[AG-TECH] Fading AG usage?

[John Langkals]

Hello Derek,

Very clever posting.

I would say that the usage oscillates between all technologies.

Video is now commonplace.  It's no longer the new wonder tool it was in the
mid 1990's.  It's becoming as exciting and reliable as light switch to many
-- in other words, just turn it on and use it. I am still amazed with this
technology every time I use it and fortunately, so are the folks who employ
my services.

The Access Grid, as I understand it, was a communication tool used among the
national government labs.  This project has grown far beyond this use.  In
fact it's really hard to tell how many sites there are that use the AG but
are not active within the AG community.  I see the AG community as a mix of
a powerful communications tool and a research project that can be applied to
many disciplines.  I don't feel that the AG community is falling at all but
that, rather, the excitement of a new technology is not as great.

H.323-based videoconferencing came on the stage around 1996 and has
blossomed into a huge market, but the market is only as strong as the people
that use the product, and budget for its use.
It's difficult to maintain a market share after flooding most areas with a
given product.  I know of too many instances where a large amount of
videoconferencing units were purchased only to end up in a storage closet
and never get used.  Basically, the grants that purchased the equipment
failed to budget a project manager.  In the case of the AG community, I feel
there needs to be a dedicated technical person and a dedicated person that
will manage the use of the equipment, but this is often overlooked  and the
technology is unused--not because of a lack of interest, but because of a
lack of commitment or focus on a reason to use this wonderful tool.

The AG is only as strong as the projects that are developed to use it.
It's not the technology that is lacking, but the creative input of the
community itself that may be lacking.  I am always looking for new and
exciting projects, and you have been very helpful to my work, which is
greatly appreciated.  I would like to suggest a yearly conference or
two--not just the retreats, but an AG online conference that will have
speakers from all over the world discussing for a few minutes their work and
desire to collaborate.
Why not have another yearly conference dedicated to K- 12 using the AG?
Conferences like this already exits in the H.323 world.
Let's kick off a similar conference in the AG community. In order to have a
growing community, we need creativity and dedication to starting new
projects, and an inspiration to use the technology beyond just being a
teleconferencing engine.

John

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On Behalf
Of Derek Piper
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 2:25 PM
To: ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov
Subject: [AG-TECH] Fading AG usage?


	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