The information space consists of the set of associations among these information units. Thus, a single set of user commands suffices to browse, filter, and share all the different types of data. This is accomplished internally by packaging data from all external sources as uniform objects with a generic set of operations for publishing, searching, displaying, and associating the data. The system itself also handles retrieval of objects from remote sources across the network and provides the necessary caching policies to make this retrieval speed-transparent. For the types of data common in genome research, the existing Internet has sufficient bandwidth to support interactive retrieval across the country.
Genome research is the subject domain for a current example of a functioning national collaboratory.
The Worm Community System comprises a digital library containing the data of the community of molecular biologists who study the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which has become a primary model organism in the Human Genome Project, and a software environment that supports interactive manipulation of this library across the Internet. The current library contains a substantial fraction of the extensive knowledge about the worm, including gene descriptions, genetic maps, physical maps, DNA sequences, formal journal literature, informal newsletter literature, and a wide variety of other informal materials. The current environment enables users to browse the library by search and navigation, to examine and analyze selected materials, and then to share composed 'hyperdocuments' within the community. The current prototype is running in some 25 worm laboratories nationwide, and there are already instances of users electronically submitting items to the 'central' information space and having these automatically redistributed to other sites. The next release of the system will support electronic publication with editorial levels, as well as invocation of external analysis programs.