[sem-grd] GGF13 reflections

[David De Roure]

I was reflecting on GGF13 with others (some "usual suspects", some 
new to GGF) over coffee towards the end of the event and thought 
it might be useful to relay some of these reflections to the list, 
especially to capture the event for those of you who have attended 
GGFs before but couldn't come to this one.

Firstly it has to be said that our Korean hosts did a superb job.  
The venue, food and warm hospitality were all excellent (as was the
entertainment - the dancing was breathtaking).  I attended some of 
the sessions which featured Korean grid activities and it is indeed 
an impressive piece. This was my first trip to Korea and I look 
forward to an opportunity to visit again.

For me it was a particularly productive meeting in terms of talking 
with leaders of other groups and discussing interaction with Semantic
Grid.  I have a strong sense that we are getting increasing attention 
from other groups - perhaps our time is now coming! :)  In particular, 
as OGSA becomes more developed, people are beginning to recognise 
issues of service naming and description.  I am also now convinced 
that we must take some part of CIM and map this into our Semantic 
Grid world (volunteers please! :) and I'm already making steps to 
talk to DMTF about this.

Another interesting feature was that the phrase "the WSRF profile 
for OGSA" is beginning to be adopted, reminding people that there 
could be other infrastructures for OGSA. There is no diminishing of 
the WSRF effort, but an explicit recognition of the value of other
approaches being explored in GGF.  (This means some graphics on our 
powerpoint slides are out of date - we need to show things under OGSA 
other than WSRF! :)  It remains to be seen whether the community will
create a group to pursue, for example, a WSI+ based OGSA.  (Given the 
legacy of web services in some of our projects, and the need to 
interoperate with a broad range of systems and services, I certainly 
see the value in establishing some means of interoperating between 
WSI-based services and WSRF solutions.)

The community had previously mandated the steering committee to come 
to this event with proposals for taking GGF forward (I outlined these 
in my earlier mail), and these generated some discussion at the "town 
hall meeting" on Tuesday.  Based on the (non-representative) sample 
of people that I spoke with, the proposed objectives in standards and
community were generally well received.  Any change will have dissenters
(the status quo has dissenters too :) and it seemed that issues raised
were focused on the process of change rather than the changes themselves.
The substantive structural change (the membership of the board of
directors) will presumably demand further discussion.

At this event people seemed to get more of a sense of the overall GGF
activity (and indeed Grid activity) rather than just their own areas - 
for example there seem to have been many new documents coming out, and
good targets for future output (though I can't actually tell whether 
this is any different to normal!)  There's a new GGF Web Site due for
launch next month which will hopefully also help people get a clear 
idea of what's going on in GGF.

Incidentally, there were many sessions (an ad hoc collection?) which
featured ubiquitous computing in various forms, from appliance 
aggregation to sensor networks to smart homes.  There is definitely a
growing interest in the relationship between ubiqutious computing and 
the grid, and although some of this emphasis at GGF13 may have been a
result of the Korean context, I think we can expect to see more of this
coming through in GGF in the fullness of time.

This was my first GGF as a steering group member and I'm getting the 
hang of my role - sitting in on BoFs, reporting, offering advice on GGF
etc. Before the event we had put a lot of work in around getting the
mission and objectives figured out to take to the community.  My area,
with my colleague Cees de Laat, is P2P, in which we have one group
completed, one drawing to a close, one proposed (and it's also where 
the GGF Process group sits, which is actually about GGF process rather
than grid processes!)

So to GGF14 in Chicago in June, and then GGF15 again in North America 
(the provisional plans for GGF15 in Boston seem set to change - there 
was a suggestion it would also move to the following week).  Some of the
future event locations are also set, in various countries.  We need to
plan another Semantic Grid session, to deal with charter revision and 
get on with our work, at GGF14 or GGF15.

Negatives?  Apalling jet lag experienced one way or another (literally) 
by european and american attendees in particular.  Good wireless but two
different kinds of power socket (caught me out).  And I should have taken
my suit!

-- Dave