  The extent to which the benefits of science can be fully realized depends
critically upon the quality of the connection between researchers themselves
and between researchers and members of the public. We believe that it is now
possible to improve these connections on a community-wide and even world-wide
basis through the use of an appropriate information management system. In this
paper we explore the concepts and challenges, and propose an architecture for
the implementation of such a system.
  "One of the greatest visions for science is a computational unification in
which every researcher can interact with all other researchers through use of
their own research system."
  "These features not only enable research collaboration on a scale never
previously envisaged, they also enable sharing and dissemination of scientific
knowledge to the public at large with a sophistication unparalleled in
history."
