To all profit from the opportunity, we must all share in the burdens. Each of the 73 institutions must contribute time based on its fraction of the names on the seven-page author list for publishing the result. Choosing from a spreadsheet of tasks, the principal investigator for each institution must make sure his or her group does its share. Those techniques probably didn't include video and phone conferencing and a Web-based communication system, but these are critical parts of what makes the collaboration successful. The project's website has more than 10,000 pages and is in constant use.
Researchers post graphs and analyses for discussion during telephone meetings across time zones.
The site has more than 100 news forums to which members of the collaboration may subscribe. Burchat said a printed record of what's been done on the sin 2b analysis would be about 2 inches thick. But since it's all posted on the Web, no one has to wade through all that paper. Collaborators can read documents instantaneously. We are absolutely dependent on it.