Speaker
Report on the experience (or the proposed activity). It would be very important to mention key services which are essential for the success of your activity on the EGEE infrastructure.
This talk is about the UK e-Science experience with particular reference to those
among the UK e-Science community who do not use EGEE services. Therefore, it is not
appropriate to identify EGEE key services. A higher-level discussion is more
appropriate. Can we gain from a European-wide collaboration towards satisfying a
broad spectrum of research requirements?
Describe the added value of the Grid for the scientific/technical activity you (plan to) do on the Grid. This should include the scale of the activity and of the potential user community and the relevance for other scientific or business applications
The grid provides a low-level technological infrastructure underpinning a wide range
of higher-level services. A survey of users' requirements undertaken recently
identifies those services that users require to be more pervasive, accessible and
usable. They need a variety of forms of support as well as an integrated
e-Infrastructure to enable seamless use. The current community of users can be
reviewed, to understand their requirements. This is best done by catagorising the
projects and presenting representative projects across a wide range of disciplines.
Some of these requirements are already met by deployed UK e-Infrastructure. Many are
not. The EGEE services could meet some of the needs. The talk will treat this as an
open question.
With a forward look to future evolution, discuss the issues you have encountered (or that you expect) in using the EGEE infrastructure. Wherever possible, point out the experience limitations (both in terms of existing services or missing functionality)
The primary issue is a generic one - a requirement on research leaders to produce
immediate results makes them consider local bespoke solutions more of han generic
shared solutions. In most disciplines there are very few researchers who can afford
to take a long-term "jam-tomorrow" approach. It is therefore essential to offer "jam
today" as well (see Carole Goble's talk at the last EUF) as well. The challenge is to
find a sensible incremental approach.
Describe the scientific/technical community and the scientific/technical activity using (planning to use) the EGEE infrastructure. A high-level description is needed (neither a detailed specialist report nor a list of references).
The community includes a wide range of researchers in all disciplines. The UK is
integrating its provision according to a 10-year plan to provide e-Infrastructure,
integrating the investments in multiple institutions via the National Grid Service
(NGS). The software for production use that is developed in the UK is coordinated and
supported by OMII-UK. The UK e-Infrastrucure will be represented by an NGI to
participate in EGI. The focus on the broad e-Science community that are potential users.
