[communities] GGF Proposal Submission

Sat Aug 20 04:25:53 CDT 2005

proposers_name: Pawel Plaszczak, Olaf Bujak, Jakub Dziwisz 

affiliation: GridwiseTech 

email: pawel.plaszczak at gridwisetech.com 

proposed_title: Grid Primer for Managers 

session_type: tutorial/workshop tba 

proposed_duration: 1/2 day 

target_audience: Managers, decision makers 

num_attendees: 15-100, strongly depends on marketing 

abstract: We propose to augment the GGF meetings with a Grid Primer workshop similar to the one we have delivered at the GGF14. This will be a management-level Grid technology tutorial, primarily focused at the newcomers to the field. It will answer the questions: 
- What is Grid computing? Why and how is it useful in business?
- What is Grid technology? Is it usable? What is the state of the market?
- What does a „Grid architecture” and „Grid application” mean?
- Why and how should I migrate to a Grid architecture?
- Why should I grid-enable my software product, and how do I go about it?

synopsis: The tutorial will follow the „learn by example” principle. We will demonstrate several software layers typically seen in Grid architectures. There will be a chance for participatns to interact with Grid in real time through a simplified portal-based demo user interface and experience the benefits the technology can bring. At the tutorial we will also review the solutions existing on the market and discuss examples of institutions who successfully deployed grids.

The discussion on managerial issues, such as ROI and TCO calculations, team management and project planning, can appear as an interweaving thread. However, we suggest not to make this the main subject of the class. Although the class is directed mainly to decision makers, we feel that our primary mission would be to help people understand the concepts and opportunities. We think that showing a coherent message of Grid technology, backed by examples and demos, is the most promising way to go.

 Our experience from past tutorials
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The tutorial will be based on the material from the pilot Grid Primer tutorial that we have delivered at the GGF14 in Chicago. Generally, the tutorial went as planned. It took 4 hours, with a 10 minute break. The first part was a technology overview, the second part was a business side overview. Participants were definitely more interested in the first part. 
There were also three demonstrations, one of them during the first part of the tutorial and the other two after the second one.
We made the tutorial interactive and we managed to engage participants into several discussions, also among themselves. People were very keen on learning each other’s perspective, which was valuable beause of their differing background and because many of them weren’t quite the beginners. However, this wasn’t always easy because the group was fairly diverse, sometimes with differing expectations.
We also encouraged participants to interrupt with their questions or comments. This happened several times and we were able to make short ‘side trips’ towards two or three niche subjects that the audience was interested in.
We had some chocolates, souvenirs and off-topic ‘wake up’ slides for those who could not stand 4 hours of teaching. After the class it could be seen that people were tired, but the anonymous feedback forms were very positive.

People filled in an online questionnaire before registration, and the paper feedback form after the class was done. For extra feedback, we have also later talked in person to several attendees later during the conference.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Within 6 people who filled in the anonymous feedback form, five were positive or extremely positive. We are especially proud of these statements:
- „Especially capable presenters”
- „Excellent course”
- „Worth the time and helped clear relations between technologies”
- „Well thought of & comprehensive”

Only one form was predominantly critical. Most critics we received was constructive. The predominant thought is that people would be eager to skip some theoretical material in favor of learning by example. We are working on improving our material in this direction.

 Our expertise
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GridwiseTech is an independent consultant in Grid computing, offering training, management consulting and assistance with the development and integration of Grid systems. Gridwise was founded in 2003 by former developers of the Globus Project. Pawel Plaszczak is the President of the company. Apart from leading GridwiseTech, he has spent the greater part of the past year working on the book „Grid Computing: Savvy Manager’s Guide”, which will be published by Morgan Kauffman/Elsevier in September 2005. During this time Pawel has conducted numerous interviews and consultations with vendors, early adopters and technology experts. Since the intended audience of this work is identical with that of the proposed workshop, GridwiseTech well suited to plan and prepare the content of such an event.
During the past two years Pawel and GridwiseTech have conducted a number of Grid-related workshops and tutorials, lasting from 2 hours to 3 days. They have usually received extremely positive feedback for our expertise, enthusiastic approach and flexibility with the audience’s needs.
GridwiseTech unique in the field of Grid computing for being vendor-independent. Their mission is to provide unbiased expertise on the subject which is necessary in a workshop like this.

tech_requirements: Demonstrations need reliable network connection allowing us to log in to remote sites using SSH and Web browser. Demonstrations are not extremely bandwidth intensive, at most we should assume all participants trying to download 200 KB image from the Web in the same time. We need reliable wireless, a projector, and a KVM switch between two laptops of two presenters. 

prereq_participants: None, apart from generic knowledge about computer science/information technologies. Tutorial is useful for managers/decision makers, less useful for students/developers. 

advertise_suggestion: At the GGF14, we were grateful for Steve’s emails and Mark’s keynote remark. We also think better planning and earlier scheduling of the marketing action could attract more new people to the Grid Primer, and eventually attract more people to the GGF.
We also suggest cross linking between ours and GGF’s Grid Primer web pages. Our page had more information and also allows people to become comfortable with presenters’ Cvs, company profile, and online material (will publish soon). Such information makes people more comfortable with the class and potentially more willing to sign it.
Synchronization and cooperation with the GridWorld marketing actions can be very useful, as the audience is similar to that of GridPrimer. 