Hit by Reality – How Socio-Technical Challenges Shift the Design of an Information System in an Interdisciplinary Research Environment

In the first phase of the CRC, the information system was thought of as a fully integrative solution, which allowed to decompose any arising structured data to then identify common attributes and allow for a wide range of database queries and analyses. While the phase ended with a proposition of a technical solution on how to create a tool using such a flexible data model, the solution was far from being implemented in a practice-ready state.

In the technical department of the project, the switch from Phase 1 to Phase 2 was dominated by a full change in personnel on all levels, which made an effective knowledge transfer impossible and slowed down progress heavily in the beginning of the second phase. After a year-long phase of catching up and trying to find out if the before-mentioned questions had already been answered, the design of the information system had become clearer, involving new components that had not been thought of before.

In a first step a repository-like functional component was needed to collect the data which had already been created or was in use in the CRC. Some of this data is openly accessible, others had to be protected through restricted access, which required at least a simple self-built solution within the project and involved a process on defining an adequate but still usable meta data catalogue, access rights, answers on licensing questions and lots of more small but relevant details.

The data collections accessible through the catalogue are then meant to be used for a record level integration, similar to what was thought of in the first phase of the CRC. However, a lot of detailed questions occur, when data from roughly 15 sub projects with very different background and perspectives are brought together. What common attributes are left when all data of the project are compared? How deep is the integration of such different data sets coming from archaeology, botany, ecology, geophysics and so on? Without spoiling too much: the integrational concept remains rather shallow, reduced to few dimensions (space, time, type), however, the need to create a common backbone also in the values of these dimensions introduces new challenges, not just on the technical side but also considering roles and processes on how to effectively discuss these topics.