Abstract

This paper reports on in-progress research into the coordination of specialized knowledge for projects by “cyberinfrastructure centers” that provide infrastructural services to scientists conducting computationally intensive research. Specifically, we draw from a preliminary analysis of 51 interviews with senior personnel at 11 cyberinfrastructure centers to highlight three findings. First, members of two customer-facing cyberinfrastructure departments (Scientific Applications and Visualization) possess specialized “computational science knowledge,” while members of two “back-end” departments (Systems and Operations and User Services) possess specialized “infrastructural operations knowledge.” Second, the regular inclusion of front-end employees in back-end projects (and vice versa) has stimulated the development of knowledge coordination practices. Third, the need for Scientific Applications and Visualization Departments to coordinate knowledge with customers also has yielded a formalized approach in which an employee is physically embedded in a scientific project team and/or a member of a scientific project team is embedded in one of these departments.

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