OGF-Europe's 1st International Event within OGF23, 2-6 June 2008, Barcelona, Spain

OGF-Europe's 1st International Event within OGF23, 2-6 June 2008, Barcelona, Spain

OGF23 (the Open Grid Forum's 23rd event), 2-6 June 2008 in Barcelona, Spain brought together over 550 representatives from around the world to network, showcase achievements, and map out requirements for distributed computing to push forward standardisation efforts. OGF23 was truly global, connecting the people of OGF with experts & newcomers alike. The event was packed full of sessions, workshops and networking opportunities, highlighting areas for existing & new core OGF work and specifications.

The Welcome Reception on 3 June was preceded by a dynamic demonstration from BEinGRID with Tae Kwon Do experts and lots of powerful music. Delegates then networked for most of the evening, celebrating the conference with beautifully presented local delicacies.

OGF23 was widely covered by international press organisations & OGF-Europe's Media Partners: British Publishers; Enter the Grid; iSGTW; On-demand Enterprise (formerly GRIDtoday); and HPCWire.

OGF23, which was hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), was jointly organised by OGF, OGF-Europe and the BEinGRID Industry Days.

OGF-Europe Highlights from OGF23

The media conference brought together a high-profile panel, including Mario Campolargo, Head of Unit, DG INFSO/F3 – GÉANT & e-Infrastructures, Craig Lee, OGF President; Werner Vogels, CTO Amazon.com; Dieter Kranzlmueller, Strategic Director of EGI (European Grid Initiative); Santi Ristol, ATOS Origin; Jamie Shiers, CERN; Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, FAPESP; and Francesc Subirada, BSC Associate Director.

OGF-Europe's first Community Outreach Seminar was dedicated to Digital Repositories - Interoperability using Grid Technologies, bringing together over 70 attendants: technology developers and user groups from Earth, Space, Natural Resource Sciences & the Humanities. This one-day seminar focused on use case studies, best practices, interoperability, standardisation and the funding of DRs. The roundtable debate helped identify opportunities for co-operation on best practices and standards compliance. The outcomes of the seminar were reported by a number of international press organisations.

Attended by over 60 people, the first series of tutorials within OGF23 demonstrated that they are an important component of the OGF agenda and a most rewarding experience for experts and attendants alike. “Tutorials provide an avenue by which we can inform current and potential users about how we conform, or are working to conform, to various Web and Grid specifications. This can assist users in making informed choices as to whether our software meets their requirements and will integrate well with other products they require”, says Mike Jackson, OGSA-DAI Project Team.
OGF23 coincided with the first meeting of OGF-Europe's Industry Expert Group (IEG), led by Dr Fabrizio Gagliardi, Microsoft Research. The IEG is composed of a distinguished panel of experts chartered with evaluating how the adoption of applied distributed computing is transforming commercial enterprise , in order to ensure Europe plays a leading role in fostering best practices, interoperation and standardisation around the core work of OGF. A detailed look at the expertise and thought leadership behind the IEG is provided in OGF-Europe's August 2008 eAnnouncement: Addressing the Challenges of a fast-changing IT Landscape.
The launch of the Student Scholarship programme within OGF23 offered an important opportunity for the OGF community to engage with the younger generation, as well as share experiences and knowledge on distributed computing. OGF23 also witnessed the attendance of the youngest ever OGF attendant, Iris Schott, from Germany. Read Iris's OGF23 Report by clicking here.

The Exhibition within OGF23 had a two-fold objective: showcase successful international partnerships for grids & promote EU's drive towards a sustainable, long-term European Grid Initiative. International partnerships on Grid are making important achievements in terms of business and scientific applications, in addition to the drive towards interoperability and standardisation. The joint stand brought together three EU projects, two focusing on China, EchoGRID and BRIDGE, and one on India, EU-IndiaGrid, to demonstrate the benefits of international co-operation in the Grid arena.

The European Grid Initiative (EGI) focuses on the transition to a new model in grid infrastructures:, as Europe supports the move from the current project-based approached towards a sustainable, long-term European Grid Initiative. The EGI Design Study (EGI_DS) represents such an effort in Europe. Driven by the needs and requirements of the research community, it is expected to enable the next leap in research infrastructures, thereby supporting collaborative scientific discoveries in the European Research Area (ERA).

The OGF23 Poster Gallery showcased the achievements and on-going activities of a number of EU-funded projects, including AWARE; CoreGRID; RESERVOIR; and XtreemOS, a silver member of OGF. The Gallery also highlighted the role of Grid Computing Now! (UK) in championing the adoption of grid technologies in the private and public sectors.

To capture the key features and international scope of OGF23, GridTalk launched its first GridCast in synergy with OGF-Europe (http://www.gridcast.org/), taking people behind the scenes and offering a forum for lively debate. The blog includes posts on various sessions, live interviews and snapshots of the media conference. Many thanks to OGF23 delegates for their enthusiasm and to bloggers for a job well done.

For further information visit the official event web pages