Advances in Information, Communications and Knowledge Management Support Systems for R&D
“The men of experiment are like the ant, they
only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of
their own substance. But the bee takes the middle course: it gathers its
material from the flowers of the garden and field, but transforms and digests
it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy (science); for it neither relies solely or
chiefly on the powers of the mind, nor does it take the matter which it gathers
from natural history and mechanical experiments and lay up in the memory whole,
as it finds it, but lays it up in the understanding altered and digested.
Therefore, from a closer and purer league between these two faculties, the
experimental and the rational (such as has never been made), much may be
hoped.”
Francis Bacon
We are holding a 2 day Community of Practice Workshop on “Advances in Information, Communications and Knowledge Management Support Systems for R&D” to take place 15-16 October 2007 at Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, USA.
The workshop will have a strong emphasis on
peer-to-peer discussions with each workshop session involving a facilitated
Knowledge Café discussion. On Monday
evening we will have a Knowledge Dinner with good food and conversation menus
at the Alumni House, whereas on Tuesday evening we will have a poster session,
drinks reception and buffet dinner in Thomas Great Hall. We will discuss and share experiences with current
information and communications technology (ICT) supporting R&D, to discuss
current requirements and short term needs with electronic laboratory notebook
(ELN) systems, collaboration support and knowledge tools supporting R&D,
and to create a shared vision and roadmap for next generation knowledge
management (KM) support systems. A
wiki will be opened 3 months prior to the workshop to commence group
documentation of supporting materials and to help to populate the workshop
program with introductory materials, suggestions, ideas and experiences.
The workshop preliminary program
and format are described below. To
register please contact Nicki Douglas, nicki.douglas
(-at-) douglasconnect.com Early
registration and group discounts are available. Please book early to ensure a lower rate and place.
Program
description is continued on blog post below or you can download the program and
schedule and brochure as pdfs here:
More Information on InnovationWell Website: http://www.innovationwell.net/COMTY_conferences
Overview
The goal of
this workshop is to provide a strong learning experience for all participants
on the topics of information and
communications technology (ICT) and knowledge management (KM) supporting
R&D activities. The interactive
workshop format will be facilitated to:
· share
experiences on current ICT R&D support systems including electronic
laboratory notebooks (ELNs), laboratory information management systems (LIMS), and
collaboration solutions supporting R&D activities
· to
obtain practical guidance on the best practices and deployment of ICT R&D
support systems
· engage
in group-based discussion of current requirements for knowledge management in
R&D
· to
discuss latest advances in ICT and KM practices, methodologies, services and
solutions
· to
discuss emerging technologies of relevance to knowledge management in R&D:
Semantic Web, Web 2.0, Advanced Search, Virtual Environments for Virtual
Collaboratories, Social Software, wikis, blogs, Personal KM Tools, Second Life,
Internet of Things, Sensors, RFID etc.
· to
co-create and document requirements for future advanced knowledge management in
R&D support systems
· to
discuss progression beyond Information-model based designs towards Knowledge
Model-based Engineering of Advanced KM Systems for R&D
· group-based
brainstorming of low-budget practices for advancing performance in R&D
activities
· discussion
of KM tools for enabling the extension of low-budget practices for advancing
performance in R&D activities
· actions
for data integration and knowledge sharing between initiatives
· the
role of semantic web approaches in uniting structured data from multiple
resources
· the
role of natural language processing for processing unstructured information
· extraction
and integration of information from a vast variety of internal and external
data sources
· application
of advanced search and intelligent agent technologies
· impact
of approaches from other fields on practices and design: organisational
development, innovation management, cognitive science, complex systems theory,
constructivism, sense-making
· collaboration
and community support structures and environments
The agenda of the workshop is
designed so as to maximise interaction, discussion, knowledge sharing, issue
resolution, and cooperation in areas of new practice, R&D and innovation.
