Questions:

• What is the balance between individual creativity and the process of being part of a large collaboration? answer
  The successful design and construction of a large and complex state-of-the-art detector requires the creative participation of many many people. It is not the collaboration that is creative, but the sum of its individual members. There are numerous subsystems and sub-subsystems so that people mostly work in small groups, and creatively contribute. The fact that all the systems must fit and work together, and be affordable, necessarily imposes some limits on the creative directions that people can take.
• How do important decisions get made? How do individuals not in the leadership get their voices heard? answer
  Many of the important decisions involve just one or two of the subsystems. The pros and cons are initially discussed in the subsystem plenary meetings. The term "plenary" here implies that all collaborators working within the specified group (for example the subsystem) can participate in the meeting and make their voices heard. Recommendations are then discussed in the ATLAS Executive Board, and presented in ATLAS plenary meetings which play a primary role in forming a large consensus about issues for which decisions are required. The leadership can only 'lead' the collaboration to decisions which are understandable to all, or at least to a large majority. Practical constraints may influence decisions, like costs, schedule, the availability of teams to take responsibilities for the execution... Procedurally there is a clear sequence of steps to formally make decisions, with a hierarchical structure from sub-system to systems, and ultimately with the vote in the Collaboration Board being the final step for very major decisions.
• How is the leadership structured? answer
  The leadership and administration of ATLAS is well defined as shown in the organization chart below. At the level of systems and subsystems similar forms of organization exist.

  See a chart of the leadership structure of ATLAS.
• How is the leadership selected? answer
  ATLAS elects its leadership. Candidates for a particular leadership position (such as Project Leader for a particular system) are proposed by the groups working on that system. Candidates for Spokesperson, and Collaboration Board (CB) Chair are proposed by the membership of the whole collaboration. The leadership is then elected, and their proposed "management teams" have to be endorsed. The "electing bodies" are the institutions relevant to the particular position, namely the whole collaboration for the CB Chair or Spokesperson, or the institutions participating in a given detector system in the case of a project leader for that system.
• How is such a large and far-flung collaboration managed? answer
  Each detector subsystem has its own management team. At the same time, the ATLAS Executive Board and Spokesperson maintain general oversight of the Project. The Technical Coordination team is responsible for making sure that all the separate subsystems can fit together. In parallel, there are national representatives whose functions are to oversee the distributions of resources from each participating country to all the collaborating groups from that country, and make sure that those resources are well-used.

  The Collaboration Board sets out the policy issues, and is not involved with the execution, which is the domain of the management. However frequent contacts between for example the Spokesperson and the Collaboration Board Chair ensure that policy issues are properly handled, and that fair solutions are found for difficult problems. Finally one should not underestimate the importance of direct contacts between individuals and teams with the collaboration management.

• How do 3000 people communicate among themselves? In such communication, how do you bridge the large distances and time differences? answer
  Electronics communication plays a major role (e-mail, WWW, telephone, video conferencing). However regular direct human contacts are crucial elements in the communication. Meetings therefore play an important role in the life of ATLAS.
• How does one apportion the tasks? answer
  One tries to match the interests and resources of the participating teams to the tasks. This can succeed only if everyone is also willing to share the less interesting but necessary tasks. This in turn works because the physicists are motivated by the prospect of the exciting results to be obtained, and know that these depend on having a complete working detector system. Of course it is not always easy to arrive at an optimal sharing of tasks such that everyone is satisfied, and all tasks are assigned.
• How does one apportion the costs? answer
  There is no absolute mechanism or formula for that. One attempts to negotiate a fair sharing of the costs. Large teams from countries with wealthy economies are expected to carry a larger share of the costs than small teams from countries with still developing economies. Consideration of the possible contributions of teams/countries is a central part of the process of forming the collaboration.
• Where does the money come from? answer
  The large project funds come mostly from the science funding agencies of the various countries participating in ATLAS. There are also contributions from CERN, and some resources from individual university funds.
• How do people join? answer
  Teams interested in ATLAS may contact the spokesperson, and their interest is then brought to the attention of the Collaboration Board (CB). After clarifications on their resources, their potential share of the work, their relationships with other teams already working in ATLAS etc., the CB votes on the admission of the candidate group.
• How do you assure that all the detector pieces fit together? answer
  The Technical Coordinator, supported by the Technical Coordination Team, works with all the subsystem groups to ensure that the separate pieces will fit together without interference, and that the full detector can be assembled in its Interaction Region.
• How was the site chosen? (Why Geneva?) answer
  CERN is the world's largest particle physics centre. Founded in 1954, the laboratory was one of Europe's first joint ventures, and has become a shining example of international collaboration. The CERN site on the edge of Geneva crosses the border between France and Switzerland. CERN was a logical location for the Large Hadron Collider because of the extensive experience and infrastructure, and the opportunity to use an existing tunnel presently housing the LEP collider. At any other location, tunneling costs would have been a significant fraction of the costs of constructing a new particle collider.
• Why have an international collaboration? answer
  International collaboration is the only way to achieve sufficient intellectual and financial resources to realize so large and challenging a project as the LHC and its detectors, and to exploit effectively its scientific output.
• How will data be analyzed among 3000 people? answer
  The ATLAS data will provide experimental input for a large number of separate research topics. ATLAS scientists will pursue these research areas mostly in small groups working at their home institutions. All collaborators will be invited to analyze the data by being part of analysis teams.

  In some respects data analysis by individual ATLAS physicists can be compared to data analysis by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (though ATLAS looks at the micro-cosmos). Both groups of scientists will choose the research areas and data that interest them most.

• How will papers be agreed upon? answer
  Generally the data analysis work will be done in small groups pursuing different research directions. At the point where new results are sufficient to warrant writing a paper, the group involved will likely produce a draft. Both the analysis and its description in the draft will then be subject to comments by all ATLAS collaborators, to careful review, and eventually to discussion within a plenary meeting. Hopefully this process will lead to a consensus, and the agreed-upon paper can be submitted for publication.
• How does any one collaborator get credit for his/her contributions? answer
  This is of course a major question... Internal publications within the Collaboration, usually with one or a few authors, will document the individual contributions. These can be made known to the whole scientific community. Also, leading contributions are often recognized by asking the person in question to present results at conferences. However, the large collaborations still have to learn better how to handle this question in a fair way. Often major results are obtained in a collective way, because people are willing to share the tasks.
• What is the impact of the global spread of the collaboration? How does one contribute from 6000 miles away (from US, Japan, Russia)? answer
  The global spread implies that factors such as transport of components need to be taken into account during the construction, and that communication logistics play a major role. It also implies that scientists from outside Europe have to travel long distances to participate in the discussions and meetings, in the detector assembly and testing, and eventually in the operation of the experiment. They may have to spend extended periods away from their homes and home institutions. However all scientists are after the same goal in ATLAS, namely doing the frontline physics of the LHC, and they are willing to endure the above inconveniences to achieve that goal.