[AG-TECH] FW: Announcing the Access Grid Support Centre

[Michael Daw]

Here's an e-mail that's being sent to various parts of the UK community
today. Although the support centre is not available for use by non-UK users,
I'm sure many of you will be interested. It's one of the reasons I couldn't
join you all at the AG Retreat last week. It sounded fun...! 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grid Engineering Task Force [mailto:ETF at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] 
> On Behalf Of Michael Daw
> Sent: 15 June 2004 13:26
> To: ETF at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Announcing the Access Grid Support Centre
> 
> The Access Grid Support Centre goes live today. From now on, 
> Access Grid in the UK has a formal support centre for 
> registered UK academic users and those associated with 
> academic research projects.
> 
> Contact us at support at agsc.ja.net or 0161 275 6824/5997.
> 
> From the home page of http://www.agsc.ja.net/:
> 
> The Access Grid Support Centre (AGSC) is managed by UKERNA 
> and run by the University of Manchester.
> 
> Our aim is to improve the user experience of Access Grid for 
> academic users in the UK by offering a range of ubiquitous 
> services, on-line and workshop training, a programme of 
> Quality Assurance tests, and general support and advice.
> 
> We currently offer the following services:
> 
> * A Virtual Venue Server as a robust navigation point to 
> standard Access Grid and UK-specific virtual venues
> 
> * A ubiquitous and robust Multicast-Unicast Bridge for sites 
> in the process of establishing multicast connectivity and/or 
> for sites with temporary multicast problems
> 
> * An inSORS IG Pix Server to enable sites to share Microsoft 
> PowerPoint presentations with remote sites via easily 
> configurable software that only has to be installed at the 
> node making the presentation, dramatically simplifying the 
> process of sharing slides
> 
> * inSORS IG Recorder for recording Access Grid sessions
> 
> * An experimental H.323 - Access Grid Bridge Server
> 
> More services are likely to be added later.
> 
> A programme of Quality Assurance testing is designed to 
> ensure a high quality of Access Grid facilities at 
> participating sites to overcome problems of poor audio, 
> camera placement, etc. that can detrimentally affect the user 
> experience.
> 
> As well as providing access to our own and others' on-line 
> training and documentation, we also run a series of workshops 
> every six months that cover issues such as an introduction to 
> the Access Grid; services offered by the AGSC; raising 
> awareness of existing documentation; the wider Access Grid 
> community; debugging and fault finding techniques, especially 
> in the areas of audio and network; and tips for administering 
> Access Grid nodes.
> 
> Additionally, we offer support and advice by e-mail and 
> telephone on all aspects of Access Grid, such as procurement, 
> running events, operating nodes and so on. In some 
> circumstances, we are prepared to visit sites (at their
> expense) to provide more in-depth consultancy. These are 
> arranged on request.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________________
> 
> Michael Daw, e-Science Consultant
> SVE Group (Supercomputing, Visualization and e-Science)
> 
> Manchester Computing, Kilburn Building,
> University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
> 
> Tel: +44 (0)161 275 7026
> Fax: +44 (0)161 275 6800/6040
> E-mail: michael.daw at man.ac.uk
> 
> http://www.sve.man.ac.uk/General/Staff/daw
> _______________________________________________________
> 
>