In addition to discussions on existing requirements, experiences and recent
developments, workshop activities will address the specific challenges:
· understanding
of best practices and advances possible with current generation solutions
· to
progress the understanding of requirements, design and vision for next
generation KM in R&D solutions
· to
identify areas where collaboration can support integration and alignment of practices,
solutions, services and resources for interoperability, to aid advancement of
the field, for the reduction of duplication, and the avoidance of unprofitable
directions
Benefits for Attending
- Understand what are the latest advances in ICT and KM support solutions for R&D and how they can benefit your organisation
- Assess your organization’s readiness and choices for implementation
- Use an intelligent, focused approach to selection of vendors and products
- Learn how to plan a roadmap for implementation and development that stands the test of time, including an understanding of current solution choices, and what is coming in the next five years
- Discuss how to facilitate and develop Enterprise-wide KM solutions
- Join in discussions of requirements and design of advanced KM systems
- Join a Community of Practice with ongoing networking and knowledge sharing on latest developments in ICT and KM support systems
- Have the opportunity to pilot, participate in or contribute to development projects and grant proposals in R&D development areas on advanced ICT and KM support systems and practices
Workshop Audience
R&D managers, scientists (biologists, chemists, materials,
electronics etc.), engineers, project managers, computer scientists, MIS and IT
Services, librarians, systems
administrators, systems developers, knowledge managers, innovation managers, patent
attorneys, and regulators working in areas related to R&D (e.g., biotech,
chemical, pharmaceutical, environmental, food and beverage, telecoms,
electronics, IT, space etc. and including industry, university and government
labs). This workshop will be of interest to anyone needing to know more about
the conceptual, design, development, social, technical, legal and deployment aspects
of ICT and KM systems supporting R&D activity including electronic
notebooks, LIMS, groupware, distributed virtual teams and coworking, KM Tools,
semantic web approaches, social software and other collaborative systems used
for achieving the goals of improved knowledge management and productivity in
R&D.
Workshop
Format
* Virtual communication and collaboration approaches will be used pre- and post-event to maximise the benefit of the workshop. In particular a wiki will be opened 3 months prior to the workshop to commence group documentation of supporting materials and to help to populate the workshop program with introductory materials, suggestions, ideas and experiences. The wiki will only be open to practice group and workshop participants, although the group may agree to publish selected materials from the group activity more openly at a subsequent date.
*
*
Knowledge Cafe Methodology
The following approach will be used for the
format of the Cafés:
1. The Knowledge Café format will be explained
to all participants prior to the start of the event. The workshop will be divided into component
sections, each having their own theme and goal, which the group will work
through sequentially during the workshop.
2. Each workshop section will involve a
Knowledge Café-based discussion as a primary component. The group will first be divided into smaller
groups at separate tables. Each table
will be assigned a topic and a facilitator who will remain at their table
during the discussion. The number of
seats at each table will be chosen to ensure an equal division of the group
between topics.
3. Members of the group will be free to select
a seat at their table of choice, with the constraint that a seat is available. Following a brief introduction by the
facilitator, the group will be free to discuss the topic with each other, with
the only constraint being of staying reasonably close to the table topic, and
allowing everyone to make their points.
4. Following ca. 30 minutes of conversations,
participants will be required to change tables and start a second or third
round of conversations.
5. All participants will join together for a
final group discussion which will include short summaries by each facilitator
and questions and discussions by the group.
6. Each facilitator will enter a summary of
their notes into the group-based wiki.
7. A final
post-workshop step will allow contributions based on further reflections by the
group in the 4 weeks following the workshop.
Workshop
Facilitators (Preliminary List)
Richard
Lysakowski (CENSA), Barry Hardy (Douglas Connect), Gladys Range (GVR Systems Automation), Jeff Spitzner (Rescentris), Dimitris K. Agrafiotis (Johnson
& Johnson), Carl Elkin (Schering-Plough)
Program & Schedule
MONDAY 15 OCTOBER
07.30 Registration & Welcome Coffee Opens, Thomas Great Hall
08.30 Collaborative eR&D - Vision and Strategy to Product Realities, led
by Richard Lysakowski (CENSA)
Collaborative electronic Research &
Development (CeR&D) and Manufacturing (CeRDM) and KM systems are crucial to
21st century competitiveness in R&D. Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs), electronic recordkeeping, and
informatics systems and KM practices are evolving very fast. If implemented well these systems can
completely transform an organization to achieve maximum productivity and
leverage from all knowledge-related assets. Mapping vision and strategy onto product reality presents hard
challenges for most organizations now. We are held back by legacy systems and old paradigms for software
product development. Integrating wikis, blogs,
social software, and other innovations into the R&D workplace fabric offers
opportunities for productivity gains by supporting new ways that teams can work
together. These newer technologies can
be effectively melded with more structured KM tools like ELNs and LIMS to
change the way R&D is done. In this
workshop, we will address the following topics:
- When and where to apply ELNs? What are high quality practices for preparing for them?
