THE WORK OF SCIENTISTS AND THE BUILDING OF COLLABORATORIES

Interviews and observations at four sites which form the DOE Distributed Computing Experimental Environment provide a basis for understanding how distributed computing technologies can influence and support remote collaboration of scientific experiments. Scientists and technicians at these sites will form early user communities of collaboratories, blending laboratories and collaboration to make experimental facilities accessible from a distance. Understanding the work practice of experimental scientists in the DCEE project provides input to the design of technologies for these collaboratories. The size and customization of equipment and the rapid iteration of experimental parameters challenge traditional groupware approaches.