[AG-TECH] Fading AG usage?

[John I Quebedeaux Jr]

Derek,

In the state of louisiana the movement to have and use AG nodes has  
been on the uptick and is one of the existing applications to use the  
new network infrastructure going into place here. Everytime one is  
seen in action - (even with the rough edges involved sometimes) folks  
are impressed. For our grant, we use them on a regular basis.  
Although, education and support is something that is constantly on  
going. On the other hand, the number of external sites hasn't really  
grown too much and i'm still struggling to get some sites here to put  
their regular seminar offerings on the AG - but when the seminars are  
scheduled on short notice, etc. it's difficult for them to go through  
the motions of "putting" them on the AG.

We had two courses utilizing AG and AGVCR in one Center here i'm  
aware of last semester and this semester at least one, possibly two  
again.

My largest problem has been getting a stable multicast infrastructure  
to work with; however, our state network is currently in the midst of  
a major upgrade - which includes getting training and implementing  
multicast which I think is critical for the success of the AG as it  
is now. Our use is on the upswing. I'm busier than ever talking to  
people about it. I'd been meaning to write up something about this  
for Tom. Oddly enough it's the chicken egg thing - i'm busy doing it  
and finding time to write it takes... well, time away from doing. I  
need to just get it done and document our use for all to see...

The largest hurdles for me are people want: 1) for me to tell them  
exactly what to buy on the spot and where to get it (which is not  
trivial because we have to bid out as a state agency for items over a  
certain amount), 2) networking, networking, networking... did i say  
networking? i.e. MULTICAST and 3) staffing/support. #3 is interesting  
because sites need to recognize that there are computers, networking,  
and software to support on this and they aren't sure they can or want  
to do this in terms of people - despite the fact that i see they've  
done so for regular A/V services. They want it to "just work", but  
nothing is ever that simple, including other forms of  
teleconferencing in my experience. But that's just my experience.

Anyhow, quick dirty reply - i'm about to write an answer to yet  
another request for info within our state...

You know, we really should do Jason's certification process here. I  
know Cindy has. It'd be another step in the right direction to making  
administrations realize this is a serious use of these systems and  
not just ad-hoc as some may think. I'm just as guilty for not taking  
time to do so - and then as a site I could do my state, etc.

-John Q.

-- 
John I. Quebedeaux, Jr.; Louisiana State University
Computer Manager LBRN; 131 Life Sciences Bldg.
e-mail: johnq at lsu.edu; web: http://lbrn.lsu.edu
phone: 225-578-0062 / fax: 225-578-2597


On Jan 4, 2007, at 1:25 PM, Derek Piper wrote:

>
> 	Hi all,
>
> 	I've been part of the AG community for a while now, nearly 3 years  
> and over that time I've not seen a lot of growth in the number of  
> sites that we interface with for AccessGrid meetings. Quite  
> oppositely I have seen sites that were good AG participants fall  
> into 'disrepair' through lack of funding and site expertise.
> 	A bit of a devil's advocate question, but is AccessGrid usage  
> declining? Is AccessGrid on the way out? I've seen people turn to  
> things such as Polycom for meetings rather than have AccessGrid  
> meetings.
> 	I'm curious to learn of other points of view on this.
>
> 	Derek
>
> -- 
> Derek Piper - dcpiper at indiana.edu - (812) 856 0111
> IRI 323, School of Informatics
> Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
>

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