The professionalization of cyberinfrastructure personnel?

Nicholas Berente; Stan Ahalt; James Bottum; Dana Brunson; Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld; James Howison; John Leslie King; Henry Neeman; John Towns; Nancy Wilkins-Diehr; Susan Winter

doi:10.1145/3332186.3332225

The professionalization of cyberinfrastructure personnel?

Nicholas Berente, Stan Ahalt, James Bottum, Dana Brunson, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, James Howison, John Leslie King, Henry Neeman, John Towns, Nancy Wilkins-Diehr, Susan Winter

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) personnel are critical to next-generation scientific research. Although funding agencies and universities increasingly realize this, enabling resources do not grow as fast as the need for the CI skills and capabilities. There are two main issues with respect to CI personnel: CI personnel are scarce and cyberinfrastructure is different from traditional information technology (“IT”). A potential answer to these issues is to professionalize the CI field. In this article, we draw on organization science to argue that a strong form of professionalization does not make sense for the CI workforce. However, we do encourage the development of standardized roles for CI personnel, and we recommend starting with three such roles: system facing, software facing, and researcher facing CI roles. A credentialing effort around these three roles could strengthen the field as well. We conclude with a discussion of directions forward.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing
Subtitle of host publication	Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450372275
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3332186.3332225
State	Published - Jul 28 2019
Event	2019 Conference on Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019 - Chicago, United States Duration: Jul 28 2019 → Aug 1 2019

Publication series

Name	ACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Conference

Conference	2019 Conference on Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019
Country/Territory	United States
City	Chicago
Period	7/28/19 → 8/1/19

Keywords

Cyberinfrastructure Personnel
Occupation
Professionalization
Workforce

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Human-Computer Interaction
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Computer Networks and Communications

Online availability

10.1145/3332186.3332225

Library availability

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Cite this

Berente, N., Ahalt, S., Bottum, J., Brunson, D., Cutcher-Gershenfeld, J., Howison, J., King, J. L., Neeman, H., Towns, J., Wilkins-Diehr, N., & Winter, S. (2019). The professionalization of cyberinfrastructure personnel? In Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019 Article 3332225 (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3332186.3332225

The professionalization of cyberinfrastructure personnel? / Berente, Nicholas; Ahalt, Stan; Bottum, James et al.
Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019. Association for Computing Machinery, 2019. 3332225 (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Berente, N, Ahalt, S, Bottum, J, Brunson, D, Cutcher-Gershenfeld, J, Howison, J, King, JL, Neeman, H, Towns, J, Wilkins-Diehr, N & Winter, S 2019, The professionalization of cyberinfrastructure personnel? in Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019., 3332225, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Association for Computing Machinery, 2019 Conference on Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019, Chicago, United States, 7/28/19. https://doi.org/10.1145/3332186.3332225

Berente N, Ahalt S, Bottum J, Brunson D, Cutcher-Gershenfeld J, Howison J et al. The professionalization of cyberinfrastructure personnel? In Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019. Association for Computing Machinery. 2019. 3332225. (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series). doi: 10.1145/3332186.3332225

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title = "The professionalization of cyberinfrastructure personnel?",

abstract = "Cyberinfrastructure (CI) personnel are critical to next-generation scientific research. Although funding agencies and universities increasingly realize this, enabling resources do not grow as fast as the need for the CI skills and capabilities. There are two main issues with respect to CI personnel: CI personnel are scarce and cyberinfrastructure is different from traditional information technology (“IT”). A potential answer to these issues is to professionalize the CI field. In this article, we draw on organization science to argue that a strong form of professionalization does not make sense for the CI workforce. However, we do encourage the development of standardized roles for CI personnel, and we recommend starting with three such roles: system facing, software facing, and researcher facing CI roles. A credentialing effort around these three roles could strengthen the field as well. We conclude with a discussion of directions forward.",

keywords = "Cyberinfrastructure Personnel, Occupation, Professionalization, Workforce",

author = "Nicholas Berente and Stan Ahalt and James Bottum and Dana Brunson and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld and James Howison and King, {John Leslie} and Henry Neeman and John Towns and Nancy Wilkins-Diehr and Susan Winter",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.; 2019 Conference on Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing: Rise of the Machines (Learning), PEARC 2019 ; Conference date: 28-07-2019 Through 01-08-2019",

year = "2019",

month = jul,

day = "28",

doi = "10.1145/3332186.3332225",

language = "English (US)",

series = "ACM International Conference Proceeding Series",

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