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Digital Vita : Leveraging Personal Information Management Practices

to Facilitate Research Collaborations

Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhDHeiko Spallek, DMD, PhD

Brian Butler, MS, PhD

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University of Pittsburgh CTSI: Online Research Community

• Specific Aim #3 – “…build a collaborative IT infrastructure … that will significantly enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the research within CTSI”

• Initial Focus: Facilitating Collaboration Formation

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Grounding Collaboration Facilitation Efforts & Technologies• Examination of existing interest directory

(FRIP)• Interview study of collaborator discovery

and collaboration formation practices• Review of collaboration & CSCW literature • Systematic user needs assessment and

alternative exploration

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Outcomes• Evaluation and Redesign of a Faculty Research Interests Index for Facilitating

Formation of Collaboration Networks (Working Paper)• FRIP+ Prototype• FRIP+/DV Implementation Planning Framework

• Schleyer T, Spallek H, Butler BS, Subramanian S, Weiss D, Poythress ML, Rattanathikun P, Mueller G. Facebook for scientists: Requirements and services for optimizing how scientific collaborations are established. J Med Internet Res 2008;10(3):e24.

• Schleyer T, Spallek H, Butler BS, Subramanian S, Weiss D, Poythress ML, Rattanathikum P, Mueller G. Requirements for expertise location systems in biomedical science and the Semantic Web. Proceedings of “Personal Identification and Collaborations: Knowledge Mediation and Extraction (PICKME)”, workshop at the International Semantic Web Conference, 2008.

• TeamORCA final report [User Needs Assessment and Alternative Exploration]• Digital Vita Prototype Video: http://di.dental.pitt.edu/orc/• Digital Vita Specification

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Core Digital|Vita (DV) functions

• Maintaining, formatting and semi-automated updating of biographical information

• Searching for experts• Building and maintaining the social

network, and managing document flow

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DV: My

Information (input)

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Services: Maintaining biographical information• Importing information from existing

sources– MEDLINE– CRISP– Internal systems

• Propagating information through the social network– updates by coauthors

• Manually entering and updating information

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DV: My

Information (output)

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Services: Utilizing biographical information• Output to several standard formats

– Online profile– Internal CV format– NIH biosketch– Faculty annual report

• Customization and versioning• Selective updating

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Services: Exploiting & Managing Social Network Data

• Simple and advanced search of profiles– simple: name, keyword– advanced: adds school, department, location,

date of publication, relevance

• Exploiting the social network to search and contact individuals

• Creating additional links to colleagues• Assembling research teams• Managing requests for and distribution of

biographical document

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Sustainable Social Networking/Community Systems

Resource Model: Where will the resources needed to maintain the community system come from?

Community Model: What features, structures, and processes are needed maintain

individual involvement and activity?

Impact Model: How do the specific activities which

individuals engage in lead to desirable

outcomes?

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Open Issues & Next Steps• Access control – What are the features of access control

schemes that support sharing of information while allowing individuals to maintain control of their work and identity?

• Interoperability – What standards should be applied and/or developed to allow for interoperability between research-oriented social networking systems?

• Profile design – What are the characteristics of profiles that are both maintainable and promote research collaboration initiation?

• Integration of resource, administrative & social networking systems – What are the high-impact points where social information, process support, and resource information can be brought together?  

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Further information• http://www.dental.pitt.edu/informatics/orc/• Schleyer T, Spallek H, Butler BS, Subramanian S, Weiss D,

Poythress ML, Rattanathikun P, Mueller G. Facebook for scientists: Requirements and services for optimizing how scientific collaborations are established. J Med Internet Res 2008;10(3):e24.

• Schleyer T, Spallek H, Butler BS, Subramanian S, Weiss D, Poythress ML, Rattanathikum P, Mueller G. Requirements for expertise location systems in biomedical science and the Semantic Web. Proceedings of “Personal Identification and Collaborations: Knowledge Mediation and Extraction (PICKME)”, workshop at the International Semantic Web Conference, 2008.

• FRIP+ Prototype

• Digital Vita Prototype Video

• TeamORCA Alternative Exploration final report (upon request)

• Digital Vita Specification (upon request)

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Ideation and concept validation

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DV: Search

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DV: Individual

profile

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DV: My

colleagues

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Barriers to the implementation of Digital|Vita

• Well-connected researchers will outperform system – most of the time.

• Collaboration-seeking methods evolve with scientist’s career.

• DV economizes on many tasks, but adds others.

• The desire for “publicness” differs among scientists.

• … and many other problems associated with social networks (e.g. free ridership, differential incentives, etc.).