Today's scientific world is populated with fabulous resources, ranging from collider detectors to super computers, from advanced photon sources to virtual reality labs. Yet the most important resources are the scientists and technologists who design and use these tools. They travel all over the world for the opportunity to work together, moving to and from the places where the scientific instruments are located, all in the name of furthering scientific research.
Perhaps one of the most important potential tools that we have today is the global information network, the Internet. It has the capacity to bring together all of these resources. We need to put all the instruments on the network and let everyone work together remotely. This effort will cut down on travel and increase the amount of time that the people, our most valuable resource, can work together on experiments and research.
Yet the critical question remains: What is the most effective way to accomplish this? We believe that any solution must take into account the aspects of real laboratories that make collaboration effective. Beyond the obvious rooms with scientific instruments and libraries of information, labs provide meeting places with white boards, computing and media infrastructure, and other interaction tools. Most important, they create an environment where people can interact with each other professionally and casually in ways that make collaboration truly effective. We believe that all of these functions must be incorporated into any successful solution.