This panel will provide a forum for a discussion of important and timely issues surrounding the global deployment of cyberinfrastructure to support science and engineering research activities. Representatives of funding agencies, existing cyberinfrastructure projects, specific technologies and social scientists involved in the evaluation of these technologies will be brought together to address questions about the key obstacles to the operational deployment of cyberinfrastructure, whether or not cyberinfrastructure will improve research, and what the role of the CSCW community is and can or should be in this deployment.

The Eden Project conducts research in the design and implementation of a distributed computing environment for a local area network. A specific goal in designing Eden was to provide users the advantages of both physical distribution and logical integration. Edmas, the Eden mail system, provided an early test of Eden as a base for building distributed applications. This paper discusses Edmas, and shows how Eden's advanced functionality aided us in structuring a distributed mail system, particularly in the areas of replying and distribution lists.

The Eden project is a five year experiment in designing, building, and using an "integrated distributed" computing system. We are attempting to combine the benefits of integration and distribution by supporting an object based style of programming on top of a node machine/local network hardware base. Our experimental hypothesis is that such an architecture will provide an environment conducive to building distributed applications.

The University of Washington's Eden project is a five-year research effort to design, build and use an “integrated distributed” computing environment. The underlying philosophy of Eden involves a fresh approach to the tension between these two adjectives. In briefest form, Eden attempts to support both good personal computing and good multi-user integration by combining a node machine / local network hardware base with a software environment that encourages a high degree of sharing and cooperation among its users.

Abstract Four programming languages (Fortran, Cobol, Jovial and the proposed DoD standard) are compared in the light of modern ideas of good software engineering practice. The comparison begins by identifying a core for each language that captures the essential properties of the language and the intent of the language designers. These core languages then serve as a basis for the discussion of the language philosophies and the impact of the language on gross program organization and on the use of individual statements.

Considering the widespread influence of Ethernet, a surprising amount of confusion exists concerning various important aspects of its design. Our objective in writing this paper is to spare future designers of local area networks the searching and speculation in which we were forced to engage.