Collaboration, cyberinfrastructure, and cognitive science: The role of databases and dataguides in 21st century structural geology

Abstract

Structural geologists support their mind with tools, and these tools are increasingly computer based. The advent of Intelligent Systems will allow creation of research teams that combine the strengths of the human mind and computer processing to produce new research results. The efficacy of these approaches will require a solid grounding in cognitive science. Critical to this approach are databases, which are potentially transformative solely in their ability to allow access to data, in a primary form. Emerging more recently, however, is the concept of a dataguide, in which computer-aided analysis informs ongoing decisions about where and what data to collect. The creation of human and computer teams can expand the types of questions that can be addressed in structural geology and tectonics research, but it will take a community-based effort to understand the value of data to experts and how computers might aid an expert in the field.