[CCGT] Science Gateways workshop background

[Satoshi Matsuoka]

Charlie, Dennis,

I agree on its viability, but still Malcolm's concern that it be a
TeraGrid-only centric event will have to be considered. Here is a (form) letter,
and with proper fulfillment of the workshop template and widespread
solicitation to key portal groups in EU as well as AP, hopefully the
concern will be addressed.

(form letter is attached below)
							Satoshi

----

On Fri, 8 Apr 2005 15:52:37 -0500
Charlie Catlett <catlett at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:

catlett> Friends-
catlett> Since the proposal I sent regarding this workshop mentioned a group 
catlett> in TeraGrid that was aiming to have a document drafted in March I 
catlett> wanted to send it to you.  It's very preliminary, but it shows that 
catlett> the group is serious and already getting work done.   I expect an 
catlett> iteration on this document within a few weeks since it was discussed 
catlett> in great detail during several sessions of the TeraGrid all-hands 
catlett> meeting earlier this week.  I think this workshop will be very 
catlett> important to the community.  My hope is that it will bring in some of 
catlett> the less-involved sectors of the community including people who are:
catlett> 
catlett> - building portals for scientific communities
catlett> - implementing web services on resources in operational grids
catlett> - developing operational policies and mechanisms for varying degrees 
catlett> of authorization (from full access shell accounts to restricted 
catlett> service invocations) based on varying degrees of authentication (from 
catlett> highly trusted authentication to anonymous access)
catlett> - trying to make multiple grids work together, etc.
catlett> 
catlett> CeC

-----

Charlie, Dennis,

Thanks for yoru workshop proposal for the workshop proposal 
"Science Gateways Portals Workshop". 

I am sending this email as the current GROC co-chair and also on behalf
of the newly proposed community council.

As a part of transitional activity of GGF governance to strengthen the
community activities, the GFSG and the proposed community council
therein will be taking active responsibility in workshop oversight. In
the light of this we have decided to provide active dialogs to the
workshop organizers to help strengthen the organizational process as
well as its exterior outreach.

Please re-distribute this email to other organizers as well as anybody
else involved in your workshop organization. 

Since time is short till GGF14, I am accelerating the process by sending
you comment(s) already made. As you see, although you have solid
backings, and the workshop is accepted in principle, nevertheless as you
see the comments below indicate that there is room for improvement in
the proposal. I hope you could make the initial revisions by reflect the
comments as you see fit, and send to the (proposed) community council
the revised version in about a week's time (around April 15th). In the
meantime as additional comments come along, which will be forwarded to
you if deemed helpful in the improvement, and if you make improvements
as well, please let us know where you would like to do so.

Also please note that the primary intention for this is that we will
want to allow some of the workshop to be a
academically viable and recognizable activity from not only within the
Grid community but from other CS communities. Thus, we would like
to push on external communication of the workshop, both in terms of
the content as well as the viability of its organizational manners. It
is NOT intended to increase bureacratic stronghold of GFSG and the
community council therein over the research groups.

To quote one community council member: "I am passionate about the high
value of good workshops: they stimulate, they inform, they build
communities, they cross-fertilise and they recognise the need for new
lines of work.  Without workshops I think GGF would drift towards narrow
technical nit-picking standards. The value of workshops is much
diminished if the only effects are on those at the workshop.  Hence the
demand for publication and publicity."

I hope the new (proposed) community council can fruitfully work with the
workshop organizers to fulfill such desires, to have you host a high-quality
and a productive workshop. Looking forward to the
revised proposal as well as the workshop itself. Thanks.

					Best Regards,
					Satoshi Matsuoka


Comment 1:
===
The Science Portals workshop looks a good topic, and we can trust Dennis
and Charlie will run an excellent workshop.  However, we need to take
care that it doesn't become TeraGrid centred or US centred.  We should
see others, from Asian grids and European grids engaged in planning /
presenting IMHO.  I can find some, but the recent week on portals at eSI
led by Jason Navotny has a good list of names
(http://www.nesc.ac.uk/action/esi/contribution.cfm?Title=549),
particularly UK ones.

I would also suggest Roberto Barbera from Catania, bringing experience
on EGEE's use of the GENIUS portal Roberto Barbera
<roberto.barbera at ct.infn.it> https://genius.ct.infn.it/.  We have used
it extensively for traiining and (with GILDA) for new user community
induction.

What is the planned model of communication?  What should it not clash
with? ...

I vote for accept, but push on broadening, getting questions answered
and publication plan.
===

Comment 2 (general):
===
I think we might encourage more substantial publication such as journal
special issues so as to give greater credit to (academic) participants
However in general I think we should let each workshop make its choice as
"external outreach, publication and publicity" which should exist in
some fashion

===

Comment 3: (Satoshi)
===
There are several groups in AP working on "Science Gateway" Portals,
including those in Japan and Korea, and those should be contacted.
For example, AIST-GTRC has a PSE Builder effort, and NAREGI's WP3/6 are
working on high-level portals interface. Korea's K* Grid has several
efforts in those regard.

Perhaps the best method is to do a call-out throught pragma, with help
from Peter Artzburger @ San Diego. By all means it is important to make
the intentions clear so that not all the Grid portals on earth will try
to participate and ask for a time slot.

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