TY - JOUR
T1 - If you build it, promote it, and they trust you, then they will come
T2 - Diffusion strategies for science gateways and cyberinfrastructure adoption to harness big data in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) community
AU - Kee, Kerk F.
AU - Le, Bethanie
AU - Jitkajornwanich, Kulsawasd
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
PY - 2021/10/10
Y1 - 2021/10/10
N2 - In the big data era, for science gateways (SG) and cyberinfrastructure (CI) projects to have the greatest impacts, they need to be widely adopted in the scientific community. However, diffusion activities, or activities aimed to spread SG/CI in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics community, are often an afterthought in projects. We warn against the fallacy of “If You Build It, They Will Come.” Projects could be intentional in promoting tool adoption. Based on an analysis of 83 interviews with 66 administrators, developers, scientists/users, and outreach educators of SG/CI, we identified seven external communication practices—raising awareness, personalizing demonstrations, providing online and offline training, networking with the community, building relationships with trust, stimulating word-of-mouth persuasion, and keeping reliable documentation. With these strategies, we revised the pop culture line to “If You Build It, Promote It, and They Trust You, Then They Will Come.” We also observed the beliefs that external communication is mainly necessary when seeking continuous funding, and it belongs to the skillset of nontechnical staff. These two beliefs may explain why external communication is underemphasized in many SG/CI projects. The article serves as evidence to justify a bigger budget in funding proposals for diffusion strategies to increase adoption and broader impacts.
AB - In the big data era, for science gateways (SG) and cyberinfrastructure (CI) projects to have the greatest impacts, they need to be widely adopted in the scientific community. However, diffusion activities, or activities aimed to spread SG/CI in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics community, are often an afterthought in projects. We warn against the fallacy of “If You Build It, They Will Come.” Projects could be intentional in promoting tool adoption. Based on an analysis of 83 interviews with 66 administrators, developers, scientists/users, and outreach educators of SG/CI, we identified seven external communication practices—raising awareness, personalizing demonstrations, providing online and offline training, networking with the community, building relationships with trust, stimulating word-of-mouth persuasion, and keeping reliable documentation. With these strategies, we revised the pop culture line to “If You Build It, Promote It, and They Trust You, Then They Will Come.” We also observed the beliefs that external communication is mainly necessary when seeking continuous funding, and it belongs to the skillset of nontechnical staff. These two beliefs may explain why external communication is underemphasized in many SG/CI projects. The article serves as evidence to justify a bigger budget in funding proposals for diffusion strategies to increase adoption and broader impacts.
KW - cyberinfrastructure
KW - diffusion of innovations
KW - external communication
KW - science gateways
KW - technology acceptance
KW - technology adoption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100081770&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/cpe.6192
DO - 10.1002/cpe.6192
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100081770
SN - 1532-0626
VL - 33
JO - Concurrency Computation Practice and Experience
JF - Concurrency Computation Practice and Experience
IS - 19
M1 - e6192
ER -