GridOrbit public display: Providing grid awareness in a biology laboratory

We introduce GridOrbit, a public awareness display that visualizes the activity of a community grid used in a biology laboratory. This community grid executes bioin-formatics algorithms and relies on users to donate CPU cycles to the grid. The goal of GridOrbit is to create a shared awareness about the research taking place in the biology laboratory. This should promote contribu-tions to the grid, and thereby mediate the appropriation of the grid technology. GridOrbit visualizes the activity in the grid, shows information about the different active projects, and supports a messaging functionality where people comment on projects. Our work explores the usage of interactive technologies as enablers for the appropriation of an otherwise invisible infrastructure.