STI Reviews (9/02) Proposal: "Access Grid Technology Development" PI's: Rowe/Blasney PANEL SUMMARY (Competitive, but not funded) ------------------- The objective of this proposal was to develop tools to enhance the usability of the Access Grid nodes. The team would develop tools for control of the AG hardware, camera control, and security. The panel felt that the team was very experienced with a good history of success, clearly these are the right people to do the work. The collaboration across UCB and NCSA is excellent. This proposal addresses many usability issues in the Acess Grid system such as security problems, better tools for setting up the system, and interaction. The automatic rule-based system development is the strongest research aspect of the proposal. Several panelists noted that the existing AG system is very difficult to use in practice, so this work is very important to make the AG usable. The unique capabilities added by this work and the relation to commercial products that provide similar functionality is not clearly stated. The other concerns were budgetary. The budget was very large for an infrastructure project with a limited research component. Is the payoff worth the cost? The panel suggested that the proposal could be improved by adding in an expert in human factors who could add in more of a research element to this work. The panel judged this proposal to be competitive. --------------------------------------------------------------- REVIEW 1 (VERY GOOD) ------------ What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? Collaboration among scientists via technology has become very important across multiple disciplines. This proposal builds on current and past work to solve several problems with collaborative tools that will provide a next generation collaborative infrastructure. This work adds important aspects like authentication and privacy to current tools, but also shows consideration of broader social aspects of collaboration. What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? Supporting collaboration across distances and disciplines will enable broader participation on large scale problems. Grand challenge research problems today require collaboration and interaction between larger numbers of researchers across multiple scientific disciplines. This proposed research extends current successful collaborative tools to improve both their functionality, usefulness, and security. Summary Statement This proposal is well written, showing the basis for the research, the benefits to science. The research is proposed as a collaboration bringing both the streaming media and security aspects to the work. The proposed research builds on several past NSF sponsored projects and combines disciplines to further the science. The background included shows a great understanding of the problem at hand and helps to build confidence that the proposed work will be successful. Though the dollars requested are fairly substantial, I feel successful results would prove valuable. ------------------------- REVIEW 2 (GOOD) ------------ What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? The Access Grid is a standard for distributed collaboration that is emerging from the Grid community. It offers a sophisticated conferencing environment in a hi-tech room that has been outfitted with a big screen, multiple cameras, and multiple microphones. The proposal is for simplified, prebuilt display layouts, a heuristic rules system for automated display configuration, integration of new tools, and a credential management system. The display simplification is very necessary for a system as complex as Access Grid. However, the new tools will add, rather than subtract, from the complexity. The authentication system will be necessary for collaboration systems of the future, but in the next 3 years it will have the bad effect of making a complex system much more complex. What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? The Access Grid is a wonderful thing when it works, but in the experience of this reviewer, what is needed is simplicity through human-factors analysis, leading to increased use in a wider community. This proposal has some ideas in this direction, but other ideas that increase complexity. I don't see that the integration of these new technologies will reduce the need for an operator. Summary Statement The budget is very high (nearly 2 million). This would be much more acceptable as an infrastructure proposal if the overarching objective were simplicity of use for Access Grid, and/or making Access Grid available to a wider community. The addition of new tools and authentication makes this complex system even more complex. ------------------------- REVIEW 3 (GOOD) ------------ What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? The goal of this proposal is to enhance the access grid collaboration system by improving its video display capabilities, the control of the nodes via a standard interface, scripting for the nodes for automatic session control, and improving the control capability of the network layer. The PI's have experience working with the AG system, however neither PI has any substantial experience in the security area. The tasks are important to making the AG system more usable, however, the development time and cost is excessive for such things as developing web controls for physical devices. This has been done many times in virtual environments and in distance education sites. Security is important, but this is another issue that has been thoroughly studied for many types of networks, so that effort (3 years and 3 graduate students) seems excessive. The task of developing scripts for camera and display control is the one area that would introduce new knowledge. The PI's may want to consider adding an expert in display design and usability to the project since the current AG systems are difficult to use and follow without a good director. What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? This work would improve the usability of AG systems and help make them easier to operate. The innovative work is mostly confined to one task. The PI at Berkeley has a good record of introducing research results into his classes and bringing in summer school students for short projects. The broader impact of this system hinges on the wide-spread use of the AG system. There are many other methods to promote collaboration, such as virtual environments, collaboration tools, and even the humble email. It is not clear that this is the best approach. The software developed will be available under an open source license. Summary Statement The proposal is well laid out and will probably achieve the desired results, but it is overpriced for the expected results. Much of the work is not innovative. ------------------------- REVIEW 4 (VERY GOOD/GOOD) ------------ What is the intellectual merit of the proposed activity? The PI willenhance the current AG tool to make it more usable, automated, and secure by incorporating appropriate changes in the software. What are the broader impacts of the proposed activity? Tools like the AG are very useful for distributed collaboration and have the ability to enhance remote work. Summary Statement Access Grid (AG) technology enables remote collaboration between participants in a conference by distributing audio, video, whiteboard, and other collaborative tools to screens at each user. However, as the PI notes, current AG technology has three primary drawbacks that they plan to resolve in this research: (1) too complex to run (needs a technician at each site), (2) poor security, and (3) poor interaction between underlying media streaming tools. In this research, the PI will develop solutions for each of the above problems by: (1) developing a rule-based automatic controller for the AG node (e.g., implements pleasing camera direction), (2) integrate authentication, encryption, and key management, and (3) develop better tools to allow participants to interact (e.g., I would like to point to some part of your whiteboard or program trace). Overall, the PI is well aware of ongoing work in each of the three areas above and the proposed plan to integrate the new solutions appears to be adequate. It is unclear, however, if the project will result in any new research as such. -------------------------