Prototyping and Experimentation - Research

The goal of this activity is to gain a better understanding of the fundamental problems of data preservation, explore the space of the solutions, and to implement prototypes to evaluate the quality of the ideas. While this project uses HEP as a lens through which to focus the effort, the technical solutions will be derived using the input from the cross-disciplinary workshops in an attempt to make them as general as possible. Designing the ultimate data preservation infrastructure is not the final goal. Rather, we will create the intellectual infrastructure for preservation and then verify the framework through the use of prototypes. We will consider it a success if our conceptual models and software prototypes are taken up by the community as a starting point for more ambitious system-building projects.

In order to reproduce a computation at a significantly later date, we must have a clear specification of both the data model and the execution environment, and the ability to bring them together simultaneously. The two components will be developed independently and then joined together for the final Curation Challenge.

To ensure the integrity of the results and their relevance to the target community, we will carefully separate the creation of prototypes from their evaluation. The technical group assigned to each of these tasks will be responsible for implementing and operating the software prototypes. In addition, an audit group appointed by the project leadership will be responsible for establishing acceptance tests for the prototypes, and evaluating whether the software prototypes and the Curation Challenge correctly satisfy the science needs.