Second Grid Forum Conference
User Services Work Group

October 19 to October 21, 1999
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois


October 19 and October 20, Break Out Sessions
Co-Chairs: John Towns and Rita Williamsfile:///E:/Globus/minutes/ggf3_minutes.html

SUMMARY MINUTES
Issues to Address

Prior to this conference the question as to whether a User
Services WG within a grid context was a premature undertaking
was raised. Clearly, before moving forward to comply with the
objectives set forth by the forum for the WGs this issue had
to be resolved.

During the course of the discussion, the group collectively
agreed that:
* There was a definite need for user advocacy in a grid
  environment, and
* To be most effective user services should evolve in tandem
  with the other WGs in the forum; therefore,
* Now is the time to devote resources to determining the needs
  of a grid user community and moving forward with fulfilling
  those needs.

While there was a proposal to establish an interest group for
this topic within the forum thereby eliminating the need to
attend large, face-to-face meetings, the participants choose
to retain the User Services WG.


Preliminary Charter

As defined by the WG Chairs in a conference call in September,
the charters for the WGs will more closely resemble a mission
statement. Goals, objectives and milestones for the WGs will be
outlined in a separate document.

The following is a preliminary charter proposed by those in
attendance at the conference.

Foster a common understanding of user and support staff requirements
in a grid environment, act as a venue for sharing resources and
facilitate communication for grid activities between users and
support staff and developers.

Further refinement of the mission statement has been left to
be done through e-mail.


Proposed First Year Goals

Quite a "laundry list" of tasks were collected:

* Identify services required by users to effectively use grid
  infrastructure and environments
* Identify tools required by staff to support the use of grid
  infrastructure, services and environments
* Define requirements and schemas for sharing user support
  resources utilizing information infrastructure
* Identify and make available through a clearing house mechanism:
   - Important information,
   - Documentation,
   - Training resources,
   - Tools, and
   - Other resources for users and support staff utilizing
     technology like the Repository in a Box
* Whenever possible, sources of these resources should link back
  to user support pages
* Evangelize developing documentation/training content by developers
* Identify user services milestones and needs for supporting user
  within the life cycle of grid technology at each stage of development
* Consciousness raising on user and support levels

Due to time constraints this list was not refined or prioritized.
Therefore, choosing the tasks that can be accomplished within a
year, assigning individuals to the tasks and setting milestones
was left to be done either through e-mail and/or subsequent
meetings.


Goals for February Grid Forum

* Have a finalized charter in place
* Define first year tasks
  - Establish priorities
  - Set requirements
  - Identify task teams
  - Have some preliminary work completed


Participants

Glenn Bresnahan, Boston University
Jim Ferguson, NLANR/NCSA
Al Gilman, U. of Wisconsin, Trace R&D Center
Sridhar Gullapalli, Globus
Reagan Moore, NPACI/SDSC
George Myers, NASA ARC/Sterling
Satoshi Sekiguchi, Electrotechnical Lab/MITI
Tracey Smith, ASC MSRC/NRC
Jenny To, ARL MSRC/HPTi
Steve Quinn, NCSA
Leigh Ann Tanner, NASA ARC/MRJ
Jenny To, ARL MSRC/HPTi
John Towns, NCSA
Judith Utley, NASA ARC/MRJ-ERDC MSRC
Rita Williams, NASA ARC/MRJ

Please send edits or updates for this working group to virginia@ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Posted November 19, 1999