October 23, 2011 - October 25, 2011

eScience Workshop 2011 – Transforming Scholarly Communication

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, US

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Time 

Event
17:00–19:00 Opening Reception – Arthur M. Sackler Museum (opens in new tab), 485 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, on the Harvard University Campus

  • Welcome—Alyssa Goodman, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University and Research Associate, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
  • Opening Remarks—Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research
  • Recent Efforts in Advancing Scholarly Communication—Phil Bourne, Professor of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego
  • Closing Comments—Alyssa Goodman

Monday, October 24, 2011

Time 

Event
8:30–9:00 Light breakfast – Microsoft Research New England (opens in new tab), One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142
9:00–9:20 Welcome and Introductions | video (opens in new tab)

  • Mary Lee Kennedy, Senior Associate Provost for the Library, Harvard University
  • Lee Dirks, Director of Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections
9:20–10:50 Invited Demonstrations Session I (10 minutes per demonstrator)

Moderator: Mary Lee Kennedy, Senior Associate Provost for the Library, Harvard University

Platforms: Project collaboration software, “smart” laboratory software, and provenance systems

Co-Facilitators: Jill Mesirov, Associate Director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Dave DeRoure, Professor of e-Research, Oxford e-Research Centre

Media: Production, distribution, archiving (for example, video, 3-D modeling, and databases)

Facilitator: Curtis Wong, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research

Literature: Publications based on text and still images (creation, reviewing, dissemination, archiving, and reproducibility)

Facilitator: Phil Campbell, Editor–in-Chief, Nature
10:50–11:20 Break
11:20–12:50 Invited Demonstrations Session II (10 minutes per demonstrator)

Moderator: Alberto Pepe, Postdoctoral Associate, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Review: Standard publication-based systems, alternative rating systems, etc.

Facilitator: Amy Brand, Assistant Provost for Faculty Appointments & Special Advisor, Office for Scholarly Communication, Harvard University

Resources: Seamless technologies for literature and data (literature/data search engines; cloud-based, group sharing, adjustable permissions, and integration with search)

Facilitator: Phil Bourne, Professor of Pharmacology, University of California, San Diego

Recognition: How can we best enable cooperation and adoption?

Facilitator: Cameron Neylon, Senior Scientist, Science and Technology Facilities Council
12:50–13:50 Lunch
13:50–15:10 Breakout Sessions I

For each of the six Demonstration Session topics listed in orange above, a focus group of approximately 10 people will work together to ultimately create a short (approximately two-page) “statement” addressing (at least) the issues listed below. Facilitators from the demo sessions will moderate each discussion and may designate a chief scribe for the tumblr pages (opens in new tab) created to host each group’s deliberations and statements. Hyperlinks with the statements, pointing to more details, are allowed and encouraged.

Issues to be addressed in the “statements” include:

  • Essential elements of presently successful systems
  • Failure modes of experiments that looked good but didn’t succeed
  • Most promising technologies for the future
  • Key unsolved problems, which might be addressed in the coming five years
  • Inter-dependencies with other topics
15:10–15:30 Break
15:30–17:00 Breakout Sessions II: Continued group discussion
17:00 Adjourn and transfer to Hyatt Cambridge
18:00–21:00 Dinner and (optional) team discussion/editing sessions (Empress Ballroom, Hyatt Cambridge (opens in new tab)); Wi-Fi will be available

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Time 

Event
8:30–9:00 Light breakfast – Microsoft Research New England (opens in new tab)
9:00–9:30 Day 1 Recap and Discussion | video (opens in new tab)

Lee Dirks, Director of Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections, and Alyssa Goodman, Professor of Astronomy, Harvard University and Research Associate, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
9:30–11:00 Breakout Sessions III: Finalize reports (via tumblr site (opens in new tab))
11:00–13:00 Synthesis of Ideas and Recommendations

(working lunch): Distribution and review of group reports and recommendations, including cross-group consultation
13:00–15:00 Group Reporting and Summary | video (opens in new tab)

Moderators: Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research Connections, and Lee Dirks, Director of Education and Scholarly Communication, Microsoft Research Connections, with Marguey Avery, Editor, MIT Press

Representatives from each group will contribute to a shared summary, including highlights and challenges covered in the meeting, and will conclude with a call to action for the group, based on their findings
15:00 Adjourn

Post Meeting

It is anticipated that the reports and other output created by the groups will be made available to the broader community via this event website and the tumblr site (opens in new tab). In addition, meeting organizers and focus group leaders will create a summary of the meeting outcomes that can be distributed broadly. This overall summary will present a roadmap for action with a four- to five-year time horizon specifying recommendations for the whole scholarly communications ecosystem. Microsoft Research and Harvard will publicize the meeting results.