14 July 2000TWIST George Brett NLANR Distributed Applications Support Team (NCSA/UIUC) The Klearinghouse: a network based model for user support

14 July 2000TWIST High Performance Networks vBNS –National Science Foundation High Performance Connections Program Abilene –University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development / Internet2 Next Generation Internet –various federal agency networks (NREN, ESNet, DREN) Something New –not really sure yet, but there will be something after vBNS & Abilene for Research and Education

14 July 2000TWIST The National Laboratory for Applied Network Research Established in 1995, as cooperative agreement with three sites, SDSC, NCSA, PSC Initially focused on the design, development and deployment of the NSF/MCI very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS) Established a new level of networking capability to support research Evolved to provide services to maintain, operate and support the use of the vBNS, Abilene and other high-performance networks. Recently provided direct support to researchers by leveraging the use of distributed resources.

14 July 2000TWIST National Laboratory for Applied Network Research Engineering Services (CMU/PSC) –Assist in the establishment and use of high-performance network connections (vBNS and Abilene) –Help optimize overall end-to-end performance –Provide information, training, and tools to manage high performance networks The Measurement and Network Analysis team (UCSD/SDSC) –Improving our understanding of service models, service metrics, and tool requirements –Searching for macro-level insights into high performance internetworking The Distributed Applications Support team (UIUC/NCSA) –support users and applications developers –develop an Applications Clearinghouse –develop training materials and documentation

14 July 2000TWIST The National Technology Grid Networks –high performance network services Computational Resources –supercomputers, clusters, distributed computing resources Communications Resources –Wired, wireless, web-based, sync & async Other Services –Remotely controlled research equipment –Immersive environments

14 July 2000TWIST The Grid: another view

14 July 2000TWIST The DAST Clearinghouse Advanced Applications Clearinghouse –Develop a data base of applications & people that use vBNS and Abilene –Identify “affinity groups” of users by discipline or shared technologies –Explore concept of “User Services” for advanced networks and computational resources –Design a process / product that can be generalized or reproduced for use by other “affinity groups”

14 July 2000TWIST Applications & Middleware Green slime of policy & non-technical stuff that get in the way of making technology work. Projects Middleware Scientific Visualization Data Mining TeleImmersion Remote Instrumentation Distance Learning Video Conferencing Distributed Computing Web Browsing Resource discovery Collaboration etc., etc., etc. Networks Pipes Architecture Operation Centers Security Protocols Engineering etc., etc., etc.

14 July 2000TWIST Current State Online since September 1999 –With assistance of NCSA C&C Information Resources Group 980+ Projects –Project = “meritorious application,” research or educational activity using resources 180+ Resources –Resouce = applications, hardware, network, software, systems (composite of other parts) Search / Query URL –

14 July 2000TWIST The Klearinghouse Next the Knowledge thing…. –People to data / information – kBase Information about collections (e.g., data, meta-data, and others). –People to People – kSpace Information about computer mediated communications tools / applications /collaboratories –People to Tools of their work – kTools Information about resources / applications used by specific disciplines (e.g., Biologist Workbench, TeleMedicine, Sloan Digital Sky Survey).

14 July 2000TWIST Visual Model

14 July 2000TWIST Process Model

14 July 2000TWIST Issues Management of collection –Requires proactive human intervention Information resources autonomous and diverse Priority placed on work at hand not planning for future Who owns the problem? –Research lab, campus, professional org, ???

14 July 2000TWIST User Support Services What are the new models? –(De) Centralized or at least Distributed What works? –New model, Old model –Look to other communities (e.g., special libraries, commercial help desks, commercial industries) What services? –Help desk –Training –Research & Development –Technology Transfer –Business practices –Documentation

14 July 2000TWIST Broker Model

14 July 2000TWIST George H. Brett II NCSA NLANR / DAST v f