Global Positioning System Reference
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practices and the implementation recommendations to build resource-based
interfaces for environmental models based on the capabilities of HTTP as
application protocol and the REST architectural principles (Fielding 2000),
which aligned nicely to the Model Web principles mentioned earlier.
Not One but Multiple Infrastructures
As commented earlier the Model Web is a vision which may materialize
through multiple infrastructures and implementations. Assuming that
each discipline sits on its thematic information infrastructure, such as
health information infrastructures (Kamel Boulos 2004; Barret et al. 2011)
and geospatial information infrastructures (Wright and Wang 2011), the
question raised here again is how to bridge such infrastructures together
and to facilitate the sharing and integration of models as services deployed
on distinct information infrastructures.
The term Virtual Research Environments (VREs) attempts to support
multidisciplinary research teams to work collaboratively by managing
the increasingly complex range of tasks involved in carrying out research
at both small and large scales. Voss and Procter (2009) defi ne VRE as a
means to support the integration of resources like environmental models
throughout the life cycle of an IM project. VREs encompass information
infrastructures, collaborative tools and technologies needed by researchers
to do their daily research activities, interact with other researchers, and to
enable vertical and horizontal integration of resources available both locally
and remotely. VREs are sometimes also known as research or scientifi c
infrastructures (Bernard et al. 2013) and cyber-infrastructures (Yang et al.
2010). Regardless of the particular label, the same goals and objectives are
behind the scenes.
The concept of VRE does not should thought of as a unique research
platform but multiple VREs interconnected addressed to different purposes,
similarly to the vision of multiple Digital Earths addressed to user needs
(Craglia et al. 2012; Goodchild et al. 2012). This of course has implications
into the geo-enabled scientifi c workfl ows, in which each web service in
the workfl ow may belong to distinct institutions or individuals and be
deployed in distinct information infrastructures. Enabling collaboration
across information infrastructures is not a desire but a must.
Apart from supporting generic research tasks such as data management
and analysis (horizontal view), VREs should also incorporate the context
in which those tools and technologies are used, i.e., specifi c characteristics,
settings and execution environments for each research discipline (vertical
view). For example the sharing, management and execution of geo-enabled
scientifi c workfl ows in geosciences distinguishes from the bio-genomics
fi eld in terms for example of data tools and methodologies used. So, VREs
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