1. 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 Corporation, lee@aero.orglee@aero.org Presented by Yonsook Enloe, SGT Inc., yonsook@harp.gsfc.nasa.govyonsook@harp.gsfc.nasa.gov

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

10. www.gridforum.org 18 th WGISS Meeting, Beijing, Sept. 6-10, 2004 Further Contact: Craig Lee The Aerospace Corporation, lee@aero.orglee@aero.org Satoshi Matsuoka Tokyo Institute of Technology, matsu@is.titech.ac.jpmatsu@is.titech.ac.jp (APME Co-Chairs)