Speaker
Otto Rienhoff
(Uni Göttingen)
Description
Since the introduction of Hollerith machines there have been ideas for the evaluation of time wise massive data collections. However, the main developments started in the sixties based on main-frame computing. Already at that time many dreams were published which took decades to come through. As the delivery of promises and hopes was much less success-ful than expected many early starters and their institutions were shut down. Driving coun-tries in this competitive game were not only the US and other industrialized countries but also highly funded national institution in many other countries. The complexity of the tech-nology and the dynamics of software development forced most developments out of the competitive game. The US approaches became very dominant due to several "cultural" fac-tors like massive funding ressources and well funded disruptive approaches. However, the development of digital research infrastructures in different scientific disciplines has been driven by very specific national factors, of which available IT-power is only one of many im-pact factors. Intenational research competition is more and more based on the management of digital research infrastructures. Easy answers and simple explanations of how to move ahead are not available.
