Tracing the Evolution of Collaborative Virtual Research Environments: A Critical Events-Based Perspective

• Main Author: Trudeau, Ashley B
• Other Authors: Ahmed, Iftekhar
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2016
• Subjects: Critical events; virtual research environments; cyberinfrastructure; strategic choice; strategic decision-making; team science; Computer Science
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc862831/

A significant number of scientific projects pursuing large scale, complex investigations involve dispersed research teams, which conduct a large part or their work virtually. Virtual Research Environments (VREs), cyberinfrastructure that facilitates coordinated activities amongst dispersed scientists, thus provide a rich context to study organizational evolution. Due to the constantly evolving nature of technologies, it is important to understand how teams of scientists, system developers, and managers respond to critical incidents. Critical events are organizational situations that trigger strategic decision making to adjust structure or redirect processes in order to maintain balance or improve an already functioning system. This study examines two prominent VREs: The United States Virtual Astronomical Observatory (US-VAO) and the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) in order to understand how these environments evolve through critical events and strategic choices. Communication perspectives lend themselves well to a study of VRE development and evolution because of the central role occupied by communication technologies in both the functionality and management of VREs. Using the grounded theory approach, this study uses organizational reports to trace how critical events and their resulting strategic choices shape these organizations over time. The study also explores how disciplinary demands influence critical events.