Access Grid Conference Facility at Boston University

1
Access Grid Conference Facility at Boston
University

• Jennifer Teig von Hoffman

2
Getting Oriented

• Where are the cameras?
• Where are the microphones? Do I need to press
  anything to talk?
• What do I do if I want to say something?

3
What is the Access Grid?

• An experimental suite of hardware, software, and
  tools to facilitate group collaborative
  experiences over the Internet
• A project of the National Computational Science
  Alliance
• A partnership among computational scientists,
  computer scientists, and professionals in
  education, outreach, and training at more than 50
  U.S. universities and research institutions
• Led by NCSA at UIUC
• Funded by National Science Foundation

4
Introductions

• TLTR participants
• Boston University Access Grid technical staff
• Remote participants

5
A Walk on Another Side of the Street

• Focus of TLTR technology discussions so far
• Asynchronous
• Wide-spread use by faculty
• Fairly ubiquitous
• Access Grid a different creature
• Synchronous
• Currently used mostly by computational scientists
• Still pre-alpha (1.0 release scheduled for Q2)

6
Synchronous Users, Unite?

• Were certainly not the only ones doing this sort
  of work
• Jim Lengel, College of Communications
• Boston University Corporate Education Center/Knowl
  edgeNet
• Dominic Screnci, Boston University Medical Campus
• Marny Lawton and others using PictureTel
• Opportunities to share experiences and learn from
  each other have been limited

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Glimpse into the Future

• The Access Grid is one of the most compelling
  glimpses into the future Ive seen since I first
  saw NCSA Mosaic.
• - Larry Smarr, Alliance Strategic Adviser

8
The Facility

• Established in January 2000, after various
  temporary Access Grid installations at BU
• Hosted over 40 events since January, with more
  than 600 participants at local and remote sites
• Two Alliance Chautauqua 2000 conferences
• Lectures and seminars from remote sites including
  University of Kentucky and National Computational
  Science Alliance
• Multi-day tutorials on Computational Science
• Scores of meetings, both formal and informal

9
The Current Installation

• Three commodity PCs
• One running Windows 2000
• Two running Red Hat linux
• Three projectors, custom built rear-projection
  screen
• Audio mixers and echo-cancellation devices
• Speakers, cameras, microphones
• All software open source and/or commodity
• Connection to Abilene network
• Cost About 60,000 (equipment)

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Who Runs and Uses the Facility?

• Operated by the Scientific Computing and
  Visualization Group of the Office of Information
  Technology
• Used most frequently for Alliance-sponsored
  trainings and Alliance meetings
• Available to the BU community for one- or
  two-time experimental use
• More dedicated or consistent use would require
  additional staff, and funding support

11
Boston University and the Access Grid

• Not just a product we bought were part of the
  community
• Among the first to install an Access Grid node
• Among the most active Access Grid sites
• Leaders in planning and implementing large-venue
  events
• Member of Access Grid Deployment Team

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Todays Speakers

• Lisa Childers, Argonne National Laboratory
• Leslie Southern and Steve Gordon, OSC