- What technologies & products are required, are available now, and how to best use them?
- Good, workable systems strategies given current organizational constraints and realities.
- How can we reliably achieve the key gains using ELNs in CeR&D strategies and systems?
- Integration of ELNs and LIMS with open source wikis, blogs, portals, social networking, ontologies, and other technologies to enable knowledge worker teams
- Integration technologies on the forefront - drawing on lessons from different disciplines
- New technologies are great, but will new products ever really be "complete"? Can we speed up product maturity?
- Do biology, chemistry, and other disciplines need radically different approaches?
10.30 Coffee Break
11.00 Knowledge Café: Discussion of existing
Management and User Experiences and Requirements for ICT and KM in R&D
support systems
This Knowledge Cafe will focus on the
requirements and practical aspects of deploying current software products and systems
to achieve improved performance in R&D activities.
Table Topics: Core Functions for ICT systems, Project Strategies,
Engineering Practices, Knowledge Management, Multidisciplinary Science
Requirements, ELN/LIMS Integration, Enterprise-wide Support Systems,
Documentation of Computational Experiments and Designs
Questions to be addressed include:
- The core functions of ICT "whole products" that must be delivered.
- What are good technical and project strategies to apply in the current phase of market maturity?
- How can user organisations and commercial software vendors benefit from modern (and mature) software engineering practices?
- Why are some radically different approaches needed for biology, chemistry, and other disciplines?
- What are better approaches for informatics integration tools for multidisciplinary science?
- What are the requirements for enterprise wide support systems and virtual research organisations?
- How do we better document and integrate computational experiments and designs with experimental research documentation?
13.00 Lunch, Thomas Great Hall
14.00 Research
Knowledge Management for the Post-ELN Era: Envisioning a Multi-Scale
‘Scientist’s Desktop’ with Unified Information Services, Management and
Collaboration, led by Jeff Spitzner (Rescentris)
The information management situation in most research organizations can
be characterized kindly as ‘distributed’: Important R&D project content is
scattered on PCs, network drives, databases, LIMS, document management systems,
printed files, and specialized information systems, with critical lab records
and intellectual property documented in paper lab notebooks. The electronic lab notebook (ELN) is quite
successful in solving this latter problem, and ELNs shown themselves to
significantly contribute to R&D performance. Maintaining competitiveness and a high level
of innovation will require next generation systems to go beyond ELNs and other
systems to integrate many dimensions of research activities using semantic web
infrastructures. We need to connect
information and communication processes through common user interfaces that
unify multi-scale project and research views, and access to content and
services. We will discuss the varieties of
systems relevant to supporting high performance research knowledge
networks. These include:
- Scientific document/data management, storage, analysis, annotation, reporting, and reuse
- Project management, tracking, visibility, real-time communications, decision-making
- Quality and efficiency management
- Scales of work organization – personal, team, organizations, collaborations, communities
- Scientific research domains, departments, expertise, and information systems
- Lifecycle management for R&D, product development and content
- Unifying personal life, daily work, and project work in a common framework
- Security, privacy, roles and privileges
- The future ELN as the Scientist’s Desktop – a user interface for creation and access to enterprise R&D resources and processes, with personalized views, dashboards, and tools
14.30 Knowledge Café: Discussion of Research
Knowledge Management for Unified Information Services, Management and
Collaboration
This Knowledge Cafe will discuss the
requirements and opportunities for the creation of unified information services
and high performance research knowledge networks.
Table Topics: Project Management, Quality
Management, Collaboration, Product and Service Lifecycle Management, the
Scientist’s Desktop, Integrated Services
16.00 Coffee Break
16.30 Semantic
Knowledge Infrastructures and Services for R&D, led by Gladys Range (GVR Systems Automation)
I
will discuss Semantics and Data Convergence Architectures and Services in which
the research scientist can access, edit, and analyze standardized data sets,
and build automated workflow processes providing metadata extraction, form
creation, trend analysis and reporting methods. A semantic search service allows objects to be indexed and located based
on semantic descriptions of their content. What separates a semantic search service from traditional approaches is
that they must be simultaneously expressive, dynamic, and efficient.
