Derek,

In the state of louisiana the movement to have and use AG nodes has been on the 
uptick and is one of the existing applications to use the new network 
infrastructure going into place here. Everytime one is seen in action - (even 
with the rough edges involved sometimes) folks are impressed. For our grant, we 
use them on a regular basis. Although, education and support is something that 
is constantly on going. On the other hand, the number of external sites hasn't 
really grown too much and i'm still struggling to get some sites here to put 
their regular seminar offerings on the AG - but when the seminars are scheduled 
on short notice, etc. it's difficult for them to go through the motions of 
"putting" them on the AG.

We had two courses utilizing AG and AGVCR in one Center here i'm aware of last 
semester and this semester at least one, possibly two again.

My largest problem has been getting a stable multicast infrastructure to work 
with; however, our state network is currently in the midst of a major upgrade - 
which includes getting training and implementing multicast which I think is 
critical for the success of the AG as it is now. Our use is on the upswing. I'm 
busier than ever talking to people about it. I'd been meaning to write up 
something about this for Tom. Oddly enough it's the chicken egg thing - i'm 
busy doing it and finding time to write it takes... well, time away from doing. 
I need to just get it done and document our use for all to see...

The largest hurdles for me are people want: 1) for me to tell them exactly what 
to buy on the spot and where to get it (which is not trivial because we have to 
bid out as a state agency for items over a certain amount), 2) networking, 
networking, networking... did i say networking? i.e. MULTICAST and 3) 
staffing/support. #3 is interesting because sites need to recognize that there 
are computers, networking, and software to support on this and they aren't sure 
they can or want to do this in terms of people - despite the fact that i see 
they've done so for regular A/V services. They want it to "just work", but 
nothing is ever that simple, including other forms of teleconferencing in my 
experience. But that's just my experience.

Anyhow, quick dirty reply - i'm about to write an answer to yet another request 
for info within our state...

You know, we really should do Jason's certification process here. I know Cindy 
has. It'd be another step in the right direction to making administrations 
realize this is a serious use of these systems and not just ad-hoc as some may 
think. I'm just as guilty for not taking time to do so - and then as a site I 
could do my state, etc.

-John Q.

--

John I. Quebedeaux, Jr.; Louisiana State University

Computer Manager LBRN; 131 Life Sciences Bldg.

e-mail: jo...@lsu.edu<mailto:jo...@lsu.edu>; web: http://lbrn.lsu.edu

phone: 225-578-0062 / fax: 225-578-2597



On Jan 4, 2007, at 1:25 PM, Derek Piper wrote:



   Hi all,

   I've been part of the AG community for a while now, nearly 3 years and over 
that time I've not seen a lot of growth in the number of sites that we 
interface with for AccessGrid meetings. Quite oppositely I have seen sites that 
were good AG participants fall into 'disrepair' through lack of funding and 
site expertise.
   A bit of a devil's advocate question, but is AccessGrid usage declining? Is 
AccessGrid on the way out? I've seen people turn to things such as Polycom for 
meetings rather than have AccessGrid meetings.
   I'm curious to learn of other points of view on this.

   Derek

   --
   Derek Piper - dcpi...@indiana.edu<mailto:dcpi...@indiana.edu> - (812) 856 
0111
   IRI 323, School of Informatics
   Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana



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