VREs/Virtual Labs/Science Gateways: Good Practices for Communicating and Collaborating Effectively and Efficiently within Distributed Communities and Initiatives

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04 Aug 2020
Group(s) submitting the application: 
Meeting objectives: 

VREs are excellent environments to build distributed teams and to collaborate on research topics, to share data, methods and knowledge virtually. The needs of the communities are met by cutting-edge VREs - virtual meetings and distributed teams face challenges though from lack of in-person interactions to cultural differences to time-zone mismatches to non-native speakers, to name a few. The objective of this meeting is to work towards good practices for communicating and collaborating effectively and efficiently within distributed communities and initiatives.

 

Collaborative notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qyf2tprMpsSg6_egfIIXjFf-W_LJSWQpwDkT...

Meeting agenda: 

 

Collaborative folder link:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TWMvgnLj2vZTqzSM2BUqQQMUfr6Tx0Le...

Agenda for the meeting will be:

0-5 mins: Introduction to the IG (Sandra Gesing)

5-50 mins:  Examples for VRE frameworks with collaboration tools (Chair Sandra Gesing)

  • The US landscape (Mike Zentner) (10 min)

  • The EU landscape (Keith Jeffrey) (10 min)

  • The Australia/Asia landscape (Kheeran Dharmawardena) (10 min)

Discussion: What are commonalities between the frameworks? What is missing? (15 min)
50-75 mins: What are the challenges and benefits experienced in collaboration of distributed teams? (Group Discussion) (Chair Zhiming Zhao)

Questions are: Which challenges can be solved via technology? Which challenges are interpersonal or organizational? What would be a good way to address the different dimensions of collaboration? What works well and what does not work well? 

75-90 mins: International Teams and Initiatives - Good Practices in the changing academic landscape of COVID-19 (Kheeran Dharmawardena)

  • Experiences from writing the RDA COVID-19 recommendations 

  • Emerging Technologies

Target Audience: 

This session is aimed at anyone who is or has been involved in distributed teams and initiatives and using, developing or maintaining any form of online collaborative environment or their individual components. In preparation for this meeting, attendees could think about the challenges they face in virtual meetings or collaborations within distributed teams and examples from their own experience.  

Group chair serving as contact person: 
Brief introduction describing the activities and scope of the group: 

VREs are synonymous with Science Gateways (SGs) in the USA and Virtual Laboratories (VLs) in Australia, and are increasingly being used to support a more dynamic approach to collaborative working across the internet. The VRE-IG will explore all aspects of existing and planned future VRE/SG/VLs with the aim of moving towards common policies and best practices, such as those now being promoted by the European EOSC, the US XSEDE and the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). 

The VRE IG acts as a longer-term organization responsible for tracking and contributing to the evolution of VRE/SG/VL technologies, particularly as they relate to data access. It will also seek to engage with those seeking to make use of these online technologies in an effort to identify the necessary technical aspects, social and community building practices, required skills, as well as governance issues and best practice required to support a more coordinated approach to the development of the collaborative environments that enable data sharing and in situ online processing.

At this meeting we focus on tools and methods to support international collaborations.

Short Group Status: 

The group is established and has existed for four years. The VRE IG aims to act as a longer-term organization responsible for tracking and contributing to the evolution of VRE/SG/VL technologies, particularly as they relate to data access. It also engages with those seeking to make use of these online technologies in an effort to identify the necessary technical aspects, social and community building practices, required skills, as well as governance issues and best practice required to support a more coordinated approach to the development of the collaborative environments that enable data sharing and in situ online processing.

 

Type of Meeting: 
Working meeting
Avoid conflict with the following group (1): 
Avoid conflict with the following group (2): 
Meeting presenters: 
Kheeran Dharmawardena, Zhiming Zhao, Keith Jeffery, Mike Zentner, Sandra Gesing