Irods: Data sharing technology integrating communities of practice

The convergence of sophisticated social networking, digital library tools and persistent digital archive frameworks with data grid technology is providing strong incentives for sharing digital data across time frames that can span decades. To provide scalable solutions, a service-oriented federation framework is demonstrated that can help not only federate data and services across disciplines and societal communities but also in support of technological evolution and long-term fiscal sustainability for current and future usage.