Here's an e-mail that's being sent to various parts of the UK community today. Although the support centre is not available for use by non-UK users, I'm sure many of you will be interested. It's one of the reasons I couldn't join you all at the AG Retreat last week. It sounded fun...!
> -----Original Message----- > From: Grid Engineering Task Force [mailto:[email protected]] > On Behalf Of Michael Daw > Sent: 15 June 2004 13:26 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Announcing the Access Grid Support Centre > > The Access Grid Support Centre goes live today. From now on, > Access Grid in the UK has a formal support centre for > registered UK academic users and those associated with > academic research projects. > > Contact us at [email protected] or 0161 275 6824/5997. > > From the home page of http://www.agsc.ja.net/: > > The Access Grid Support Centre (AGSC) is managed by UKERNA > and run by the University of Manchester. > > Our aim is to improve the user experience of Access Grid for > academic users in the UK by offering a range of ubiquitous > services, on-line and workshop training, a programme of > Quality Assurance tests, and general support and advice. > > We currently offer the following services: > > * A Virtual Venue Server as a robust navigation point to > standard Access Grid and UK-specific virtual venues > > * A ubiquitous and robust Multicast-Unicast Bridge for sites > in the process of establishing multicast connectivity and/or > for sites with temporary multicast problems > > * An inSORS IG Pix Server to enable sites to share Microsoft > PowerPoint presentations with remote sites via easily > configurable software that only has to be installed at the > node making the presentation, dramatically simplifying the > process of sharing slides > > * inSORS IG Recorder for recording Access Grid sessions > > * An experimental H.323 - Access Grid Bridge Server > > More services are likely to be added later. > > A programme of Quality Assurance testing is designed to > ensure a high quality of Access Grid facilities at > participating sites to overcome problems of poor audio, > camera placement, etc. that can detrimentally affect the user > experience. > > As well as providing access to our own and others' on-line > training and documentation, we also run a series of workshops > every six months that cover issues such as an introduction to > the Access Grid; services offered by the AGSC; raising > awareness of existing documentation; the wider Access Grid > community; debugging and fault finding techniques, especially > in the areas of audio and network; and tips for administering > Access Grid nodes. > > Additionally, we offer support and advice by e-mail and > telephone on all aspects of Access Grid, such as procurement, > running events, operating nodes and so on. In some > circumstances, we are prepared to visit sites (at their > expense) to provide more in-depth consultancy. These are > arranged on request. > > > _______________________________________________________ > > Michael Daw, e-Science Consultant > SVE Group (Supercomputing, Visualization and e-Science) > > Manchester Computing, Kilburn Building, > University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK > > Tel: +44 (0)161 275 7026 > Fax: +44 (0)161 275 6800/6040 > E-mail: [email protected] > > http://www.sve.man.ac.uk/General/Staff/daw > _______________________________________________________ > >
