I chose library information studies as my discipline because it is an interdiscipline, and I thought it would be the hardest subject to master since it's about everything and anything, and specifically about how people come to know. I was right. I chose the collaboratory as the topic for my dissertation for several reasons. Primary among them is that it is an elegant word that was delivered to me by the goddess of electronic nuggets, and I always listen to her. The word collaboratory slips off the tongue and sounds as if someone just made it up.
Most people chuckle the first time they hear it, convinced it's some sort of cyberfad.
It's big science. And someone indeed just made up the word, and by doing so, I'm convinced, changed forever the way scence will be done. But when the goddess of electronic nuggests delivered me the word and I went to the library find out more about it, I didn't find what I was looking for. So I had to write it myself. Now, when someone goes looking for information about the collaboratory , and when scientists have to learn about how to conduct virtual, shared science, and educators have to start teaching it, and librarians have to start supporting that work, they can all turn to this document for understanding.