A vision for a collaborative control room for ITER

A vision for an onsite control room for ITER that will support worldwide experimental collaboration and operation is presented. Fusion experiments place a particular premium on near real time interactions with data and among members of the team. Enabling effective international collaboration on this scale is technically demanding, requiring powerful interactive tools and provision of a working environment for offsite personnel engaged in experimental operation that is every bit as productive as what is onsite. Expanding the view of the control room to include worldwide real time resources, both computational, data, and human, allows for a collaborative design that will significantly benefit ITER's scientific productivity. While the worldwide fusion program has a significant track record for developing and exploiting remote collaborations, the community should recognize that the collaborative needs of other communities share some similarity and therefore joint or shared research into collaborative technologies will increase the benefit to all concerned.