1. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester Introduction to Access Grid Andrew Rowley Collaborative Working Developments Manchester Computing

2. 2 Contents  What is Access Grid?  Access Grid in the UK  Some Developments

3. 3 Origins  Invented in 1998 at the Futures Lab, Argonne National Laboratory  Based on concept of virtual venue  “Designed space”

4. 4 Typical Views of Access Grid

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7. 7 CSAGE

8. 8 Access Grid at Manchester  Existing nodes: –Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning –Smith Building –Kilburn Building (X2) –Jodrell Bank –Stopford Building (X2) –Hope Hospital –Humanities (X2) –George Begg

9. 9 Growth of UK Access Grid Nodes

10. 10 Access Grid Support Centre  Support  Documentation  Services: –Venue servers –Multicast bridges –H.323 bridge –VRVS bridge –Recording –Shared presentations  Quality Assurance  Training

11. 11 Access Grid 3  Easier navigation of virtual venues  Quicker connection times  More resilient networking features  More usable interface

12. 12 InSORS Grid 2  Integrated audio/video tool  Improved video  Desktop sharing  Home broadband capability

13. 13 Media Tool Developments  VIC & RAT – SUMOVER project (UCL) –Simplified user interface –Automatic bug reporting –Padlock security icon –Integration of new video codecs: H.264, H.263 –Full screen video/arbitrary video resizing –Who's speaking functionality –Desktop sharing –Video subtitling/watermarking –Firewall/NAT traversal –Low bandwidth support

14. 14 Visual Cues & Audio Localisation  WIP, but may solve the problem of “who’s speaking?!”  Highlight the vic window  Adjust audio to location of displayed window –Determined by position on screen –Changes when the window moves  http://scv.bu.edu/~putnam/ag-audio/misc/poster.pdf

15. 15 Access Grid on the Beach  Chromakey-like technology  Provides sense of location

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17. 17 Memetic

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19. 19 Joint MA in History of Political Discourse – Hull & UEA

20. 20 DTAGMATHS  A-Level Further Maths tuition by School of Mathematics  Tutors originally drove to schools –Altruistic = schools couldn’t resource this themselves –Selfish = enables University to pinpoint bright students  Save 80 mile round trip  Future course delivery  Widening Participation  Evaluate effective whiteboard sharing

21. 21 Shared Whiteboards

22. 22 Mathematics Access Grid: Instruction and Collaboration (MAGIC)

23. Combining the strengths of UMIST and The Victoria University of Manchester Manchester Computing Providing Research Infrastructure & Support http://www.mc.manchester.ac.uk/services/accessgrid support@agsc.ja.net Research Support Services Manchester Computing