Infrastructure Time: Long-term Matters in Collaborative Development

TLDR

Studying infrastructure development empirically in both spatial and temporal dimensions, the authors illustrate long‑term matters through a case of a metadata standard for ecological research, where standards are part of infrastructure and involve semantic work and software tool development. The study aims to extend the notion of infrastructure to explicitly include temporality, identify project time versus infrastructure time, and link these to a continuing‑design orientation. The authors analyze stakeholder practices and perspectives on short‑term and long‑term temporal scales during the development of the ecological metadata standard, framing the work in terms of project time, infrastructure time, and continuing design. The authors conclude that incorporating longer temporal scales—such as infrastructure time—into CSCW and e‑Research studies reveals diverse temporal hybrids and significant implications for collaborative infrastructure development.

Abstract

This paper addresses the collaborative development of information infrastructure for supporting data-rich scientific collaboration. Studying infrastructure development empirically not only in terms of spatial issues but also, and equally importantly, temporal ones, we illustrate how the long-term matters. Our case is about the collaborative development of a metadata standard for an ecological research domain. It is a complex example where standards are recognized as one element of infrastructure and standard-making efforts include integration of semantic work and software tools development. With a focus on the temporal scales of short-term and long-term, we analyze the practices and views of the main parties involved in the development of the standard. Our contributions are three-fold: 1) extension of the notion of infrastructure to more explicitly include the temporal dimension; 2) identification of two distinct temporal orientations in information infrastructure development work, namely 'project time' and 'infrastructure time', and 3) association of related development orientations, particularly 'continuing design' as a development orientation that recognizes 'infrastructure time'. We conclude by highlighting the need to enrich understandings of temporality in CSCW, particularly towards longer time scales and more diversified temporal hybrids in collaborative infrastructure development. This work draws attention to the manifold ramifications that 'infrastructure time', as an example of more extended temporal scales, suggests for CSCW and e-Research infrastructures.