: Forward Planning for CalCOFI“California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations”

3. How do you build an information management system that works?

4. Insights from 4 Environmental Information Systems • CalCOFI (www.calcofi.org): • biological and physical oceanographic data • 50+ year time span • 2 institutions, centralized system • OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information System - www.iobis.org) • species distribution data • 5 years • international federation, distributed system • LTER (Long Term Ecological Research Network - www.lternet.edu) • broad array of ecological data • 24 years • 26 field sites nationally, distributed system • SeamountsOnline (seamounts.sdsc.edu) • species distribution data • 4 years • 1 person, centralized system

5. Our ConclusionInformation system projects (or project components) fail or succeed for organizational/social reasons as frequently as they fail or succeed for technical reasons

6. Lessons Learned • What have these four system case studies taught us? • What are the characteristics that foster success • What mechanisms create those characteristics

7. Characteristic: Sustainability • Mechanism: recognizing and providing rewards for • participation at the individual, project, and institution level • non-monetary rewards can be effective • Example: LTER learning community, OBIS editorial board titles

8. Characteristic: Participant Engagement Mechanism: consensus decision making (with hierarchical representation when needed for large bodies) Mechanism: seed resources available for allocation to participants

9. Characteristic: Usefulness of the System Mechanism (long-term): clearly articulated, focused project vision/goals produced with broad input from users and participants Mechanism (short-term): modular development with usable products at each step

10. Lessons from Science and Technology Studies: Myths and Realities NSF/Human Social Dynamics 2004-2007: Interoperability Strategies for Scientific Cyberinfrastructure: A Comparative Approach (Bowker and Baker)

11. Information System Design and Development • Myth: System development is linear: design, then implement, then finish • In practice: • complex feedbacks and interdependencies exist, development is iterative • - technological, organizational, and funding landscape constantly changing

12. Design for Flexibility Waterfall Model Spiral Model requirements Reflect and Plan Determine Objectives design implementation Evaluate alternatives Develop alternatives test Boehm, 1986. A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes 11(4):14-24.

13. Participatory Design an approach to the design and development of technological and organizational systems that places a premium on the active involvement of workplace practitioners in design and decision-making processes. • Schuler and Namioka, 1993. Participatory Design: Principles and Practices. Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates • Letondal and Mackay, 2004. Participatory Programming and the Scope of Mutual Responsibility: Balancing Scientific, Design and Software Commitment. Proceedings Participatory Design Conference 2004, Toronto, Canada.

14. Organizational Concepts • Myth: Technology is objective - it gets used by an organization • In practice: • - enacting technology changes organizations Technology Work practice Technology Work practice Fountain, 2001

15. Understand the tensions open-source long-term science flexibility ecosystem view community outreach modeled observed inreach economic Species view standards short-term technology microsoft

16. New Organizational Models Integrated routine and knowledge work knowledge work routine work Traditional hierarchical structure Integrated horizontal structure And new roles: system architects, data managers, programmers

17. Managing Organizational Change Weick and Sutcliffe. 2001. Managing the Unexpected, Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity. Jossey-Bass • Recognize and define the new roles • Rewards for interdisciplinary and new roles • Professional development at all levels • Mixed representation on decision-making bodies

18. Reading List • Davenport, 1997. Information Ecology, Oxford University Press. New York. • Iivari, 1991. Paradigmatic Analysis of Contemporary Schools of IS Development. European Journal of Information Systems 1(4):249-272. • Jirotka and Goguen, 1994. Requirements Engineering: Social and Technical Issues. London, Academic Press. • Karasti and Baker, 2004. Infrastructuring for the Long-Term: Ecological Information Management, Proceeding of the Hawaii International Conference for System Science, Big Island, hawaii 5-8 Jan 2004. • Karasti and Syrjanen, 2004. Artful Infrastructuring in Two Cases of Community Participatory Design. Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference, Toronto, Canada. • Star and Bowker, 2002. How to Infrastructure in The Handbook of New Media. Lievrouw and Livingstone (eds), SAGE Publications, London, p151-162. • Funding provided by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, and the NSF Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences