[AG-USERS] Hello, introductions

[Ed Ritenour]

Hello all

I manage the Videoconference and AG node at Berkeley Lab. Our node was setup
in the early days as well by the Visualization group as a collaboration test
bed for Computing Sciences. About a year ago the AG node operation was moved
to the Videoconferencing Services Group in the Networking and
Telecommunication Department Information Technologies Services Division in the
hope of one day providing another useful collaboration tool for our
researchers.  The technical staff, all non developers, have been hard at work
learning about the technology, hardware, software and nuances that go along
with the operation of a node. We have two technicians who operate the node,
Lloyd and Mike, who also do all the testing and troubleshooting. It is their
smiling faces you see during the testing process of each meeting. All of us
can be reached at ag at lbl.gov as well as our reservation coordinator, Martin.
We too are still operating in a informal mode, so far limiting advertising to
Computing Sciences but allow others to use if requested. As I said our goal is
to eventually operate the node as a standard service and the operation is free
to all now. We still work closely with the Visualization staff who originally
setup the room, as well as, both the internal and external Networking staff.
We are fortunate enough to have Esnet staff located at the Lab as well as have
a top notch internal network staff  who are willing to assist others when
network issues  come up. Everyone has been working together to document, post
and resolve the many protocol issues on both the Cisco and Juniper routers to
make the technology a reliable service. What I hope to see come out of the
users group is standard methods of operation and backup plans between
operators that would help ensure successful meetings even when there are
problems associated the network or individual audio issues, as well as,
suggestions to reduce efforts required of operators that can be incorporated
into new releases of the AG, such as AG 2 which is now in its Alpha state.

Maybe in a few weeks Mary can announce a kick off meeting.
Hope to see you soon.
Ed


"Barbara A. Kucera" wrote:

> Hi Jennifer,
>
> I tried to query the list to see who's on it, but without success.
>
> Anyway, I, too, have been involved with the AG for quite a while.  I think
> there were only two nodes . . . both of them at Argonne across the hall
> from one another when I became involved.  ;-)  Initially, as an organizer
> of the Alliance Chautauqua series--and then as we expanded the AG nodes
> with a grant from NSF/EPSCoR to a faction of the Alliance (6 EPSCoR states)
> to serve as a testbed for Argonne's development efforts.  I marketed,
> recruited, arranged technical training for, managed events and sessions,
> and generally assisted EPSCoR the states in their efforts to participate in
> the AG community.  The AG was being accepted and the number of AGs
> increased slowly as the technology was being developed.  At SC01 in Denver,
> a group of dedicated people worked very hard in featuring SC Global, the
> Access Grid sprang to life seemingly overnight with the success of the
> Global Showcase on the Exhibit floor and participation from around the
> world.  The amazing community that is currently participating in the
> further development of the AG includes the active participation of a truly
> international group of people.
>
> The AG has been a lot of hard work . . . and great fun!
>
> Barbara
> -------------
>
> At 02:15 PM 2/27/2003 -0500, Jennifer Teig von Hoffman wrote:
> >Hi everybody,
> >
> >Since this is a new list, and we haven't before tried to gather
> >non-technical AG users in this sort of way, I'm very curious to hear who's
> >joined the list and in what ways you're using the AG. So, I'd like to
> >encourage everybody to send a little mail by way of introduction.
> >
> >As for myself, I was an early adopter of the AG in the summer of 99, when
> >we were planning for the Alliance Chautauqua conference series and
> >starting to bring the first few nodes online. I've been involved in
> >managing events of all sizes, and am currently leading SC Global
> >(http://www.scglobal.org/) and the AG Documentation Project
> >(http://www.accessgrid.org/agdp/). I also manage BU's AG facility
> >(http://scv.bu.edu/accessgrid/); we're still operating in a rather
> >informal fashion, but playing around with the idea of eventually
> >formalizing our operations, with written policies and such.
> >
> >So how about you? Who's out there, and what are you involved with
> >regarding the AG?
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Jennifer Teig von Hoffman
> >Project Manager
> >Scientific Computing and Visualization
> >Boston University
> >jtvh at bu.edu
> >
>
> ________________
> Barbara A. Kucera
> Alliance/NSF EPSCoR Liaison
> National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> (217) 244-0131 * Fax (217) 244-2909
>
> Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about
> telescopes. - Edsger W. Dijkstra, computer science professor

--
Ed Ritenour                                                         Phone:
510-486-5754
Data Communications/ Facilities                          Pager: 510-539-1069
Network & Telecommunications Department         Fax: 510-486-7000
             Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
             One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA. 94720
                         MS 50E-101