Extensible Generic Data Management Software

Extensibility mechanisms constitute a form of knowledge capture that is essential for software re-­‐use. The Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) group has collaborated with more than 25 science and engineering domains on the design of open source distributed data management systems. A major requirement has been the provision of extensibility mechanisms that enable provision of domain-­‐specific research capabilities. A partial list of domains and projects that build on extensible generic data management infrastructure includes: Astrophysics Auger supernova search Atmospheric science Each domain has unique semantics, data formats, types of data, analysis procedures, management policies, descriptive metadata, and hardware systems (including unique network access protocols). Each domain has existing infrastructure that manages legacy data, provides analysis services, and serves as an authoritative resource for domain knowledge. Each domain may organize data in a collection, or share in a data grid, or publish in a digital library, or preserve in an archive. We claim that extensible software enables infrastructure re-­‐use across domains.