Traditional
search engines are both dynamic and efficient. However, their lack of semantics precludes their usefulness for semantic
search. Databases are relatively
expressive and efficient but at the cost of being static with respect to a
database schema. AI theorem provers are
extremely expressive and dynamic but are computationally inefficient. Defining
and developing architectures for semantic search services over semantically
classified objects and annotations is an effective means of awakening and
accessing knowledge stored in “Database Sleeping Giants”.
A
“Remote System Poling Data Acquisition”, combined with Collaborative-Electronic
Research Applications (C-ERA) client agent architecture,
consists of a system of interacting C-ERA Research collaborators and
users that quickly locates other C-ERA clients, and performs remote
system poling, data acquisition, processing/extraction, and registration as a
dynamic way of improving research, promoting collaboration and achieving
process optimization. Research methods, content and standards will no doubt
proliferate for many different research communities. If we want those communities to be able to
communicate efficiently it follows that a semantic translation C-ERA
service is a necessity. To make semantic translation useful on a real task, we
proposed a search service that employs the translator and is capable of coping
with semantic heterogeneity of web-enabled applications and research tools
populated with C-ERA agents.
Such
a C-ERA Search Service provides
for sets of interoperable agents that are capable of performing search over
large numbers of mapped annotated agents in an environment of hierarchically
arranged ontologies. The architecture
consists of two components – Search Service Agents (SSAs) and a Search
Service Generator (SSG). For the Search Services to respond to queries
efficiently, the SSG can generate high-performance databases (embedded in the
SSAs) directly from the mapped ontologies to which agents may commit.
17.00 Knowledge Café: Discussion of Semantic
Knowledge Infrastructures and Services
The Semantic Web has had much hype, with the
real maturity of practically useful applications for R&D support falling
far behind and moving very slowly. The
Semantic Web is moving down the "peak of hype", through the
"trough of disillusionment", and perhaps onto the slope of
enlightenment soon. In this Knowledge
Café we will discuss the reality of Semantic Web tool developments and
deployments that are of near-term relevance to R&D support.
Table Topics: Ontologies,
Intelligent Agents, Semantic Search, Semantic Desktop, Semantic Web Languages,
Semantic Web Tools, Data Architectures, Evangelists Table, Critics and Cynics
Table
18.30 Networking Garden Reception, Alumni House, Bryn Mawr College
Relax after
a day of co-working and enjoy a drink with colleagues in the garden of the
Alumni House.
19.30 Knowledge
Dinner, Bryn Mawr College Alumni House
Enjoy a
menu of excellent food and conversation subjects for knowledge exchange. Included on the conversation menu will be a
choice of interdisciplinary topics and discussion pieces: philosophy,
organisational culture, leadership, innovation, collaboration, virtual reality,
cognitive science, neuroscience, complexity, constructivism, story telling,
sense-making, virtual work and relationships, meaning, alternative education
etc. Participants will change tables,
conversation partners and topics between courses.
TUESDAY
16 OCTOBER
08.30 Emerging Technologies Showcase – Short Presentations on the
Capabilities of New Innovative Technologies for Advanced KM in R&D systems
This
session will present latest advances in emerging technologies of relevance to
advanced knowledge management in R&D: Semantic Web, Web 2.0, Advanced
Search, Agents, Virtual Environments for Virtual Collaboratories, Social
Software, wikis, blogs, Personal KM Tools, 3D Virtual Worlds, Internet of
Things, Sensors, and RFID.
Presentations:
Dimitris K. Agrafiotis, Vice
President of Informatics, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research &
Development, LLC; The ABCD ELN: Towards a Fully Integrated Discovery Enterprise
Frank
Guerino, CEO, TraverseIT;
Semantic-based Frameworks for Enterprise Content Management
Carl Elkin, Principal Scientist,
Schering-Plough; Building Knowledge Infrastructure: A
Bottom-up Wiki in a Large Company
David Gilmour, CEO, Tacit;
Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Sharing - Implications for Enterprise Knowledge Management
Alex
Heiphetz, CEO, Delta L Training; Training Simulations and Metrics in Second
Life
Marisol Wesson, CEO, TMS; Enterprise Knowledge Portals and Application Integration for supporting Collaboration
10.30 Roundtable Discussions: Choose a technology from the
showcase of your choice and discuss it with the presenter
11.00 Coffee Break
11.30 Knowledge Café: Discussion of
Requirements for Advanced KM in R&D solutions
This Knowledge Café will discuss and document
requirements for Advanced KM in R&D solutions including current unmet
requirements that could be met by the development and integration of new and emerging
technologies. In addition to
consideration of information requirements, we will include knowledge management
concepts having potential positive impact on organisational culture, innovation
success, transparency, leadership, trust, change management, collaboration,
partnerships and alliances, product life cycle management, customer communities,
and virtual organisation and network services.
