The Gary M. Olson papers largely document the work done at the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University, during the mid-1980s, to create a computer application called the Experimental Research in Electronic Submission (EXPRES). The papers do not fully document Olson's career. Rather they give insight a key collaborative project. The papers have been organized into four series: Meetings and Reports; Publicity and Presentations; Publications; and Subject Files.
Gary M. Olson is a professor of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) at the University of Michigan School of Information and also serves as a professor in the Department of Psychology. From 1984 to 1995, Olson served at the director of the Cognitive Science and Machine Intelligence Laboratory (CSMIL), a joint venture of the School of Business Administration, the College of Engineering, and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. Olson also served as the interim dean at the School of Information from 1998 to 1999. Olson's research interest is in applied cognitive science, with a focus on human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work. During the mid 1980s, he participated on the EXPRES project to help improve the communication between researchers across the country.
The Experimental Research in Electronic Submission (EXPRES) project was led at Michigan by Daniel E. Atkins. Atkins served as the dean at the School of Information and an associate dean at the College of Engineering. His work at the university encompassed many projects that looked to make scientific research a more collaborative process.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided funding for the EXPRES project, hoping to use the application as a way to submit and review grant proposals electronically. In June 1986, NSF asked for proposals to create the EXPRES application, which were awarded to the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Michigan.
Another goal of the EXPRES project, beyond electronic submission, was to help researchers collaborate in an electronic environment. Before the creation of electronic communication standards and software applications of this nature, it was difficult to electronically share research with colleagues because of the limitations in the hardware, software, and network environments and the differences among universities and their computer mainframe systems. Through the use of the EXPRES software application, improvements in micro and mainframe computing, and improvements in communication via the Internet, knowledge sharing in an electronic format became an easier process.
In several ways, the EXPRES application was ahead of its time. While it did not fully succeed, it identified many of the issues which were overcome with new technologies. According to Science magazine and NSF, for a couple of years the project managed a "few hundred proposals ... before NSF officials realized that they had bitten off more than they could chew".[1] EXPRES's challenges included "hard-to-use software, balky transmission lines, and incompatibility with existing systems."[2] The average computer user at the time was not able to use EXPRES. In the mid 1990s, NSF tried a different application called FastLane, which though smaller, was a more manageable system for researchers to use. FastLane, as of 2008, is still being used by NSF for submission and review of proposals.
_____________________________
Notes:
- 1) Jeffery Mervis, "NSF Moves Into FastLane to Manage Flow of Grants," Science 267 (1995): 166-167.
- 2) Ibid.
