NOTE: This is an outline of questions for assessment interviews for the Research Cyberinfrastructure Alliance at the University of Minnesota. Thanks for your interest, …Eric

This interview is part of an assessment for the Research Cyberinfrastructure Alliance sponsored by the Office of Information Technology, University Libraries, and the Office of the Vice President for Research. Together with collegiate units (CLA, AHC, IT, CFANS, CBS), we are working to understand how researchers manage their computing needs and their digital data. Your input will help shape new services at a campus wide level. We are trying to identify what campus-wide investments will best benefit our research community. We appreciate your participation.

[1.1] Describe the process you follow in securing and implementing “high level” computing in support of your research.

Gathering

[2.1] Describe the computing resources you use to gather the data for your research?

[2.2] How much raw data do you gather?

[2.3] What formats is this data in?

[2.4] Are there security considerations for this raw data?

Analysis

[3.1] What tools do you use to analyze the data gathered?

[3.2] What new data sets are created during the analysis of the raw data?

[3.3] What identity or other information do you scrub from the raw data?

Storage

[4.1] Do you currently store (or have plans to store) data after the completion of your research project?

[4.2] Who would need to access the archived data?

[4.3] Is it more important to archive the raw data from your research or the data sets that result from your analysis? Or are both equally important?

[4.4] In what ways is access to archival data important or not-so-important to the publishing and dissemination of your research findings?

Staffing & Funding

[5.1] What staff positions within your research group are responsible for helping to maintain your technology infrastructure?

[5.2] What departmental or school staff do you depend on for technology support?

[5.3] What campus-wide technology support facilitates your research?

[5.4] Please describe any technology resources you depend on which are hosted outside the University altogether.

[5.5]How is your computing staff and equipment funded?

Concerns

[6.1] Do you feel secure in your research group’s grasp of the computing technology you rely on?

[6.2] What computing services do you feel you most need in order to carry out your research effectively?

Conclusion

[7.1] We are only at the formative stages of the Research Cyberinfrastructure Alliance I mentioned at the beginning of this interview. Before things get rolling in any particular direction, is there a message you would like me to covey to the partners in this effort?

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