Last updated: January 23 2007 09:40:54
Task 4.2 Knowledge dissemination  

Creating a large, varied user community across Latin America is one of the main objectives of the EELA project. The knowledge dissemination events will contribute to further disseminate the project and the benefits of the grid technologies. Coordination between tasks will be implemented in such a way that new users can also act themselves as further knowledge dissemination vectors within their communities. Knowledge dissemination will provide detailed technical information to the potential users and allowing them to learn and practice using the GILDA infrastructure. The information sharing will be particularly important in the preparation of new users helping them to take advantage of the available features and to evaluate the advantages of the grid, hence contributing to the expansion of grid computing coverage in the Latin America.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK

The tasks associated with this work package will focus around two main areas:

  • production of tutorial material from introductory to advanced;
  • teaching of this material to the EELA user community.

In the two years of the project we expect to run at least 10 knowledge dissemination (6 in the first year of the project and 4 in the second year) courses for over 500 people from across the EELA participating countries and user communities in Latin America. We will have a particular focus on hands-on training to ensure early usage of the EELA infrastructure. Recording participant and provider evaluations will follow up each course. These will be analysed and used to direct course improvements. Summary statistics will be published as key performance Indicators every 6 months.

Once the new user communities are identified knowledge dissemination services will be offered. The local partners will organize these knowledge dissemination sessions in close collaboration with the tutorial team. The scheduling of the sessions will be defined according with the interest shown by the potential users. Training sessions can also be performed in the context of the dissemination activities. These sessions will be more focused in showing the benefits of grid computing to users that are not yet fully aware of what it is.

Knowledge dissemination will be a mandatory component of the induction process in order to ensure that all users fully understand the characteristics of the offered grid services and that they have enough technical knowledge to properly use the infrastructure. Besides the basic induction training, two other complementary training services will be offered covering the needs of advanced users that need in deep technical knowledge and update sessions to keep the users informed about new services and functionalities these will be part of a continuous knowledge dissemination and update programme. The training sessions will be complemented with further training materials and examples that will be available from the project web site. Advanced distance training techniques including the availability of recorded training sessions will also be considered.

Special knowledge dissemination will also be provided to the persons involved in the technical aspects of the project these include:

  • Developers
  • Virtual organization managers
  • Resource centre administrators
  • Resource centre security managers
  • Other support personnel

This knowledge dissemination will be targeted to ensure that the deployment and operation of the infrastructure including the addition of new sites and Virtual Organizations will be timely and correctly performed.

The effectiveness of the training activities will be measured in order to reassess the strategies and when needed implement further improvements. A set of metrics will be defined for this purpose. The implementation details of the dissemination will be detailed in the execution plans to be delivered at month 3.

OBJECTIVES
  • Provide in deep technical information to the potential users.

  • Allow potential users to learn, practice and experiment using GILDA, the INFN real gridcomputing infrastructure completely devoted to dissemination activities.

  • Allow potential users to assess the power of the grid.

  • Prepare the necessary knowledge to enable new users to start using the grid in the best possible way.

  • Keep the users aware of new improvements and functionalities by means of well-suited tutorials.

  • Provide advanced training to experienced users and administrators.

  • Provide special knowledge to site administrators, Virtual Organization managers, security contacts, developers and other technical personnel.
EXPECTED RESULTS

Expected results are:

  • New users will be inducted.

  • Project users will be technically well prepared from the very beginning reducing the amount of initial frustration associated with the complexity of the technologies and lack of training.

  • Reduction of the number of support requests related with lack of knowledge on how to use, deploy or maintain the infrastructure.

  • Improvement the service stability by reducing the number of mistakes performed by users or technical personnel that could influence the quality of the service.

  • Smooth service operation and increased user satisfaction.

  • Creation of a grid administration culture.
PARTICIPANTS

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