4 A Theory of Remote Scientific Collaboration

In the past fifteen years, a great deal has been learned about the particular challenges of distant collaboration. Overall, we have learned that even when advanced technologies are available, distance still matters (Olson and Olson 2000). In addition, a recent seminal study of sixty-two projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) showed that the major indicator of lower success was the number of institutions involved (Cummings and Kiesler 2005; chapter 5, this volume). The greater the number of institutions involved, the less well coordinated a project was and the fewer the positive outcomes. There are a number of reasons for these challenges. For one, distance threatens context and common ground (Cramton 2001). Second, trust is more difficult to establish and maintain when the collaborators are separated from each other (Shrum, Chompalov, and Genuth 2001; Kramer and Tyler 1995). Third, poorly designed incentive systems can inhibit collaborations and prevent the adoption of new collaboration technology (Orlikowski 1992; Grudin 1988). Finally, organizational structures and governance systems, along with the nature of the work, can either contribute to or inhibit collaboration (Larson et al. 2002; Mazur and Boyko 1981; Hesse et al. 1993; Sonnenwald 2007). This chapter describes our attempt to synthesize these findings and enumerate those factors that we (and others) believe are important in determining the success of remote collaboration in science. In working toward a theory of remote scientific collaboration (TORSC), we have drawn from data collected as part of the Science of Collaboratories (SOC) project, studies in the sociology of science, and investigations of distance collaboration in general.