eSI Public Lecture: "Adoption and Sustainability of e-Research Technologies: empirical findings and some recommendations" by Alex Voss

27 October, 2008 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM

e-Science Institute, 15 South College Street, Edinburgh

Any slides or other material generated as a result of this event can be found at: www.nesc.ac.uk/action/esi/contribution.cfm?Title=916

Dr Alexander Voss Research Associate National Centre for e-Social Science University of Manchester The e-Science Institute is delighted to host a public lecture by Dr Alexander Voss. The public lecture is open to all interested parties in academia and industry. There is no need to register for this event and those attending the lecture are invited to join us for tea and coffee at 17:00. This Public Lecture is scheduled to be webcast live. For further information see below.

Dr Alexander Voss

Abstract

The vision of the UK e-Science programme and other initiatives is that research activities in all disciplines, locations and organisational contexts should benefit from an e-Infrastructure of services and tools.

These should enable progression to new research approaches, improved productivity and unprecedented scale. e-Infrastructure should become the "seen but unnoticed" fabric that underpins research activities of any kind, be it high-energy physics in big multinational organisations like CERN or the study of environmental changes conducted in schools and at home.

However, before this vision can be realised, there are significant obstacles to be overcome. The e-Science Institute research theme on Adoption and Sustainability of e-Research Technologies has investigated obstacles and identified enablers or wider adoption. It has provided the background for the development of funded initiatives that have conducted empirical research to uncover good practice, to document barriers and to exploit enablers and possible interventions.

This lecture will provide an overview of the empirical findings produced and an analysis of the progress made in understanding barriers to uptake and building up a comprehensive community engagement programme. I will discuss the challenges that lie ahead to make our achievements sustainable in the longer term.

Biography

Alex is a research associate at the National Centre for e-Social Science at Manchester University. His main research interests are the organisational use of ICTs and, in particular, how people meaningfully relate practices, technologies and organisational arrangements to each other as they grapple with the practicalities of their day-to-day work.

He has studied this in a range of contexts from Diesel engine manufacture to cancer research. It is this experience that he brings to the study of usability and adoption of e-Research methods and tools.

Over the past two years, he has been working as a theme leader at the e-Science Institute, as a co-investigator on the eIUS project and as project manager on the e-Uptake project. He is particularly interested in taking e-Research technologies and practices out of the research labs and making them available to a broader audience, taking into account their varying needs and means.

Webcast

This meeting was webcast live.

For the majority of the meetings that we broadcast, we keep a copy (for a limited period) and make it available from the event material page. This copy of the webcast is normally available the day after the meeting.

Travel

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