Publication Date

8-2006

Comments

UTEP-CS-06-39

Abstract

Productive design of scientific workflows often depends on the effectiveness of the communication between the discipline domain experts and computer scientists, including their ability to share their specific needs in the design of the workflow. Discipline domain experts and computer scientists, however, tend to have distinct needs for designing workflows including terminology, level of abstraction, workflow aspects that should be included in the design. This paper discusses the use of a Model-Based Workflow (MBW) approach as an abstract way to specify workflows that conciliate the needs of domain and computer scientists. Within the context of GEON, an NSF cyberinfrastructure for Earth Sciences, the paper discusses the benefits of using a Gravity Map MBW generated from an ontology about gravity. The Gravity Map MBW is based on terms derived from the gravity ontology that was developed by geophysicists; it does not include some of the workflow properties that tend to make workflow specifications look too complex for discipline domain experts to understand; and it provides a framework for developing strategies to derive executable Gravity Map workflow encodings with only limited interaction from computer scientists.

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