560 



83 



3. Exchange of scientific and technical data^ 



3.1. Present situation 



The present situation in Europe is described in the ECFA (European 

 Coimiittee for Future Accelerators) Report ECFA/83/75 and references to 

 a more detailed description of the requirements can be found there. 

 The modes of coninuni cation which are needed include: 



- The transmission of text either as electronic mail or long documents 



- The transmission of program files to ensure software 

 standardization, with updating, on a project 



- Remote terminal access and remote job submission to certain computer 

 facilities 



- The transmission of technical data in graphical form 



- The transmission of data from experiments. This is of particular 

 Importance for fault diagnosis during the data-taking phase of an 

 experiment 



- Tele-conferencing. The efficient management of large collaborative 

 enterprises requires frequent exchange of information and views 

 leading to decisions on policy and design. 



The HEP coimnunity undertakes its research in international 

 collaborations which span the continents. European groups make 

 extensive use of the facilities in North America such as SLAC (near 

 San Francisco) and Fermi lab (near Chicago). Groups from Canada, Japan 

 and the US (and other nations) participate in experiments undertaken 

 at the European Laboratories, such as CERN and DESY. The greater 

 distances separating those involved in the large intercontinental 

 collaborations characteristic of High Energy Physics make good 

 communication facilities essential. 



The exchange of scientific and technical information in high 

 technology sectors such as Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion or High- 

 Energy Physics is, like trade in scientific and technical equipment or 

 the mobility of research workers, a prerequisite for the success of 

 research in these fields. The removal of obstacles to such an 

 exchange, however, depends on the preparedness of the parties 

 concerned to communicate information which, in certain cases, can be 

 of commercial value or can be the subject of important scientific 

 communications. 



6 The term "scientific and technical data" means solely the raw results of 

 scientific and technical experiments and never the communications and 

 publications that result from such experiments. The dissemination of 

 knowledge by those means gives rise to another, more general, problem 

 which is not dealt with in this report. 



