An open discussion list for topics related to the eduGAIN interfederation service.

[Scott Koranda <skoranda AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 10:11 AM, Leif Johansson <leifj AT sunet.se> wrote:
>
> BTW I don't feel the need to keep quiet on this because there is
> still one rock left unturned :-)
>
>> I'd like to conclude with a metaphor: You built a road without defining on 
>> what side the cars should drive. Now this needs to be defined and you say: 
>> prefer the right to the left, you will probably be fine, in most cases. 
>> But don't quote us on that, if you have an accident, it's your own fault. 
>> The result will likely be that your road will not be used very much. I 
>> would like to see some leadership here. Who, if not you, eduGAIN, can 
>> actually bring about changes in this area?
>
> Sure... but ...
>
> edugain and all the other NREN federation infrastructure is primarily
> used to enable bulk service delivery and less to enable research-
> related services.
>
> You may argue that this is a result of poor priorities but in fact
> it is not. If you look at the number of students and employees
> served by (say) Box or some of the other general collaboration
> services they massively out-strip the number of users of research-
> related services worldwide in total.
>
> This is of course also unfortunate since research is key for NRENS!
>
> We (NRENs) need your help to play "follow the money" in order to
> explain to our customers (universities etc) why enabling identity
> for research-related services is "good for business".
>
> Currently all we can tell our customers is "Clarin wants X" and "CERN
> wants Y". Each of these projects are not big enough separately to
> make it to the top of the pile (ymww of course).
>
> To this end, the e-science community needs to learn speak with one
> voice telling the R&E federations what it needs.

Would an "e-science subgroup" for eduGAIN be appropriate?

I ask because Brook just presented his slides at the F2F meeting and
suggested that
subgroups could be a topic for later, perhaps at dinner.

Of course I don't expect e-science projects to be members of
eduGAIN--NRENs are the members.
Would each NREN perhaps appoint an "e-science" representative(s) to an
eduGAIN "e-science" group?

Thoughts?

Scott Koranda for LIGO