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Unlike aboveground utility systems, for which very detailed and accurate information exists, there is generally a dearth of good-quality data about underground utility infrastructures that provide vital services. To identify key strategies to improve the resilience of these underground systems, this paper presents mechanisms for successful engagement and collaboration among stakeholders and shared cross-sector system vulnerability concerns (including data availability) based on the innova- tive use of focus groups. Outputs from two virtual focus groups were used to obtain information from New York City area utilities and other stakeholders affected by underground infrastructure. There was strong agreement among participants that (1) a trusted agency in New York City government should manage a detailed map of underground infrastructure that would allow stakeholders to securely access appropriate information about underground systems on a need-to-know basis; (2) environmental risk factors, such as infrastructure age and condition, as well as location should be included; and (3) improved mechanisms for collaboration and sharing information are needed, especially during non-emergency situations. Stakeholders also highlighted the need for a regularly updated central database of relevant contacts at key organizations, since institutions often have a high employee turnover rate, which creates knowledge loss. The focus group script developed as part of this research was designed to be transferable to other cities to assess data needs and potential obstacles to stakeholder collabora- tion in the areas of underground infrastructure mapping and modeling.
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Growing New Scholarly Communication Infrastructures for Sharing, Reusing, and Synthesizing Knowledge
Sharing, reuse, and synthesis of knowledge is central to the research process. These core functions are in theory served by the system of monographs, abstracts, and papers in journals and proceedings, with citation indices and search databases that comprise the core of our formal scholarly communication infrastructure; yet, converging lines of empirical and anecdotal evidence suggest that this system does not adequately act as infrastructure for synthesis. Emerging developments in new institutions for science, along with new technical infrastructures and tooling for decentralized knowledge work, offer new opportunities to prototype new technical infrastructures on top of a different installed base than the publish or perish, neoliberal academy. This workshop aims to integrate these developments and communities with CSCW’s deep roots in knowledge infrastructures and collaborative and distributed sensemaking, with new developments in science institutions and tooling, to stimulate and accelerate progress towards prototyping new scholarly communication infrastructures that are actually optimized for sharing, reusing, and synthesizing knowledge.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2046454
- PAR ID:
- 10454102
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- CSCW'22 Companion: Companion Publication of the 2022 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 278-281
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3500868.3559398
