Collaborative tools to support virtual organisations: user experiences

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Collaborative tools to support virtual
organisations user experiences Martin Dove,
NIEeS
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Organisation of projects
Collaborative/consortia projects are now favoured
by research funding bodies

• Sharing expertise and ideas
• Sharing infrastructure resources (e.g. computers,
  equipment)
• Value of interaction between team members to
  facilitate greater success

Concept of Virtual Organisation can help
maximise impact of collaborative working
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Virtual Organisations in scientific research

• Members are formally part of other organisations
  not a single allegiance
• Members are geographically dispersed
• Task oriented, time limited
• Operates as a real organisation with leadership
  and commitment, but generally flatter hierarchy
  and members can leave at any time commitment is
  voluntary and based on opportunity
• Uses IT to enable collaboration
• Stronger than a loose federation of members

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Virtual Organisations vs scientific collaborations
Many of the previous characteristics will also
apply to a normal collaboration
so is there anything special about a VO?
Interdependence between team members failure
to operate as a team is a show-stopper
Hence the need to seriously consider the tools
that aid collaboration within a VO
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Introducing the eMinerals project
NERC escience testbed project Environment from
the Molecular Level
Consortium of simulation scientists, code
developers and computer scientists/grid
specialists from 7 UK institutes (8 departments)
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The eMinerals team
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eMinerals integrated compute/data minigrid
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eMinerals Virtual Organisation
Objective of forming the eMinerals VO

• To set up and manage the minigrid infrastructure
• to help users get going
• to solve problems, to respond to the needs of the
  users
• to build on feedback
• To deliver to the funding agency (NERC)

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Collaboration tools for VO

• eMail ?
• Instant messaging ?
• Wiki/web tools ?
• Personal Access Grid ?
• plus
• VNC and tools for sharing applications ?
• Automated help desk

? discussed in this talk
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Computer Support for Collaborative Working
Concept of groupware IT tools to help
collaboration

• All the above
• Project management tools
• Shared diaries / calendars
• IT whiteboards

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Tools 1 eMail

• One of the killer applications of the internet
  era
• Has replaced the written letter and extended the
  scope of the old letter concept (short messages,
  scope for specific replies and more
  discussion-style communications, archive)
• Pervasive almost everyone you might want to talk
  with has email
• Easy to use (sometimes too easy!)

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eMail problems

• Overused and abused to the point that email is
  losing its effectiveness emails are often not
  read or not read quickly enough
• You rely on your partner to be able to respond
  you may not get your response quickly enough
• Constructing emails takes time loss of immediacy
  even in a rapid email exchange

eMail now fulfils only a small part of its
potential  may be in terminal decline?
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Tools 2 Instant messaging

• Instantaneous transmission and receipt of chat
  messages across a wide-area network
• Like the old Unix talk tool

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Instant messaging good things

• Installation is easy
• Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac)
• Works easily and looks nice!
• Useful for quick chats
• Can leave switched on to indicate availability
• Professional users quickly learn how to say
  goodbye

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Instant messaging negatives

• Competing systems Microsoft and AOL
• No interoperability between these two systems
• Some organisations ban the use of instant
  messaging!

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Tools 3 Wiki and related web tools

• Open editing of pages on a web site
• Useful for sharing information

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Wiki pros and cons

• Needs to be installed on a web server
• Requires people to want to use it and get into
  the habit
• Is only as quick as the regularity at which
  people look at it (can use email alerts for
  changes)
• People can do harm as well as good can protect
  with password or digital certificate

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Tools 4 Access Grid
Video conferencing system to facilitate
collaboration Based on the use of suites
projecting windows onto a large wall, with each
suite having cameras and microphones
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What the Access Grid gives us

• High quality conference tool that allows
  participation by several teams
• Facilitates natural discussion where partners can
  use visual clues
• You can couple the Access Grid with other tools,
  e.g. powerpoint presentations, shared
  visualisation
• Excellent for real-time communication

Giving us real advantages over other tools
reviewed in this talk
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Problems with the traditional Access Grid

• Need to book several suites simultaneously
• Need to travel (e.g. Bath to London)
• Need for a trained operator
• Too expensive for individual VOs to own

Essentially these are problems that arise from
lack of ownership of the facilities
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Maintaining the gains the personal Access Grid

• Personal version comes in the normal Access Grid
  package
• Will run on a desktop/laptop personal machine
• Only needs a webcam and audio headset
• Easy to set up on your machine (but not easy to
  roll out across a VO see later comments)
• It works well!

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Our first successful test at 2003s eScience All
Hands meeting
Demonstrated in a multicast-enabled environment
with no firewalls Running both Windows and Linux
versions in demonstration Getting your home
institute to enable multicast through firewalls,
switches and routers and to remain in this state
is one of the major problems with the use of the
personal access grid
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Use of the personal access grid within the
eMinerals VO

• Project coffee mornings used to exchange news,
  ask for help, discussion developments etc
• Used for quick immediate and spontaneous
  discussions
• Can be coupled with VNC to create a
  problem-solving environment
• Task-oriented teams within the VO hold regular
  meetings as part of work management
• Project management used for decision-making
  discussions and progress reports

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eMinerals coffee morning view from the screen
Modern screens can handle several windows
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Comparison of collaborative tools

• Access cost (red) how difficult is it to use
  each time?
• Setup cost (green) how difficult is it to get
  going?
• Time delay (blue) how far from instantaneous is
  an interaction
• Shorter bars are better

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Conclusion
Our main message here is that the Personal Access
Grid has been tremendously successful in support
of the eMinerals VO
In spite of a relatively high initial setup cost,
once running it has proved to be extremely useful