CyberGIS design considerations for structured participation in collaborative problem solving

Abstract

New ways for elucidating concepts in geographic information science (GIScience) and implementing geographic information systems techniques using cyberinfrastructure, a research and development focus now called CyberGIS, are emerging within the GIScience community. We report on the structured participation in knowledge production as a foundation for ‘high-performance collaboration’ in geospatial problem-solving research. This article focuses on three design considerations for CyberGIS: (1) structured participation methods that underpin analytic–deliberative activities; (2) structured participation methods as a basis for facilitating scientific workflows; and (3) a design for participatory aspects of a CyberGIS environment and its end-user platform as a Gateway. The findings from previous research about participatory workflows are synthesized with challenges in current research about developing collaborative problem-solving capabilities. A CyberGIS Component Architecture is used to frame findings about the use of structured participation methods that can be organized within a modular architecture. The modular architecture enables scientific workflows through a lens of analytic–deliberative structured participation. A use case scenario elucidates functions of structured participation methods to undertake experiments using the CyberGIS Gateway. A brief treatment of implementation considerations is provided, as the details appear in a separate article. Resolving both design and implementation considerations portends innovations in structured participation methods that foster diverse and deep scientific knowledge production.