Interactive Peer-to-Peer Scientific Communication in the Digital Library Environment

Government digital libraries ¿ such as the DOE¿s Office of Scientific and Technical Information¿s Information Bridge, Energy Citation Database, and other resources ¿ have a unique opportunity to facilitate communication between scientific communities of common interest. This project will add functionality to these libraries by allowing users to communicate and collaborate about the technical information they seek, using this information as a catalyst for discussion and collaboration. In Phase I, a limited functionality prototype tool was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of enabling interactive peer-to-peer scientific communication in the digital library setting. Phase I also included a comprehensive survey of available commercial technologies to determine whether any commercial-off-the-shelf products could support the peer-to-peer communications that are anticipated. In Phase II, this survey information will be synthesized in order to develop and refine the final requirements for the enhanced prototype. An enhanced system design ¿ including a plan for the configuration, development, integration, and testing of a peer-to-peer system ¿ will be developed. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The technology should benefit any research institution or information provider that makes a body of scientific information available. The communication mechanism would enable members of scientific communities to discover other professionals with common interests, facilitating a broader perspective on specific topics and increasing and enhancing the amount and quality of information available.