Intercontinental Grids: an infrastructure for demand-driven innovation

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

This paper charts the evolution of an
intercontinental Grid—INWA—from its first operation
connectingAustralia and Scotland; its subsequent
extension to China; and its use to demonstrate
the first large-scale research and education
network for the Asia-Pacific region. The paper
focuses on the gap between e-Science and e-Social
Science arguing that the Grid topology is more
compatible with the socio-legal demands of largescale
study of society than more dynamically distributed
approaches, such as Cloud Computing.
Foundational texts on Grid Computing and its
appropriation by research programmes in the UK,
USA and China have helped create a positive,
symbolic value for Grid Computing. For INWA,
this value helped when communicating the aims
of the project to potential collaborators and so
created the conditions for high-quality, socioeconomic
data to be placed in a collaborative,
analytical environment. There is no equivalent
symbolic value for Cloud Computing with potential
consequences for its usefulness in establishing
such collaborations in future.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)185-200
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Grid Computing
Volume9
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2011

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Grid · e-Science · e-Social Science · Cloud computing

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  • Globalisation and the grid

    Sloan, T.

    ESRC

    1/04/1031/05/12

    Project: Research

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