Group-Oriented Collaboration

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces an important class of Grid applications—the Access Grid system— aimed at supporting wide-area, real- time, computer-mediated communications, The Access Grid project began in 1994 to develop collaboration environments based on two assumptions: (1) over time, the amount of bandwidth and computing available to research groups would become virtually limitless; and (2) most scientific collaborations involve groups of people at each collaborating institution, not just single individuals. In designing the first Access Grid (AG), the focus was on basic enabling infrastructure, using open source software wherever possible, avoiding commitment to a particular vendor, and encouraging participants to contribute to the research and development of AG technology. The vision of the Access Grid reflects the belief that, within the near future, bandwidth, computing, and imaging power may become effectively free and that high-quality audio and video capture may be increasingly inexpensive. The challenge may associated with the ways to organize these capabilities to support high-end scientific work—to create environments that people want to spend time in and that encourage experimentation and growth.