Understanding of distributed computing principles

Researchers are often not aware of the potential of distributed systems or of the issues involved in developing and using them. This means that they find it difficult to make sense of thee-Infrastructure services or to related them to their own work and come up with possible ways of using them. While training material exists that provides instructions for the use of advanced ICT systems, there is a lack ofmaterial that teaches the underlying principles of e-Research and helps researchers to engage creatively and critically with these technologies.

"...grid computing ... is an under utilised resource. I think there probably are barriers to people understanding how they could use it, what they could do with it, and seeing it as a true alternative tomaybe poorly managed desktop processing or using under resourced local computers but I’d imagine that there’s a, there’s a lack of understanding of the technical context" (information services professional)

"They probably wouldn’t understand the impact it would have the way access it and what they would do with it. But they’d probably believe that because they can do what they’re doing now that it’s okay.But it’d be similar to somebody who sits and writes out fifteen letters in Word to fifteen people that are all the same and types them all out. But the person next to them puts the names and addresses into an excelspreadsheet and merges a letter from word. You both get the same result but the one has done it in about a tenth of the time but the other person doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with what they’ve done. They’ve used theirown skills they’ve done the job it works but if you’re not aware of the alternatives." (information systems professional)

"We provide training material but it’s more based on the technical use of products rather then the researchers requirements for the product, and as many people know if you throw a data set atsome package like SPSS it will give you an awful lot of information whether it’s what you wanted and whether you know what you do with it is another matter. (information systems professional)

Enablers

• Embedding of education and training on distributed systems would enable young researchers to start developing the knowledge and skills required to effectively utilise e-Infrastructures.
• A textbook introduction to distributed systems for researchers would enable the teaching of distributed computing principles and e-Research skills. Funded by the UK's JISC, an effort is currently underway toproduce a core introductory text under the title Research in a Connected World .