[seek-dev] suggested Ecogrid tasks

[Matt Jones]

Hi Bing,



Bing Zhu wrote:
> Matt,
> 
> After talked with Raja, we suggested the following tasks for
> Ecogrid development.
> 
> 1. Ecogrid web page development for
>      - upload Eco-data into SEEK data repositories (Metacat, SRB, DiGir,
> etc)
>      - search and view SEEK Eco-data
I agree we need this, and the work has already been started by the web 
developer (Tekell) at UNM.  I'd rather not start again, but rather build 
off of what he did.  We are currently recruiting a new web developer to 
replace Tekell whose responsibilities will include getting a web 
interface in place.  That said, we could probably get you involved in 
continuing the work so that it doesn't stagnate and we get it done sooner.

>      - submit computational jobs in Ecogrid
> 
> 1. Deployment of Condor to Ecogrid for distributed job submission.
>      This is a feedback from Raja's talk in SEEK workshop in Jan.
>      Most probably we will use the approach of Minigrid from UK.
>      We are aware of the similar R&D work by you and Ilkay for a Kepler
>      solution. I didn't see the conflict between these two efforts.

OK, I'm not sure this feature needs to exist in the traditional portal 
form -- I don't think our user base would use it.  We do definitely have 
a need for running distributed jobs, but as you mention we have been 
working on this from other angles -- mainly including support in Kepler 
for distributing jobs.  Although there isn't a conflict between the 
efforts, we do have limited resources so I would rather you contribute 
to our existing development rather than start something independent.  We 
should talk this over -- we need someone to help with the development of 
the grid stuff that Ilkay and I have been planning.  In my opinion this 
is higher priority than (1), so if you have free cycles I'd like to talk 
about this soon.

> 
> 3. Build SEEK digital library -- This is a huge job and will
>      be very useful for SEEK project and Eco-scientists in general.
>      Basically we would find any public Eco data and mine those data into
>      Metacat (if XML documents) or SRB (if a file, e.g. image, acoustic
>      data, etc).
>      And also the data collected in our Ecogrid can provide useful info for
>      other SEEK groups such as Taxonomy and modeling.
>      Actually there are a lot of Eco data just at SDSC. We need to
>      talk to those domain scientists and mine their data into SEEK
>      data repositories. It is conceivable that collecting eco-data can be
>      our big useful task.
I agree this is a good idea, but I also agree with other comments that 
it might be better tackled under separate funding.  We don't really have 
the resources to work on data resources outside of our case-study areas.

Are you around today -- I'd like to have a chat with you about this stuff.

Matt

> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> Bing
> Ecogrid Team
> SEEK project
> ===============================================================
> Bing Zhu
> Programmer/Analyst III
> San Diego Supercomputer Center
> (858)534-8373
> bzhu at sdsc.edu
> ===============================================================

-- 
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Matt Jones                                     jones at nceas.ucsb.edu
http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/    Fax: 425-920-2439    Ph: 907-789-0496
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
University of California Santa Barbara
Interested in ecological informatics? http://www.ecoinformatics.org
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