Grids in Context.
Larry L. Smarr · 2004
Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the emergence of Grid as a new infrastructure. The notion of linking people, computers, sensors, and data with networks is decades old and several sophisticated Grid applications have been developed in recent years. For the Grid to be successful not only technologies must be considered but also the social aspects of the factors that will induce researchers, educators, businesses, and consumers to use the Grid as an everyday part of their work. One approach is to study the development of previous infrastructures, such as railroads and the electrical power distribution system, for clues to know the way they were jump-started. Another approach is to envision the way diverse subgroups of our society would benefit from the Grid and people would change their working environment as a result of the new enabling technologies. As the new Grid technologies come into widespread use, social patterns of interaction and reward structure must be shifted so that the potential gains from the nonlinear advancements that collaboration may create can be realized. Collaboration can be an almost magical amplifier for human work. The success of the Grid may both enable and depend on this amplification.