Information infrastructure

The original goals of the Human Genome Project (HGP) were: 1) construction of a high-resolution genetic map of the human genome: 2) production of a variety of physical maps of all human chromosomes and of the DNA of selected model organisms; 3) determination of the complete sequence of human DNA and of the DNA of selected model organisms; 4) development of capabilities for collecting, storing, distributing, and analyzing the data produced; and 5) creation of appropriate technologies necessary to achieve these objectives. Here, the authors assert that the most pressing information-infrastructure requirement now facing the HGP is achieving better interoperation among electronic information resources. Other needs may be equally important (better methods to support large-scale sequencing and mapping, for example), but none are as pressing. The problem of interoperability grows exponentially with the data. Efforts to develop distributed information publishing systems are now underway in many locations. If the needs of the genome project are not soon defined and articulated, they will not be addressed by these external projects. De facto standards will emerge and if these prove inadequate for scientific data publishing, the research community will have little choice but to tolerate this inadequacy indefinitely