AstroGrid Management Team
Andy Lawrence, AstroGrid Project Leader, University of Edinburgh
Tony Linde, AstroGrid Programme Manager, University of Leicester
Keith Noddle, AstroGrid Project Manager, University of Leicester
Nic Walton, AstroGrid Project Scientist, University of Cambridge
Mike Watson, AGLI representative, University of Leicester
Richard McMahon, AGLI representative, University of Cambridge
AstroGrid-2 operates on a six month planning cycle, operating on calendar semesters. There is an overall lifetime Roadmap, which can be found at http://wiki.astrogrid.org/bin/view/Astrogrid/AG2LifePlanRoadmap . For each cycle however we produce a top-level "Cycle Plan" (this document) which is fixed for that cycle. This is used by the AGLI to track progress at monthly meetings, and by PPARC's AstroGrid Oversight Committee (AGOC) to review progress at six monthly meetings. Within a cycle, development processes are much shorter and very agile, but the top level goals will not be revised during the cycle. (Any changes required by circumstances will simply be reported to the AGLI and AGOC). In parallel with developing this Cycle Plan the Project Manager works with the project team to develop a Detailed Project Plan to implement the Cycle Plan goals. The Management Team are responsible for producing the plan, following planning meetings involving project staff, and subject to AGLI approval.
Cycle-2 saw several significant improvements in the AstroGrid products. The underlying software infrastructure is much more mature, and its performance and robustness has improved markedly. This has justified AstroGrid's place as the core infrastructure for Euro-VO, and the confidence of our European partners has improved correspondingly. Furthermore several external projects (in Japan, Russia, and South Africa) have expressed interest in adopting AstroGrid components, and we have begun to positively encourage this interest. At the same time the useability and power of the deployed system from the point of the astronomical end user has also improved greatly, with the Astroscope resource explorer a particular success. However there is some way to go both in firming up the infrastructure, and improving the user experience, especially for beginning users, and populating the new contextual help system. The general consensus therefore was that for Cycle-3 we should resist the temptation to add new functionality, and instead concentrate on consolidation and outreach.
In summary, the Cycle-3 goals are to :
Specific deliverables are summarised here. Brief explanations are appended below. VOTECH deliverables are included - but note that these are not completely under the control of AstroGrid.
Software Product C3-01 UWS standard and first prototype 2006 Feb 01 C3-02 Query Builder and Workflow Builder for Workbench 2006 Mar 01 C3-03 VOTECH Infrastructure Study Report (VOTECH) 2006 Apr 01 C3-04 Single Sign-on for VO services 2006 May 01 C3-05 UKIDSS Full Access 2006 Jun 01 Science Services C3-06 Personalised tools Call-1 (VOTECH) 2006 Mar 01 C3-07 Define new "Science Themes" 2006 Mar 15 C3-08 Science Framework Document (VOTECH) 2006 Jun 01 C3-09 AstroScope upgrades (SSAP,SLAP) 2006 Jun 01 Community C3-10 Developer workshop(s) 2006 Jan 20 C3-11 Science workshop(s) 2006 Feb 02 C3-12 Set VOTECH Stage-3 goals 2006 Mar 10 C3-13 Deployment Release AGV1.5 2006 Apr 03 C3-14 Demos at NAM and MIST 2006 Apr 03 C3-15 AGSAG submission of papers to IAU 2006 Apr 15 C3-16 Complete integration of contextual documentation 2006 May 01 C3-17 Demonstration of large data volume problem (VOTECH) 2006 Jun 01 C3-18 Refurbished web pages 2006 Jun 01
AGLI meeting : approval of plan 2006 Jan 12 Further AGLI meetings 2006 monthly AGSAG-2 2006 Feb 02 AstroGrid Oversight Committee 2006 Feb 06 AGDAG-2 2006 Mar 01 VOTECH Technical Advisory Panel 2006 Mar 8-9 IVOA Interop workshop, Canada 2006 May 14-19 Cycle-4 planning meetings 2006 late May Consortium meeting at RAL 2006 Jun 19-20 VOSAC 2006 TBD
C3-01 UWS standard and first prototype The key to our success in applications integration and workflow has been the definition of a Common Execution Architecture (CEA), and Common Execution Connectors, which define a Web Service interface to applications of all kinds, and allow asynchronous activity. To consolidate this success, we aim to engineer a new WS-RF based version for standardisation, called the Universal Worker Service (UWS).
C3-02 Query Builder and Workflow Builder for Workbench These are GUIs which allow users to submit a query to any VO compatible queryable database, and to construct workflows using any compatible service or application in the Registry. These already exist in the web browser based portal, but are inflexible and slow. What is needed is to re-design and re-engineer them for the Java based Workbench user interface.
