Human-centered e-science: A group-theoretic perspective on cyberinfrastructure design

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) is a rapidly growing area of global research and funding with a history for emphasizing the role technology will play in changing scientific work practices. This paper proposes a group-theoretic perspective on small group collaboration that is informative to CI research and the design of CI environments. To illustrate the relevancy of a group-theoretic perspective to CI, this paper presents a critical review of over 150 CI research papers published in the last decade through the lens of McGrath´s seminal Time, Interaction and Performance theory of groups. After relating common CI research themes through a focus on groups, we propose a series of early design principles aimed at helping interaction designers and technologists to better design and implement group collaboration tools in CI applications.