Collaborative construction of Grid: usability within Particle Physics
Will Venters, Yingqin Zheng, Tony Cornford · London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) · 2007
Abstract. We report the development and use of a Grid (the LHC Computing Grid) to analyse data produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) due to start at CERN in 2008. This study explores the relationship between the parties involved and in particular the role of users (and their virtual organisations) in negotiating the usability of the Grid. Using a case study of a Grid job submission tool called Crab we draw on Andrew Pickering’s “Mangle of Practice ” to explore how making Grids usable is a practice of experimental physicists as well as a practice of systems designers. The conclusions highlight the need to consider the users of Grids as powerful agents in the development process, able to direct and steer the development to represent their practice.