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

Michael E. Papka papka at mcs.anl.gov
Tue May 24 18:03:14 CDT 2005


Brian,

I'm assuming our mail crossed paths somewhere around Seattle. I agree  
with everything you say and think this is perfect. I tend to lean  
towards #2 with current material on the accessgrid.org that is useful  
migrated into the portal. I never meant to advocate the  
reconstruction of the prototype portal, but based on external email  
exchanges I was under the belief this was a prototype to show what is  
possible and to solicit feedback from key individuals on the  
direction it should go. My impression from the email that started  
this exchange was the Portals announcement to community was earlier  
than expected. Therefore to stop further confusion on my support or  
intentions, I plan to make a clear proposal.

1) ANL move www.accessgrid.org to UC (Mary Fritsch currently  
maintains this site, we vote for a new community maintainer)
2) We move Darran's Portal to accessgrid.org
3) We see vast community contributions to the site and we all live  
happily ever after

My impression is that this is agreeable to Darran based on his  
original mail and we are happy to work with him to make the migration  
happen.

Mike



On May 24, 2005, at 5:05 PM, Brian Corrie wrote:

> Hi Mike,
>
> I agree with Mike Daw in the sense that we seem to be already there  
> in terms of having a community portal. A bit premature in the sense  
> that Darran probably wanted to have things formed up a bit more  
> before going live, but it is up and running now 8-). Starting over  
> may not be the best approach. As Darran has said, Plone is a widely  
> used platform for forums like this, so although I am not an expert  
> it seems like a good way to go.
>
> It seems like there are several possible directions from here.
>
> 1) As you suggest, Argonne moves www.accessgrid.org to the  
> university so the community can have more input and control. We  
> then move toward a portal that is (or like) what Darran has done.
>
> 2) We use the portal as is (where it actually lives is probably  
> less important than its structure), migrate the content from the  
> current site and have it eventually become the main AG site.
>
> 3) A cross between these two options, where the main site is  
> somewhat static with the basic AG pointers and the portal being the  
> community portion of the AG world.
>
> I personally like #3 for a couple of reasons.
>
> #1 requires a lot of work on Argonne's part. As discussed at the AG  
> retreat, I would prefer the Argonne team focus on development of  
> the toolkit, not on web pages. Plus, as Mike D. says, Darran has a  
> working version of a portal that is already running and it is a  
> good starting point.
>
> #2 is perhaps too extreme. It is not yet clear to me that the  
> community portal approach (on its own) is the best one, so to  
> commit to that may be a bit premature. I would like to see how it  
> develops in terms of community input.
>
> #3 gives us a mix of both. It allows the main point of entry to be  
> an Argonne developed site similar to what we have now (which is  
> important to Argonne I am sure), it allows you to point to the  
> important content that is critical to the AG fundamentals (as time  
> goes by, it is likely that more and more of this content would be  
> on the protal side), but it provides a portal for the community to  
> contribute. Mike, your desire to have people from the community  
> take stewardship of different areas of the web site would work very  
> well using the portal. I could see the documentation project,  
> contributed code, etc. rapidly migrating to the portal.
>
> Over time, scenario #3 would slowly reach an equilibrium that makes  
> sense in terms of a balance between scenario #1 and #2, hopefully  
> minimizing the work for all involved over the long term. It may  
> turn out that the portal is all that is needed, it may turn out  
> that no one contributes to the portal, or most likely, something in  
> between... This is our opportunity to see where this takes us.
>
> Yes, there may be some work required up front for #3, but Argonne  
> is planning to do some (potentially a lot of) work to revamp the  
> web site anyway. This way, the web site can be redesigned with the  
> portal in mind. At the same time, much of the portal content will  
> hopefully be provided by the community without a lot of work from  
> the Argonne group.
>
> Not sure if the logistics of this make sense, but I could see  
> www.accessgrid.org moving to the University of Chicago as Mike P.  
> suggested, and having something like portal.accessgrid.org pointing  
> to the machine that Darran has developed. Links from one to the  
> other could be created, and over time this would resolve to what  
> works best for the entire community...
>
> Anyway, my $0.02 CAD worth. 8-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Brian
>
> Michael E. Papka wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
>




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