[wg-all] GGF Community Announcement

[Steve Crumb]

Members of GGF and EGA:

We are pleased to announce that on February 6 the EGA and the GGF signed a
non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to merge, bringing together two leading
grid organizations with a shared mission and common values.  

This LOI has been approved by both the GGF's Grid Forum Steering Group
(GFSG) and the EGA Board of Directors.  It was the result of hundreds of
hours spent developing and agreeing upon an overall merger framework based
upon a set of guiding principles for success.  We expect the benefits to our
members and the grid community to include:

. The ability to move quickly to create standards and architectures that
will accelerate grid adoption
. A clearer voice for communicating our views, direction, progress and
results 
. More effective collaboration with other grid organizations, industry and
government bodies, vendors and research organizations

For now, a joint team will begin merger transition planning, with the
expected result of a new, merged organization in summer 2006. 

Finally, we want to stress that until the merger is concluded, each
organization will continue to operate independently.  This will preserve the
continuity of work including all technical, marketing and membership
activities. 

Please watch for additional news from your respective organizations in the
coming weeks.  A FAQ with additional details about this announcement is
available at http://www.ggf.org/News/ggf_newscal_egaFAQ.php.  


Don Deutsch, President					Mark Linesch, Chair
Enterprise Grid Alliance				Global Grid Forum