COMMUNIA Conference 2009: keynote speeches preview (2)

Hans F. Hoffmann, Geneva's CERN honorary member, will discuss the “Open, global collaborations in particle physics”.
A new project at CERN will create matter and observe it as it existed very close to the violent developments immediately after the big bang. This requires apparatus of unprecedented complexity, invented, elaborated, built, operated and exploited by global collaborations over decades and served by global e-infrastructures, also produced in the context.
Common clear objectives, mutual respect, complete sharing of all available knowledge, know-how, and necessary technologies within the collaborations, critical mass, flat hierarchies, rigorous quality assurance and the pledge of best efforts by the participating scientific institutes and funding agencies are the important ingredients of such collaborations.
They are brought to life by a continuous, (self-) structured and “accessible to all” communication at all levels. While immediate gainful applications are not the first priority, the collaborative model presented and implemented in this project can be applied to other large efforts and great challenges.

Please click here for the Conference complete programme. [24june09]