ACM Tech Packs Doug Terry SIGOPS Chair and Editor of Cloud Computing Tech Pack

What’s a Tech Pack? A “blended learning package” on a particular topic especially for practitioners and managers – Initiated by the PD committee A collection of articles from ACM DL, ACM online books [Safari, Books24x7] and courses [Element K], videos, interviews, podcasts, lectures, blogs, discussion groups, pointers to resources, e.g., MIT [open] courseware, etc. – ACM and non-ACM materials

What’s a Tech Pack? With annotations and expert narratives to put work into perspective. Resources selected for a Tech Pack must be reviewed by a group of Practitioners. – Practitioners may be part of the Tech Pack Committee; Professions Board will help with Practitioner Review. Some Tech Pack Committees may include SIG leaders, while others may consist of non-SIG, and/or ACM Fellows, etc.

What Topics? Cloud Computing (Doug Terry) Parallel Programming (Wilf Pinfold) Mobile Systems (Roy Want) Globalization (Frances Tsang) Security Business Intelligence and Data Mining Collaboration Domain Knowledge Storage Systems Green Computing Scientific Computing Open Source

Example: Cloud Computing Outline: Basic paradigm Storage Data consistency and replication Programming models Virtualization Monitoring and provisioning Communications Privacy Trust Service level agreements Power management Mobility

Example: Cloud Computing Trust Cloud computing is viewed as risky for various different reasons, including fears of data leakage, outages, lack of long-term business viability of service providers, and an inability to get data out of the cloud once placed there. What explicit steps can cloud providers take to persuade people that these risks are, in fact, minimal (or make them so), and help them assess them rationally by comparison with their alternatives? Readings:

Visibility for ACM & SIGs Hopefully, Tech Packs will encourage new ACM and SIG membership, especially from Practitioners. Tech Packs bring visibility to the SIG’s offerings – DL articles, conferences, videos, etc. Online Books & Courses website is being re- designed to feature Tech Packs, SIGs will benefit.

Open Issues How best to present this material – Web page, structured lessons, DL annotations – Different levels: expert, novice, etc. How often to update the material How to evaluate if it is meeting the needs of the target audience, i.e. practitioners

For Further Info… Contact: David Schneider, Education Manager Lillian Israel, Director, Office of Membership