Fwd: RE: Thursday, 12 Aug, 2 PM CST... Chautauqua1 Post-mortem

Larry Smarr pls at ncsa.uiuc.edu
Thu Aug 12 08:19:52 CDT 1999


Ernie-great job! I really enjoyed working with you, margaret, and frank and
the whole distributed team.  A major salute to Argonne for their vision of
the Access Grid and their strong technical support.

This was a historic moment for the alliance.  We actually created new
information infrastructure and used it in a real event.  Ruzena loved being
part of it and is already pushing for an Access Grid node inside of NSF!
Our republican senator was just blown away when he participated and is
going back to DC to work for getting the money we need into the senate
appropriations bill.  Also, I thought it was wonderful that so many native
americans could participate in the chautauqua.  I also want to especially
thank all the virutal technical support people who continually improved the
audio and stability of the Access Grid throughout the three days.  That is
how the Alliance should function at its best.

Looking forward to kentucky now!



>From: "Frank Gilfeather" <gilfeath at AHPCC.Unm.EDU>
>To: "John Towns - NCSA Cog" <jtowns at ncsa.uiuc.edu>,
>        "Margaret Lewis" <mlewis at mhpcc.edu>,
>        "John Toole" <jtoole at ncsa.uiuc.edu>, <pls at ncsa.uiuc.edu>
>Cc: <ag-tech at antares.mcs.anl.gov>, <accessgrid at antares.mcs.anl.gov>,
>        "Frank Gilfeather" <gilfeath at AHPCC.Unm.EDU>
>Subject: RE: Thursday, 12 Aug, 2 PM CST... Chautauqua1 Post-mortem
>Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 12:29:22 -0600
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>
>Making it unanimous, I do also want to especially recognize Ernie Herrera.
>Ernie was the engine which drove the organization at UNM for this effort.
>Ernie is very focused and effective at organizing and first rate at
>executing an event or project. We would not have had a successful event
>without his dedication to making this first Chautauqua a success - for the
>Alliance.
>
>I note that the State of NM Chautauqua person (Teddy Roosevelt) praised the
>Alliance for having the first TRUE Chautauqua he had been to - in that
>Alliance Chautauqua looked forward and included emerging technology
>demonstrations.  He mentioned that at early Chautauquas, Edison himself
>would appear with a lab to demonstrate new technology - not all which worked
>at a particular event but which would be worked on from event to event!
>
>Thanks again for all the encouragement and support everyone.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Frank
>
>===============================================
>Frank L. Gilfeather
> 
>Executive Director
>High Performance Computing, Education and Research Center
> 
>Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
> 
>University of New Mexico
> 
>1601 Central Ave, NE
>Albuquerque, NM  87131
> 
>Phone (505) 277-8249  Fax 277-8235
> 
>===============================================
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: John Towns - NCSA Cog [mailto:jtowns at ncsa.uiuc.edu]
>Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 1999 1:13 PM
>To: Margaret Lewis
>Cc: ag-tech at antares.mcs.anl.gov; accessgrid at antares.mcs.anl.gov; Frank
>Gilfeather; John Toole; pls at ncsa.uiuc.edu
>Subject: Re: Thursday, 12 Aug, 2 PM CST... Chautauqua1 Post-mortem
>
>
>While I saw all the right kudos, there is one glaringly absent.
>
>Margaret--  You have been a tremendous leader in pulling this together on a
>national scale.  The first event has gone fabulously.  The bar has been set
>for UKy and BU.  All of us in the Alliance owe you a great deal of thanks
>for pulling this together.
>
>I very much look forward to participating in the next two events.
>
>-John
>
>At 09:22 AM 8/11/99 -0500, John Toole wrote:
>>All,
>>
>>You really set a new level of capability, collaboration, and performance
>>for the access Grid.  We received  great comments from ACCESS-DC.  thanks
>>to eveyone for their pioneering work and dedicated support.  It was a very
>>successful first step in an exciting year ahead!!
>>
>>We really have a world- class  team effort!!
>>
>>--John
>>
>>
>>
>>At 01:51 AM 8/11/99 -1000, Margaret Lewis wrote:
>>>All,
>>>
>>>Outstanding job! It is amazing to see the progress that was made from our
>June
>>>session at Argonne. The video and audio were very good -- and there was
>very
>>>little delay with video so mouths mostly moved with the sound!
>>>
>>>I talked to a number of attendees to get their reaction. Most people were