13.00 Lunch, Thomas Great Hall
14.00 Innovation
Café Part 1: Vision and Ideas for Next-Generation Advanced KM in R&D
Solutions, led by Barry Hardy (Douglas Connect)
The agenda
of this workshop session will be designed so as to maximise interaction,
discussion, issue resolution, vision and ideas sharing for the development of
Next-Generation Advanced KM in R&D Support Solutions. Workshop activities will address specific
challenges to progress in the field and areas where collaboration could support
integration and alignment of research and development programs, practices and
resources. The Innovation Cafe format of Victor Newman will be used in which
the group will define a scenario in which optimum confidence in an R&D
support system had been reached, create a shared vision and brainstorm ideas on
achieving a system development, and will then prioritize steps that could aid
the support and acceleration of reaching such a goal. The resulting roadmap
should support action plans where cooperation between users, developers,
research programs and initiatives could accelerate the contribution of ICT and
KM methods to the enhanced confidence and productivity of R&D support
systems.
Some
Non-Exclusive Directions: Including collective intelligence, filtering ever increasing and massive
information flows, reaching executives with knowledge translations, involving
customer knowledge intimately with R&D, virtual realities for social
scientific constructivism, accepting that most knowledge is never made
explicit, designing a flexible virtual collaboratory of scientific brainpower
and knowledge, …
15.30 Coffee Break
16.00 Innovation
Café Part 2: Designs and Services for Next-Generation Advanced KM in R&D
Solutions, led by Barry Hardy (Douglas Connect)
The second
part of the Innovation Cafe Session will discuss implementation of the vision
and ideas of the group in the design of next generation architectures and
services for the development and deployment of Next-Generation Advanced KM in
R&D Solutions. Consideration will be
given to barriers and challenges to be faced and overcome, opportunities for
collaboration on research, standards and interoperability, and potential
opportunities to be pursued for R&D projects.
Some
Non-Exclusive Directions: Virtualization, Utility Services, Designing for Trust and Transparent
Transparency, Context, Integrating structure and non-structure, Allowing for
(un)shared meanings, Accommodating cultural diversity and conversations at a
distance, Immersion, Usability etc.
17.30 Group
Discussion of Next Steps for Practice Group and Related Initiatives
Topics: User priorities – short and longer
term, research proposals, SBIRs, commercial co-operation agreements,
continuing requirements documentation, Spring and Autumn ’08 practice group
meetings.
All
participants are welcome to present a poster. The poster does not have to be a traditional scientific poster; it can
also be about the discussion of an idea or experience, a software
demonstration, prototype, exploratory research etc.
Contact Information:
Program: Barry Hardy, barry.hardy (-at-) douglasconnect.com
Registration: Nicki Douglas, nicki.douglas (-at-) douglasconnect.com
Registration includes attendance to the workshop, a one year community of practice membership, and one year’s access to the virtual activities of the KM in R&D practice group
“Our evidence suggests that the controlled
chaos of the brain is more than an accidental by-product. Indeed it may be the
chief property that makes the brain different from an artificial-intelligence
machine.”
“It is change, continuing change,
inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible
decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world
as it is, but the world as it will be.”
Photo
from Douglas Connect Knowledge Café on Knowledge and Leadership
25 April 2007, Basel, Switzerland:
eCheminfo InnovationWellinformatics IT KM ICT bioinformatics software Computer Science Software Engineering Software Design Software Development Virtual Environment Virtual Organisation Virtual Worlds Virtual Work Virtual Teams Virtual Laboratory Semantic Web Social Software Enterprise Software Enterprise Systems Enterprise Knowledge Information Systems Information Science Information Technology Chemistry Biology ELN Electronic Lab Notebook Lab Notebook Electronic Laboratory Notebook LIMS R&D pharmaceutical pharma meeting workshop training Philadelphia Knowledge Management innovation collaboration Research Pharma Drug Discovery Research and Development Drug Development Healthcare events
very interesting, but I don't agree with you
Idetrorce
Posted by: Idetrorce | December 15, 2007 at 12:36 PM