Institution Name:       Florida State University
Work Package Title:     ASC CY5 IC
Project Title:          Collaborative Computational Science Portal
POC:                    Bernholdt David E Geoffrey C. Fox
Email:                  bernhold@npac.syr.edu, gcf@cs.fsu.edu
Phone:                  315 443 3857 850-644-4587
Fax:                    315 443 1973
CTA or PEI:             Information and Communications
Project Description:

Provides Gateway distributed computing infrastructure with a general
collaborative framework consistent with emerging national community
architecture. Demonstrates this framework within a Gateway PSE

Project Objectives:

We have studied the problem of integrating the computing capabilities
of Gateway with the collaborative structure illustrated by systems
like Habanero and TangoInteractive. Both NCSA (with Chemical
Engineering portal and Habanero) and us have concluded that there is
no easy way to merge the current implementations. Technology has
changed and the integration requires major changes in the
collaborative architecture. We have taken Gateway's framework viewed
as a computing portal together with similar education training and
computing portals and designed a new architecture of a "Collaborative
Portal". As asynchronous collaboration is dominant mode (compared to
synchronous) and this is automatically supported by a portal, we
consider that one should first start with portal technology (as in
Gateway) and then add collaborative capabilities. As described in
http://www.new-npac.org/users/fox/documents/pajavaapril00/, we have
designed an approach that extends the XML interfaces used in current
Gateway to define all properties of a portal -- the objects in the
portal, their layout, their parameters and their collaborative
mode. The XML syntax is whimsically termed "betterportalML".  The
purpose of this effort is to demonstrate these capabilities within
Gateway for some simple but key components of a portal -- those
specified by simple web fragments. These include initial parameters,
portal information pages and displayed output data in web forms.

We are pursuing these general ideas with the national Computing
Portals Forum and will adapt our work to accord with their
recommendations. This strategy will ensure that DoD is investing in
re-usable technology with broad national support.

Our plan is straightforward. First we will refine our crude ideas to
define the collaborative features in "betterportalML". Then we will
demonstrate this as a collaborative object outside Gateway. As the key
final deliverable, we will demonstrate this collaborative structure in
Gateway for one CTA to be discussed with ASC.

Deliverables:

o Initial design with Gateway Core group and Computing Portals Forum of
  Collaboration features in "betterportalML" (September 00)
o Stand-alone Shared components (January 01)
o Shared Data, Parameters and Portal Information in Gateway (May 01)

Customers/End Users:

Users of the Gateway architecture (PET initially, MSRC users eventually)

Benefit to Warfighter:

This project will expand the kind of productivity enhancements that
is possible through the use of the Gateway system.

Project Dependencies and Scope:

This project requires interaction with the Gateway Portal Teams

Risk Element:

This is an evolving area but our established collaborations with
national leaders in field should ensure that successful progress.
More risky is prediction of exact timing and precise nature of deliverables

Required Funding Level
        Year 5:         73,366