Fwd: Re: [pgs-rg] GGF16 (Athens) Activities?

[Laura F McGinnis]

Judith -

I'm forwarding your followup to the mailing list, so others can comment.

LM

>Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 14:54:40 -0500
>From: Judith Utley <jputley at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: [pgs-rg] GGF16 (Athens) Activities?
>To: Laura F McGinnis <lfm at psc.edu>, david.wallom at ierc.ox.ac.uk
>Cc: jputley at mac.com
>Reply-to: jputley at earthlink.net
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>Laura F McGinnis wrote:
>
>>Real life is interfering with extracurriculars for me right now, so I 
>>apologize for not getting GGF15 materials poster in a more timely manner. 
>>But...GGF16 planning is already starting, so we need to talk about what 
>>we want to do in Athens.
>>
>>At the business  meeting at GGF15, we discussed the possibility of having 
>>a Grid Accounting/Usage Tracking workshop for the Community program. Time 
>>constraints have not been supportive of preparing this, so we will have 
>>to table this activity for a later GGF.
>>
>>The one activity we definitely want to followup on is the idea of 
>>spinning off a Campus Grids RG. I propose we request a BOF at GGF16, with 
>>the goal of gauging interest in the European projects for such an 
>>organization. We already know from the GGF15 workshop that there is 
>>significant interest in the US. To this end, we need a draft charter to 
>>submit when we request the session.
>
>Just an FYI: All the folks I talked with at GGF15 who were interested in 
>this were looking more at a regional alternative
>such as Geoffrey Fox brought up at GGF14. Now that I am in this area, I am 
>finding that it is very hard at most public
>universities to get funding for international travel UNLESS the person is 
>presenting a technical paper at a technical
>conference and then only one a year at most. I have been told that in VA 
>such requests must be approved at a very high
>level. There is also the budget concerns for overseas travel. Most state 
>universities just do not have that level of funding
>unless they have it though a grant. So this is likely to be only 
>professors and then only if they give  a talk. I know that Ed Seidel
>travels from a state of LA institution, but he also associated with a 
>German institution as is one on his staff. It might be
>that LA has an entirely different policy than VA. An example, NC would not 
>allow folks to travel even to Atlanta (which
>should have been a very reasonable drive!) due to Hurricane Katrina. Why 
>this was the case they could not figure out, nor
>can I. NC was not involved in Katrina at all. LA sent people. Go figure. 
>Anyway to summarize, not much any of us can
>do about state policies. What I was thinking was to start something 
>completely in the USA that would team up with PGS
>when GGF is in the states, and try to meet some other times during the 
>year at a host university or around a widely attended
>conference/workshop outside of GGF. This was well received. This is also 
>not to say that Europe and
>Asia could not do the same and coordinate any joint activity through PGS. 
>It seems to me that the folks from Asian and
>European are able to travel more freely. Not to say that if such a 
>'regional' research group in those countries would not
>have many more attendees at the 'off' GGF meetings. What I was talking to 
>folks about was NOT taking away from
>PGS, but enhancing with the 'regional' meetings. If GGF would not be 
>supportive of this, then the 'off' GGF meeting
>could be called something different and we just all show up at the in USA 
>GGF meetings and attend PGS.  :^) As I said,
>I heard Geoffrey bring this up in relationship with K-12 at GGF14 and it 
>just made sense to me that this would be a very
>good fit for USA higher education as well. So I asked around at GGF15 and 
>found many who thought this was a great
>idea, but they will not likely be in Athens for all the above noted 
>reasons. If you heard about this and thought I was
>undercutting PGS it was certainly not my intentions. I think it would more 
>likely improve PGS attendance, especially if
>there were 3 or more 'regional' groups to gather ideas and feed into 
>PGS.  We could divide up, you keep PGS since
>the website is at your site and Teragrid is not really a campus grid. 
>David handle Europe and me USA (if I am still
>at a university by GGF18), find someone for Asia. Have the BOF at Athens 
>for the European 'branch', another BOF in
>Japan for the Asian 'branch' and a BOF at GGF18 for the USA. My thoughts 
>anyway.
>
>...
>-- Judith
>
>>
>>We should also request an RG working session for a business meeting. This 
>>will primarily focus on the activities the group needs to follow up on, 
>>and make commitments for future GGF conferences, including planning 
>>future workshops.
>>
>>If there's anything else you would like to see the group address in 
>>Athens, please post to the list.
>>
>>thx
>>LM
>>
>>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>Laura F. McGinnis, Project Coordinator
>>Data & Information Resource Services
>>Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center                      email: lfm at psc.edu
>>4400 Fifth Avenue, # 409D                                  voice: 
>>412-268-5642
>>Pittsburgh, PA  15213                                           fax: 
>>412-268-8200
>>++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>
>>
>
>
>--
>
>Judith Utley
>jputley at earthlink.net
>757.868.8345
>

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Laura F. McGinnis, Project Coordinator
Data & Information Resource Services
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center                      email: lfm at psc.edu
4400 Fifth Avenue, # 409D                                  voice: 412-268-5642
Pittsburgh, PA  15213                                           fax: 
412-268-8200
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...