>>>appropriately amazed. The UNM audience was very engaged with Rick's
>speech and
>>>Rick's and Larry's Q&A session with live and remote sites. Rezuna's
>speech and
>>>the tour of the Access Center were also excellent -- walking through the
>>Access
>>>Center really proved to the group the capabilities of the system. The
>>video was
>>>amazing for a moving camera (and it was nice camera work). The interaction
>of
>>>Ken Bishop with NCSA, followed by Nestor's presentation once again had the
>>>audience totally engaged. Driving the microscope via the Internet while
>Nestor
>>>interacted was another high point. The audience also enjoyed watching set
>up
>>>for
>>>sessions in the morning and between breaks and a majority of the attendees
>>came
>>>over to the "command center" to see the tech staff in action.
>>>
>>>I won't be able to make the Access Grid meeting on Thursday -- but in
>talking
>>>with UKY folks we'd like to see if we could more formally arrange for
>remote
>>>audiences at various sites for different presentations. The interaction of
>>live
>>>and remote audiences with speaker was one of the most engaging parts of
>the
>>>demonstration. UKY is only hosting a few remote sessions -- right now it
>looks
>>>like it is Rick's speech, a tour of Access Center, and the possibility of
>a
>>>couple of demos -- so remote audiences will provide the majority of
>>interaction
>>>opportunities. If we can get at least one site on-line with at least a
>small
>>>audience (and a few planted questions) for a majority of their
>>presentations --
>>>this should take us to the next level.
>>>
>>>UKY will only have one projector so they will arrange their screen
>>differently.
>>>Power Point will be displayed in 1/4 of the screen -- I am assuming this
>is
>>>doable since there was a practice session at UKY a few weeks ago? Also --
>we
>>>need to get smoother with distributed Power Point. We did much better
>>today but
>>>it was a bit rough start yesterday.
>>>
>>>Also -- a site without echo cancellation definitely presents a problem.
>While
>>>they might receive good audio from other sites -- their transmissions
>back are
>>>very annoying. We need to limit the interaction with these sites to bare
>>>minimum
>>>-- and mainly have them talk to main site and have them muted when we talk
>to
>>>them.
>>>
>>>I think speakers who stay in one spot (like a podium or are seated at a
>table)
>>>provide the best video. I know people don't like to limit speaker's travel
>>>space
>>>-- but Larry, Rick, and Access Center speakers came across very well
>because
>>>they were all in fixed spot. I would recommend that we try and limit
>>>speakers to
>>>a fixed spot.
>>>
>>>Once again -- many thanks to the entire tech group for an outstanding job!
>A
>>>special thanks to UNM for being the pioneers -- it took lots of guts --
>and to
>>>those wild folks at Argonne who had this crazy vision!
>>>
>>>FYI -- We got an excellent clip on a local TV channel and a great article
>in
>>>Albuqurque Tribune -- with a picture of Larry talking to a screen with
>eight
>>>remote shots.
>>>
>>>Margaret
>>>
>>>
>>>Mark Hereld wrote:
>>>>
>>>> All,
>>>>
>>>> At the risk of jinxing it all, I think that we all really pulled the
>>>> AccessGrid together.  Despite some glitches, yesterday's demonstration
>went
>>>> quite well.  The backchannel was quite well used, and many of the
>>>> interactions went very smoothly.  We learned a lot.  And today it
>showed.
>>>> The audio was exceptional for the most part, and I think we applied a
>great
>>>> deal of experience to finding the best way to work with the network and
>>>> tools to good effect.  To a large degree, I think that the tech
>disappeared
>>>> into the background from the perspective of the meeting attendees.
>>>> Exceptional performance, IMHO.
>>>>
>>>> We should get together and capture the lessons learned from this
>experience
>>>> before they fade from our memories.  I suggest, after some small
>>>> consultation on the mud, that we meet on the AccessGrid at 2 PM CDT on
>>>> Thursday, 12 August, two days from today.
>>>>
>>>> If you participated in the tech support, please attend this meeting:
>your
>>>> input is valuable.  Anybody else who witnessed the events is also
>welcome
>>>> to participate.  Just head to your nearest AccessGrid Node and
>coordinate
>>>> with the Local Node Operation Crew.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Mark
>




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