C3-03 VOTECH Infrastructure Study Report (VOTECH) This is one of the first key deliverables of work area DS3 in VOTECH. It will report the technical assessment studies of possible new infrastructure components made by ourselves and our European partners.
C3-04 Single Sign-on for VO services This is the only major missing infrastructure component from our original plans. We expect to achieve internationally consistent community based single sign-on by mid-2006, allowing authorised read access; and secure access by the end of 2006, allowing full control and write access to relevant services. Because authentication and authorisation is of such widespread importance in both the commercial and the academic world, the underlying mechanism is likely to evolve, but the structure within which it is implemented, of community based user registration and authentication, will be stable.
C3-05 UKIDSS Full Access The UKIDSS database is of key significance to European astronomers, but requires controlled access, because it has staged proprietary rights for differing communities. The Early Data Release (EDR) is Jan 31st 2006, with an expected First Full Data Release (DR1) in July 2006. Access has been arranged through the WFCAM Science Archive (WSA) using a kind of mock-up of the AstroGrid system, with a hand-managed community based registration system. We also established a MySpace service attached to the WSA, and inserted a link to the existing WSA service within the AstroGrid workbench. As soon as the Community/Single-Sign-On component is complete we can integrate UKIDSS fully.
C3-06 Personalised tools Call-1 (VOTECH) AstroGrid constructs the infrastructure which makes it possible for others to publish data services and write software tools which can use the infrastructure. To encourage this process, we will run an AO for new tools, encouraging astronomers to work with us to build what they need. Two VOTECH funded staff working within the AstroGrid team will be partly dedicated to working with the community in this way, one on client side tools, and one on server side tools.
C3-07 Define new "Science Themes" Discussions with the AGSAG and within our own science team have led to new ideas for "science themes" which can provide a focus for continued developments. These will properly be developed during Cycle-3, with the aim of being used to guide new tools and parameterised workflows during Cycle-4 and 5.
C3-08 Science Framework Document (VOTECH) This is a key deliverable of the VOTECH project, and is essentially a requirements analysis document for the future Euro-VO. The VOTECH project scientist is also the AstroGrid Project Scientist - Nic Walton. He will be working with the new VOSAC to produce this document.
C3-09 AstroScope upgrades (SSAP,SLAP) The staged delivery of Astroscope in Cycle-2 was successful. So far it is aware of catalogues and image access (SIAP) services. The next key service type is spectra (SSAP) and line data (SLAP), the protocols for which are only just being completed by the IVOA.
C3-10 Developer workshop(s) Now that the AstroGrid infrastructure is relatively stable, we aim to encourage its uptake - by other VO projects, by data centres, by tools writers, and by Departments hosting end-users. We intend to run a series of workshops training staff in how to install, configure, and maintain AstroGrid components.
C3-11 Science workshop(s) A related but separate activity is running training workshops for end users, focused on the use of the workbench and tools, including advanced workflow construction and scripting.
C3-12 Set VOTECH Stage-3 goals VOTECH also runs on a six month planning cycle, but half a cycle out of phase. Goals are set in a series of meetings culminating in the "Technical Advisory Panel (TAP)" on March xxth. Goals are agreed across the European partners of course, but it is crucial that we keep AstroGrid and VOTECH work as well aligned as possible, to minimise the work required. We therefore have an internal target to set VOTECH goals consistent with our own plans.
C3-13 Deployment Release AGV1.5 Functionality and useability is improving continuously, but we plan to package a significant set of improvements as a well publicised release, timed to coincide with the NAM and MIST events.
C3-14 Demos at NAM and MIST We will run a demo stall at both NAM and MIST. This was very successful last year. There will also be a VO session within NAM.
C3-15 AGSAG submission of papers to IAU Within the IAU General Assembly at Prague in August, there is a three day "Special Session" on the VO. It is intended that this feature scientific results from end users as well as technical advancements from the VO projects. Rather than leaving this entirely to chance, we are activley working with AGSAG members to complete pieces of science using AstroGrid, and to submit abstracts to this IAU conference.
C3-16 Complete integration of contextual documentation A considerable amount of documentation has already been developed, but this needs to be integrated in an interactive and contextual way into the Workbench and the various tools. This is very important for the useability of the system.
C3-17 Demonstration of large data volume problem (VOTECH) Work Area DS6 in VOTECH is analysing the additional infrastructure needs for server side data mining and visualisation. A key part of this is taking a challenge problem, using a real large data set, and adapting an existing data mining package, in order to discover the key issues in practice.
C3-18 Refurbished web pages Considerable development of web pages has already taken place in Cycles-1 and 2, but in a rather ad hoc way. We are undertaking a review of who needs our information pages and why - staff members, external software installers, astronomical users, casual browsers, etc - and intend to restructure our web pages accordingly.