HCC: Small: Designing and Using FastLane: Distilling Lessons for Cyberinfrastructures

This is an analytical history project examining FastLane, the pioneering system created to manage review of research proposals submitted to the National Science Foundation. It will advance the history of contemporary computing and contribute to the development of the human-centered computing field. A rigorous evaluative history of NSF?s FastLane is feasible at this moment, owing to accessibility of the designers of the system as well as the distinct communities of users, including NSF legacy users, staff at Sponsored Projects offices, and principal investigators. Substantial advance work has been carried out in contacting NSF staff (concerning both document collection and oral histories) and in designing and developing new research methods that will facilitate collecting qualitative, interview-type data from the large population of varied users. The research explores the human-centered computing (HCC) theme of how government agencies respond to and shape the introduction of new information technologies, and it will develop insights into the design and use of other complex computing systems. The project will also contribute to the interdisciplinarity of HCC by exploring the process of design, models for learning, modes of communication, and the social, cultural, and ethical contexts of computing.

Evaluation of the development of FastLane, an early cyberinfrastructure (CI), will yield insights and lessons for contemporary designers, managers, and users of CI. The research will generate insights into the interaction of computing systems with complex cultural and organizational processes. The project will also develop novel research tools for collecting rich qualitative data on these processes, including a web-based interview platform, a Wiki-site designed for the FastLane community, and semi-automated oral-history transcription. The research is carefully designed to permit an evaluation of FastLane?s impact on the participation of diverse researchers and diverse educational institutions in the nation?s research infrastructure. This project will create, analyze, and archive important data on the research participation of several historically under-represented groups, including HBCU institutions and EPSCoR states.