The International Collaboration to Extend and Advance Grid Education

Forum

The ICEAGE Project is engaging in a Policy Work Package so as to advance policy in the field of grid education at the highest level.

The ICEAGE Forum has been formed to help achieve the project's policy goals, and steer the project and the ISSGC Summer Schools ( http://www.issgc.org)

What is the Forum?

The ICEAGE Forum will be a crucial opinion forming, creative community, supported by the Policy Work Package of the ICEAGE Project.

The Forum will include a group of stakeholders in the field of Grid Education who will aim to use their expertise to enhance international influence so as to impact on policy-making. To achieve this, the following conditions must be met:

1. Attract and retain intellectual investment from a strong membership.
2. Stimulate and lead that group to work on strategic issues in grid education.
3. Ensure that their judgements and insights are well recorded, promulgated and published.
4. Establish a critical mass of members, material and activities at an early stage.

The membership comprises about 90 members, and it is currently being renewed and updated.

Three co-chairs have been elected:

• Prof. Malcolm Atkinson, UK e-Science Envoy, National e-Science Centre - University of Edinburgh
• Prof. Miron Livny, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Prof. Wolfgang Gentzsch, D-Grid, Duke University

A subset of the Forum's membership is chosen every year to form the Programme Committee of the ISSGC Summer School ( http://www.issgc.org).

What are the roles of the Forum?

The roles of the ICEAGE Forum are:

1. Review of the conduct of ICEAGE-supported summer schools;
2. Review of the products and plans of ICEAGE;
3. Input to and validation of specific policy documents developed by ICEAGE;
4. Outreach to the communities each Forum member represents;
5. Intelligence gathering particularly from the communities each member represents;
6. Engagement in ICEAGE collaborative activity.

What ICEAGE brings to the Forum?

Annual meeting at the ISSGC Summer School

The ICEAGE Project will provide the Forum with a meeting at the Summer School (ISSGC) so that they can see the programme in action, meet students and comment on the proposed plans for the next Summer Schools, including their Programme Committees.

Effective communication

ICEAGE will also maintain a wiki and mail list to support communication within the Forum. The wiki should present ICEAGE progress, results, products and plans. The intelligence gathered via Forum members will be organised on the wiki and used in the ICEAGE work and documents so that the members see the value of supplying information. On a quarterly cycle, Forum members will be asked a small number of specific and well-motivated questions to stimulate intelligence gathering.

Involvement in Grid Education policy

A small number of specific policy documents will be prepared with highlighted questions and implications for the Forum to refine and endorse at its annual meeting. Background and informational documents should use the Forum wiki so that the Forum meeting remains focused and effective.

Provision of publicity and information material

Information, including posters and slides will be provided so that Forum members can use them to perform outreach.

The Forum and its collaboration with international workshops

The contribution of the Forum is vital for the policy work undertaken by the ICEAGE Project, particularly within the e-IRG Task Force http://www.e-irg.org, OGF Education and Training Community Group http://www.ogf.org and EUNIS http://www.eunis.org.

Without the membership of the Forum, it would have been much more difficult to set-up these collaborative activities. The Forum then helped shape the Charter for the OGF ET-CG and the terms of reference of the e-IRG ETTF - both by directly contributing to the discussions and by providing support when issues were discussed. The Forum is now shaping the programme and priorities of those two collaborative activities through its members speaking at meetings and contributing to wiki and email discussions and through contributing text to their documents.

As a result of these successful collaborations, draft policy documents on education and training have been written for the OGF ET-CG and the e-IRG. The strategies and policies proposed will have relevance both internationally and for the ERA more specifically. The OGF Information Document, "Policy for Supporting Grid and e-Science Education and Training" can be found in draft form on the OGF Gridforge wiki. The e-IRG ETTF Draft Policy Document has been posted on the e-IRG wiki, but is also available for download here

After discussion at OGF21 regarding lack of adequate collaboration to develop grid and e-Science curricula, the ICEAGE Project, with support from e-IRG ETTF and OGF ET-CG members, organised an internationl Curricula Development Workshop in February at Scotland House (Scotland Europa) in Brussels. The Workshop facilitated valuable discussions in this area and resulted in creation of a possible framework for courses at undergraduate and Masters levels. The Curricula Development Workshop Report is available for download here.

Engagement in these collaborative activities has much to offer ICEAGE in strengthening its international presence, engaging extra effort, and gaining authority.

How does the Forum meet?

As part of the effort to use members' time and effort efficiently meetings will be arranged juxtaposed to the ISSGC Summer School.

Forum Meetings

• First Forum Meeting, 15 July 2006, Ischia, Italy: [Agenda]
• Second Forum Meeting, GGF18, Washington, USA [Agenda]
• Third Forum Meeting, EGEE Conference, Geneva [Agenda]
• Fourth Forum Meeting, 14 July 2007, Mariefred, Sweden