Dear Access Grid Colleagues
I would like to take this opportunity to promote the Global Quality Assurance Program for the Access Grid. For those who were not aware, a list of all of the Access Grids that have been quality assured can be found at the Global Node listing website (http://www.accessgrid.org/nodes). Note, those Access Grid node listings that have a red tick have been given quality assurance status. As some of you may experience poor AG sessions from time to time, the global quality assurance program has been developed to improve the overall user experience of the Access Grid. I am sure people have had at least one of the following experiences: * It took ages to finally get everything going; * The audio was terrible (and people walked out); * The whole session was a complete failure and a waste of time. Therefore, to help assist and improve the general Access Grid experience, a Global QA program has been developed which encompasses a number of benefits, these being: * A way to identify good quality nodes; * A process to provide feedback to nodes that require improvement. * Promote confidence when connecting to a new access grid node - if it has been Quality Assured, you know it should work and work well. For a quality assured node example, http://www.accessgrid.org/node/480, you can see the "ACCESS GRID CAPABILITIES" it has been given as part of the quality assurance process. These capabilities are dynamically added to your node listing when your Access Grid node passes a QA test. For the AG node listed above, it has been QA tested and has the following AG capabilities: Access Grid Version 3 Capabilities Shared Presentation Shared Browser VenueVNC-Client VenueVNC-Server Access Grid Version 2 Capabilities Shared Presentation Shared Browser VenueVNC-Client VenueVNC-Server Additional Capabilities VNC Viewer enabled VNC Server enabled Unfortunately to date, I "currently" do not have anyone in the United States acting as a regional tester. Therefore one of the purposes of this email to ask whether there are people in the U.S, or anywhere else that is interested, who would like to become a Regional QA Tester for the Access Grid. A current list of Regional testers can be found at http://www.accessgrid.org/qatesters. Prerequisites for being a regional QA tester are: * Your node must be "Quality Assured" (this is generally done by me); * You would need to undergo some basic training (about an hour's worth); and * It would be preferable if you have been using Access Grids on a regular basis for some time. If you are interested, please don't hesitate to contact me!!! For those who wish to obtain Quality Assured Status, it is recommended that you: * Read http://www.accessgrid.org/node/493 to find out the test requirements for the quality assurance process. * Read http://www.accessgrid.org/node/352 to obtain hints and tips on getting your Access Grid Node up to the required high standard. * The website http://www.accessgrid.org/node/705 highlights the marking sheets. These are the same marking sheets that "we" as QA testers will use. * Contact your local regional QA AG tester, as a list of QA testers can be found at http://www.accessgrid.org/qatesters. You may wish to run through the marking sheet and do a quick self test of your own node. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks for your time, Jason. -------------------------------------------- Jason Bell, B.I.T. (Honours) Research Systems Support Officer Information Technology Division CQ University Australia Australian Research Collaboration Service http://www.arcs.org.au/ E-mail : [email protected] [email protected] Work : +61 7 4930 9229 Mobile : 0409 630897 Postal : Building 19 Central Queensland University Bruce Highway Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, 4702 -------------------------------------------- Patience is a virtue. But if I wanted Patience, I would have become a Doctor. --------------------------------------------
