1 Stephen Potter University of Edinburgh Building Collaborative eResearch Environments Virtual Organisations and Collaborative Environments

2 Outline l The Collaborative Grid l Tools for collaboration

3 Contemporary Grid Computing l Roots in high performance computing and specialised scientific problem-solving. l Grid computing is now emerging as a more powerful general purpose infrastructure to enable new research. l Its contemporary definition is coordinated resource sharing and problem solving in dynamic, multi-institutional virtual organizations

4 Virtual Organisations l People coming together across geographical boundaries. l Significantly, also across disciplinary boundaries. l Dynamic formation according to problem. l Computer support for discovering people and mediating interaction. l Also bringing together data and computational resources. l We can distinguish three key aspects of a Grid: Compute, Data and Collaboration.

5 Access Grid l Room based videoconferencing with large format display –supports group-to-group interactions across the Grid. –supports interaction and visualisation. –nodes in 150 institutions worldwide. –routine use in UK e-Science programme. l Also available as single machine solution Personal Interface to the Grid (PIG). l Can also use Virtual Rooms VideoConferencing System (VRVS). l In fact collaboration can use any video- and teleconferencing facilities.

6 Access Grid node

7 David DeRoure Nigel Shadbolt Simon Buckingham Shum Marc Eisenstadt Austin Tate

8 CoAKTinG Background l “The CoAKTinG Project aims to support and enhance e-Science collaborations.” l Exploiting technologies, tools and methodologies where already available… l …and augment these with novel ones where necessary. l 2 year project - started June 2002: –Funded by UK e-Science Programme. –Involves a total of ~15 PIs, Researchers, Students.

9 …to Support and Enhance e-Science Collaborations mapping real time discussions/group sensemaking enacting decisions/ coordinating activities synthesising artifacts recovering information from meetings awareness of colleagues’ ‘presence’ virtual meetings

10 BuddySpace BuddySpace l Presence: “an aggregated view of an entity’s dynamically changing attributes”: –Availability (“I’m logged on for a videoconference”) –Preference (“Only my boss can interrupt me now”) –Capability (“My current device can accept video calls”) –Location (“I’m in Munich…urgent calls only”) l BuddySpace - enriched ‘instant messaging’ client: –Awareness of people…and other resources. –Editable maps for better visualisation of presence. –Advanced group chat facilities with voting, attention meters… –Provides lightweight communications channel (based on Jabber IM protocol). awareness of colleagues’ ‘presence’

11 BuddySpace BuddySpace awareness of colleagues’ ‘presence’

12 Compendium l Tool for real-time capture and visualisation of argumentation (“collective sense-making and group memory”). –Based on gIBIS notions: issues (questions), answers, arguments (pros/cons), decisions, etc. l Connecting ideas: visually, by sets, metadata and hypertext links. l Free-form and template-driven discussions. l Underlying XML representations: interoperable with other tools via Jabber. mapping real time discussions/group sensemaking

13 Compendium: mapping arguments and decision rationale mapping real time discussions/group sensemaking

14 Compendium: meeting template mapping real time discussions/group sensemaking

15 I-X l I-X technology provides an environment for handling issues, performing activities, placing constraints, etc. l Founded on generic activity ontology. l CoAKTinG roles: –Support meeting environment set-up activities; –Support ‘meeting process’ activities; –Networked ‘To-Do’ lists for issue-handling and activity tracking. enacting decisions/ coordinating activities synthesising artifacts

16 Process Panel (I-P 2 ) Domain Editor (I-DE) Activity Editor Messenger I-Space enacting decisions/ coordinating activities synthesising artifacts I-X

17 Record and Replay l Capturing meetings, experiments, visualisations… –Many potential information streams: video, audio, Powerpoint, Jabber, Compendium… l …for context-rich playback. l Ontology-based approach - annotation of streams allows synchronised playback, ‘smart’ navigation, etc… l Interlinks information using Semantic Web technologies. recovering information from meetings

18 Meeting replay by time, speaker, contribution to discussion, and decision

19 …to Support and Enhance e-Science Collaborations mapping real time discussions/group sensemaking enacting decisions/ coordinating activities synthesising artifacts recovering information from meetings awareness of colleagues’ ‘presence’ virtual meetings BuddySpace NetMeeting Access Grid Node Compendium Replay I-X Tools

20 Summary l Contemporary Grid computing is about virtual organisations. l Virtual organisations bring expertise and resource together dynamically to enable new research. l Tools include: –Access Grid. –Instant messaging with presence. –Mapping meetings. –Process support. –Capture and replay.

21 CoAKTinG Links l CoAKTinG Project: – l BuddySpace: –kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/buddyspace l Compendium: –kmi.open.ac.uk/projects/compendium l I-X: –i-x.info l Replay: –