Www.gridforum.org 18 th WGISS Meeting, Beijing, Sept. 6-10, 2004 Application-Domain Research Groups at GGF: An Earth Observation RG? Craig Lee, The Aerospace

18th WGISS Meeting, Beijing, Sept. 6-10, 2004www.gridforum.org

Application-Domain Research Groups at GGF:

An Earth Observation RG?

Craig Lee, The Aerospace Corporation, [email protected]

Presented by Yonsook Enloe, SGT Inc., [email protected]


What is GGF?

• Global Grid Forum, www.ggf.org A standards body modeled after the IETF

• Goals Promote Grid Computing best practices and community Produce Grid Computing Standards for industry

• ~750-1000 participants per meeting Roughly even attendance among industry, labs, academia Representation from North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific

• First meeting as “Grid Forum” June, 1999, NASA Ames; about 70 people

• First meeting as “Global Grid Forum” March, 2001, Amsterdam Science and Technology Center Merged North American, European, and Asia-Pacific efforts Over 500 people

• GGF-12, Brussels, Belgium, September 19-22, 2004


GGF Structure

• GGF Chair Outgoing Chair: Charlie Catlett, ANL, Director of NSF TeraGrid Incoming Chair: Mark Linesch, HP VP, Adaptive Enterprise Program

• GGF Secretariat “Front Office” managing the business of GGF

• GFSG -- Grid Forum Steering Group Manages the technical work of GGF Composed of GGF Chair, Area Co-Directors and At-Large Members

• GGF currently composed of seven areas Architecture Security Data Peer-to-Peer

• Each area has two Area Co-Directors• Areas composed of Working Groups and Research Groups

Apps, Prgming Models and Environments (APME) Information Services and Performance Scheduling and Resource Management


GGF Structure

• Working Groups Narrowly focused on one specific technical topic Typical goal is to produce a standards document Hard schedule and finite lifespan When work is done (document produced), group is closed

• Research Groups More broadly focused on a technical area or application domain Identify key technical issues

Identify real-world requirements for grid computing and standards Possibly spin-off a WG when issues/reqmts are clearly defined

Promote grid computing within the application domain Identify best practices for grid computing community

Promote technical interchange among WGs and other RGs Can recharter every two years and continue


The Value Proposition for App-Domain RGs:(What's in it for an org like WGISS?)

• Application-Domain RGs as "Watercooler Groups” Different application groups can share “war stories”;

successes, failures, experiences of all kinds• Technical peering point

Can facilitate expansion of grid resources and user community• Ability to effectively lobby software providers

Collectively with peers can lobby sfw developers, e.g., Globus Toolkit Can expose issues, dissatisfactions, explore alternatives within open

community• Ability to influence standards

Can comment on standards to assure sfw being built meets my needs (Public can comment on standards but RGs are much closer to the

process – can talk to the key people as it’s happening)• Thanks to Dane Skow (Fermi Lab), Security Area Co-Director,

for these bullets!


Examples of Other App-Domain Groups

• PNPA-RG (Particle and Nuclear Physics Applications) Open Science Grid (OSG) across many institutions Jointly operated by iVDGL, GriPhyN, PPDG, and other physics projects

• Astro-RG (Astronomy) International Virtual Observatory Project (IVO) Very large, well-organized international project deploying a data grid for

astronomical data collected around the world• LSG-RG (Life Sciences Grid)

Clearing house for the application of grids to genomics, bio-informatics, mammography, bio-diversity catalog, etc.

• HASS-RG (Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences) proposed Exploratory group to find new applications of grids in linguistics,

film/video/audio production, semantics, etc.• Apps-RG (Applications)

Umbrella applications group that’s been in existence since GF-1


RG Formation Process

• Request Group Formation BoF (Birds of a Feather Meeting) Establish level of interest in the community

Identify who's really motivated to contribute to the RG Determine specific goals for the RG

Milestones, Schedule (typically 2 years) Start connecting with other app research groups and working groups

relevant to specific needs, e.g., for Earth Observation Strictly speaking, a BoF is not required but the vast majority of groups start

with a BoF to accomplish the above• Draft Group Formation Charter

Identify Officers (Co-Chairs, Secretary) Goals/Milestones, e.g., for an RG:

Sponsor 1-3 workshops/year, perhaps in collaboration w/ other RGs/WGs Produce Informational, Community Practice, or Experimental documents that

become part of GGF Document Series, e.g., requirements survey documents, workshop report documents, etc.

Possibly spin-off WGs


RG Formation Process (cont.)

• Draft Group Formation Charter (cont.) Answer the "Seven Questions“

Is the scope focused? Are the topics clear? Will the group’s work not be done elsewhere? Does the group overlap too much with other groups? Is there sufficient interest & expertise in the group? Does a base of consumers/customers exist for the group’s work? Does the GGF have a role to play in determining this technology?

• Submit Charter to GFSG via the intended Area Co-Director• Officially created groups have:

GridForge Project on forge.gridforum.org Repository for documents, in-progress and completed Track action items for group projects Forums for online discussions Provide links to other relevant sites

Archived mailing list


GGF Meeting Logistics

• Three meetings per year Groups do not have to meet every time

• A GGF Meeting consists of: Plenaries, Invited Keynotes Town Hall Meeting – open mic discussion with GFSG RG and WG sessions (lots of ‘em!)

Groups can schedule multiple sessions depending on work to be done Workshops

Real “working” workshops for work-in-progress with no printed proceedings More formal workshops with peer-reviewed submissions and proceedings Sponsored by individual group for a specific purpose (e.g., physics) or by

several groups for cross-cutting issues (e.g., production grid deployment) GROC (Grid Research Oversight Committee) reviews workshop proposals

Tutorials Ad-hoc meetings

Left-over room slots available for any legit, grid-related purpose


Further Contact:

•Craig LeeThe Aerospace Corporation, [email protected]

•Satoshi MatsuokaTokyo Institute of Technology, [email protected]

(APME Co-Chairs)

Documents

Www.gridforum.org 18 th WGISS Meeting, Beijing, Sept. 6-10, 2004 Application-Domain Research Groups at GGF: An Earth Observation RG? Craig Lee, The Aerospace