All - The following is a call for a new Software Provider initiative from Geoffrey Fox, VP of eScience: A highlight of OGF19 and OGF20 will be an eScience Software Providers track whose rationale is eloquently described by Charlie Catlett -- who originally suggested it - below. We expect about 3 days at OGF19 and 2 days at the rather busier OGF20 for this track. The track will feature the developers of core software that has broad use or interest among Grid systems. The audience will typically be those that are building Grids e.g. Charlie can send his staff to capture in one place a set of user forums on the software used to build TeraGrid. We expect the track to be interesting to both Enterprise and Standards as well; the software in this track should be major consumers of OGF standards. We have invited so far 11 such Grid software developers to OGF19 as listed below and we ask for your suggestions on the omissions we have surely made; what core software is broadly used and should be invited? In particular should we have commercial vendors as well? Please send any suggestions to Geoffrey Fox <gcf@indiana.edu> Thank you Condor Scheduling system Genesis II OGSA Grid Infrastructure (Grimshaw) Globus core Grid Infrastructure Grid-Shib Grid security GridSphere portlet container for portals Ninf-G core Grid RPC Infrastructure NWS and BQP Network/Queuing Tools (Rich Wolski) OGCE Open Grid Computing Environments collection of portlets (for Science Gateways) OMII core Grid infrastructure (includes OGSA-DAI and Taverna) SRB data Grid infrastructure Unicore core Grid infrastructure Each software system will be allocated one or occasionally two 90 minute sessions. Excerpts from Charlie Catlett's description of the new Software Providers Track ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Friends- I am sure I've left someone out (sorry), but wanted to send a note to those of us who are trying to build grids out of our own and other peoples' tools, which often means we are selecting and integrating software, supporting it, in some cases packaging it in things like VDT, gLite, OMII products or CTSS. As we have worked together on the GIN project this year I think one lesson is that having software providers work with us as a collective group of consumers would be useful to us as well as to them. A number of us in OGF (formerly GGF) have grown concerned about the fact that there is not a convenient way for our software providers and ourselves (their customers) to interact regularly and substantively. As importantly, OGF meetings do not seem to inspire the kind of Grid-to-Grid collaborations (solving common problems, as we are all doing) that we originally envisioned 8 years ago (yes, 8!) when we first proposed such a forum to the community. Yes, the Globus folks have their Globus World and the Condor folks have their Condor Week, but there are many other packages we use that have no such events, and if they did would we send people to a dozen of them a year? (I think not) I wanted to give you a heads up that Geoffrey Fox and several others of us from the OGF steering group are going to try to experiment with a "software provider forum" at OGF-19 in North Carolina at the end of January. This is meant for groups like us who use perhaps a dozen packages from as many providers - we want to bring them together for mini "customer groups" (I say customer, meaning us, rather than user, which we generally think of as the end-user who is our customer). What does "provider of software" mean? I'm glad you asked. The sessions are meant for people who already have software packages used by projects like ours. Having a session does not in any way imply an endorsement by OGF (or anyone else). Some providers may choose to ask for sessions to try to sell wares, but that is a risky move on their part, as people not in a shopping mood may walk out, but then again maybe people want to hear what XYZ's software might do for them. The sessions are *not* meant for us, even though some of us are in a sense "suppliers" of things I listed in the opening paragraph. If we want to have that kind of session with our users we should think about how to do that, but if we try to do it at the same time as our providers then we'll miss out on interacting with them (and with our fellow consumers of their software). Feel free to pass this note on as a heads up to anyone who is in our shoes - trying to build grids out of collections of software packages. Also, I plan to encourage TeraGrid sites system administrators and software leaders to participate in these sessions at OGF-19 and I hope you will do the same. Not because I care how many people show up in North Carolina for a head count (I don't care about that, actually), but because I want my software people to interact with their counterparts in your projects. If this is successful at OGF-19 we will encourage OGF to keep doing it. But for now call it an experiment. Best Regards- CeC --: : Geoffrey Fox gcf@indiana.edu FAX 8128567972 http://www.infomall.org : Phones Cell 812-219-4643 Home 8123239196 Lab 8128567977 : SkypeIn 812-669-0772 with voicemail, International cell 8123910207