[AG-TECH] AG Community Portal prototype launched ...

[Michael E. Papka]

Darran,

This is great.  As we have discussed the plan is to move the physical  
home of accessgrid.org to the University to remove some of the  
restrictions placed on access to the site that having it at ANL has  
caused, this is currently in the works.

On that note, we would like to see volunteers fr congeasus om the  
community take stewardship of different areas on the new and improved  
community site to lift the burden off the "small overworked Argonne  
team".   Mary Fritsch who has left the core AG group at Argonne to  
move to a  new exciting position will still be overseeing the site,  
but  hopefully now with help from the community.  The work you've  
done on the prototype site looks like a good start; we'd like to have  
you help spin up the community site at accessgrid.org. Please let us  
know if you're interested (this is with the initial setup, it is   
assumed the community will help once the site is in place). We are   
currently evaluating the Mambo server (http://www.mamboserver.com/)   
for the new site, this is based on recommendations from different   
people, but if the community has a strong leaning towards another  
system let us know.

The overall goal is not to fragment the community with multiple   
sites, the www.accessgrid.org site has always intended to be a   
community site, we have made a conscious effort to remove any ANL  
slant.  We'd like the accessgrid.org site continue to serve as the  
community site, and be developed by the community.

There are more efforts underway to increase community involvement,  
look for announcements in the next month.

Please keep contributing!

Cheers
Mike

On May 23, 2005, at 5:11 AM, Darran Edmundson wrote:

>
> Well, I was hoping to keep it under wraps for another week or so
> but the word is out ...
>
> There was a lot of discussion at the recent Retreat regarding
> the lack of community input.  We are all painfully aware of
> the shortcomings in the current AG, and yet we are waiting for
> the small overworked Argonne team to deliver our software utopia.
> The fact is, we as a community need to be more involved - in
> design, development, testing, bug reporting and bug fixing,
> documentation, feature requests, human factors, etc.
>
> None of this can happen without effective communication.
> But how does one submit a tutorial, update or add an "FAQ",
> hook up with other developers to collaborate on a shared app,
> contribute to the software roadmap, or even just find the latest  
> version
> of a node service?
>
> As a response to this, I've whipped up a prototype web site to
> stimulate discussion on these issues:
>
>      http://slap.anu.edu.au:8200/
>
> The downloads section has been populated with a number
> of shared apps and services.  (Note, Tom Uram did *not*
> put up the AGTk, I did that as a demo before inviting Argonne
> to try out the site.)   Under the forums section, a number of  
> discussion
> areas have been created.  One possible option would be to populate
> these with the AGTech archives sifted into appropriate categories
> and gateway future traffic?   The missing item, and perhaps the
> most import, is the documentation section.  This will be modeled on
> the "documentation" section of the main Plone website:  http:// 
> plone.org/.
> Plone allows members to individually submit tutorial, FAQs,
> How-To's, events, news items, etc. that are optionally reviewed
> by the site admins.  It's a powerful paradigm.
>
> Please, have a look and offer your constructive criticisms,
> wish-lists, etc.  If you'd like to play a more substantial role in
> the nitty gritty of getting the site up and running, please contact
> me directly at darran.edmundson at anu.edu.au.
>
> Finally,  let me publicly state that within a few months, I would  
> like to
> have the site either (i) run under the governance of the community at
> large or (ii) used in a (planned?) redesign of the main  
> AccessGrid.org.
>
> Cheers,
> Darran.
>
>
> Darran Edmundson (darran.edmundson at anu.edu.au)
> ANU Supercomputer Facility Vizlab
> Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600
> tel: +61 2 6125-0517  fax: +61 2 6125-5088
>
>
>