Cyberinfrastructure inside out: Definitions and influences shaping its emergence, development, and implementation

Author/Creator ORCID

Date

2011

Type of Work

Department

Program

Citation of Original Publication

Kee, K. F., Cradduck, L., Blodgett, B., & Olwan, R. (2011). Cyberinfrastructure inside out: definition and influences shaping its emergence, development, and implementation in the early 21st century.

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Abstract

Cyberinfrastructure (Atkins, et al., 2003; Seidel, Muñoz, Meacham, & Whitson, 2009; Stewart, 2007), also commonly known as e-infrastructure in the UK (Meyer & Dutton, 2009 ; Meyer, Schroeder, & Dutton, 2008) and e-research infrastructure in Australia and Europe (Eccles, et al., 2009; Jankowski, 2009; Schroeder, 2007a), officially emerged and was recognized at the turn of the millennium. Since then, it has attracted serious attention and much investment from the scientific and scholarly communities as an emerging method and platform of research; and from political and policy organizations as a new entity with tremendous economic, societal, and global implications. Due to its potential, multiple stakeholder groups are grappling with the concept of cyberinfrastructure and engaging in the building of this “next-generation Internet” (Foster, Kesselman, & Tuecke, 2001, p. 217). As we look forward to the second decade of the 21st century, the time is ripe to explore three interrelate research questions: • What is cyberinfrastructure? • What are they key political influences shaping its domestic emergence and development? • What are the key challenges impacting its international implementation? By drawing widely from literature in the social sciences, law and policy studies, as well as computer and information sciences, this chapter attempts to provide some preliminary answers to these important questions.