Monday 15 September 2008

And breathe...well not quite (and some big news!)

Has everyone recovered from last week at AHM 2008? I don't think I have and I know that many people don't have time to. I'm back in the office this week to get ready for the EGEE '08 conference next week in Istanbul. Thankfully my workshop,which I've mentioned previously, is all set as far as I can tell. Just the complicated logistics now of getting the promotional literature sent over for the UK and Ireland Federation stand on which the NGS will be displaying. Oh and writing my presentation....

The other BIG news is that registration has opened for the NGS Innovation Forum '08. It's a 2 day event which will be held in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI) on the 4th - 5th November. The event is free to attend (yes FREE) and we are pleased to announce that Daniel Katz who has recently been appointed TeraGrid GIG (Grid Infrastructure Group) Director of Science, will be speaking at the event.

There will also be presentations by NGS users on how the NGS has become a powerful research tool for them, presentations on novel technologies available through the NGS and of course NGS staff will be on hand to speak to users.

The second day will be run in conjunction with Campus Grid SIG and will focus on the benefits of joining the NGS as well as technical requirements.

Although the event is free to attend, registration is required at the NGS website. There is also a Facebook event page. Everyone who is interested in the NGS is encouraged to attend as well as current, past and potential users. Please feel free to spread the word at your institution about the event!

Wednesday 10 September 2008

Live from AHM 2008

Everyone else is blogging about the LHC so I thought I would do something completely different! I'm currently in the Infrastructure Provision for Grids, Infrastructure for Users workshop organised by myself and Andrew Richards. This is only due to the world not coming to an end as thought by many people.

We've had some really good talks including one on the Genius project which uses NGS resources. The project was also featured in New Scientist this week. Kudos to the New Scientist for getting our name right unlike The Economist!

The NGS stand has had a steady stream of visitors but of course we'd like to see more of you! We still have lots of demos today and one tomorrow as well. You can also pick up a grid certificate at the stand.

Tonight is the conference dinner which I know a lot of people are looking forward to at Dynamic Earth.

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Busy time at the NGS

It's been rather busy here at the NGS for the last month or so hence the lack of posts. Well I should say that I've been busy so I haven't been posting!

Conference preparations really are in full swing for next weeks AHM 2008 in Edinburgh. I've been running around organising demos for the NGS exhibition booth (No.13 in Appleton Tower) and we've got some new interesting demos for you to come and see from geodemographic modelling to how the NGS is helping to treat cancer.
We're also involved in several workshops including "Infrastructure Provision for ‘Grids’, Infrastructure for Users" which I'm organising along with Andrew Richards. This workshop has an interesting range of papers so it would be good to see you there!

I've also finalised preparations for the workshop that I'm organising at the EGEE conference in Istanbul at the end of September. Entitled "Beating the drum: your trials, tribulations and tips for successful grid dissemination", this workshop will look at ways and means of telling people about the grid be they academic users or business users.

In other news the new edition of the NGS newsletter, NGS News, is out now. If you won't be at AHM 2008 or EGEE you can download a copy from our website.

See you next week in Edinburgh!