CC-NIE Network Infrastructure: ASCED -- An Advanced Scientific Collaboration Environment and DMZ

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

NSF CC-NIE Network Infrastructure ASCED - An Advanced Scientific Collaboration Environment and DMZ M.K. Gardner, S.W. Ellingson, K.R. Bisset, R.B. Knapp, and E.J. Brown Collaboration in scientific discourse is as much about building community as it is about data sharing. It is about discipline-specific web portals to ease data discovery and to facilitate access. It is about validated tools for working with the data and about the means for replicating results. It is about data curation and management. It is about controlling access to the data in order to obey regulatory requirements. And it is about the social interactions between scientists. Successful collaborations already address these issues, but in ad hoc ways. New collaborations must tackle the same challenges over and over gain. It would be much more productive if a standard infrastructure existed for building and hosting collaboration environments and communities. The Advanced Scientific Collaboration Environment and DMZ (ASCED) is a standardized infrastructure, based upon open source components, for building and hosting scientific communities. It is built upon the Science DMZ, an infrastructure for efficiently sharing data, by including a private cloud for hosting collaboration environments. It supports role-based access control, facilitates data management, and provides PIs with tools for abiding by regulatory requirements. It is a standard base upon which scientific communities can be built, allowing future proposals to focus on the specifics of their research. It is also envisioned that ASCED will be used as a platform for educators to engage students at all levels. And it can be a platform for engaging the public, both in the dissemination of results and in participating in research.