I see the agenda for GGF17 in Tokyo has been established (http://www.ggf.org/gf/event_schedule/index.php?id=298). Is this confirmed and will all people listed be attending and presenting? I must admit that I have no idea what will be presented above since I have not seen any visible activity in this group/email list, and most of the agenda look similar to previous GGFs (has the Best Practices in Life Science Grids changed since last time or the time before that etc?).
 
Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the next GGF, but I am keen to see the work of this group progress. I previously suggested future activities in two areas described below. Are people happy with this idea? Can we start identifying people/resources/projects that can be used to explore the bioinformatics and HealthGrid problem spaces, and how we want to align ourselves with the GGF Grid Interoperability Now activity for example?
 
My NeSC colleague (Anthony Stell) will be available to give a presentation and demonstration on security focused Grid based clinical trials and epidemiological studies. Can this be put in the agenda? Are there other projects out there that are in this area that want to present?
 
It might not be my remit to put such questions as I'm not formally the LSG-RG anything, but the group needs to be more proactive if it is to be worthwhile.
 
Rich
From: owner-lsg-rg@ggf.org [mailto:owner-lsg-rg@ggf.org] On Behalf Of Richard Sinnott
Sent: 16 February 2006 20:57
To: lsg-rg@ggf.org
Subject: [lsg-rg] new impetus...?[MESSAGE NOT SCANNED]

Hi Folks,
it seems clear that there needs to be some more impetus to this group at GGF.

Here are a couple of ideas which we might take forward/discuss. I'd welcome agreements/disagreements - silence is normally golden but not on email lists!!!

Split into a healthGrid group and a life science group (here I'm thinking of a bioinformatics Grid)

1. Let us develop a real HealthGrid with folk who are interested in this area (I am one and we have already built various prototype systems accessing and using "representative" patient data sets using existing solutions across the NHS here in Scotland).

2. Let us develop a real life science Grid. We are interested in this and have bioinformatics data Grids and compute Grids already in place.

Is this of interest? I think it will help to make this group have a goal. We might want to agree on the scope of these, e.g. whether we just want to look at exploring basic secure services for access to and usage of healthcare data sets, incorporating anonymisation and de-anonymisation scenarios, data linkage perhaps from patient records to imaging data etc.

We are already working with advanced authorisation infrastructures using results from GGF standards groups such as AuthZ and ShibGrid. This group (in my humble opinion should be doing these kinds of things) if it is to be "GGF". If it isn't using GGF standards and technologies then one coule argue that it should be handled separately, e.g. through other conferences and workshops.

What do folk think?

Rich

PS I am happy to provide more information on what we are up to at the National e-Science Centre, and am willing to lead/be involved in both of these Grid development activities if there is interest from folk that it should happen. Let's do stuff!