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Initial reflections on OGF20 / EGEE User Forum

So that was OGF20 and the 2nd EGEE User Forum. I was so busy there that I didn't have time or energy to blog. So much happened in such a short time that I'd have been hard put to keep up.

This turned out to be the best-attended GGF/OGF meeting ever, narrowly beating GGF5 (which was held in Edinburgh in 2002). We had over 900 people attend during the course of the week and a significant number stayed for all or most of the week. I haven't had feedback from all the sessions but I believe the workshops were well attended and I know the Grids Mean Business and the EGEE-specific sessions went very well.

A notable aspect of the week was the good interaction between the different communities. In particular, the colocation of the OGF and EGEE events has helped to show both sides where standards can apply or are needed. The commercial delegates helped to guide the requirements for standardisation work as well as sharing information on best practice. The exhibition space had a particularly good showing of EC-funded R&D projects as well as the EGEE demos, which certainly gave me a better picture of what these projects aim to achieve, in addition to stands from industry sponsors and UK e-Science.

Tony Hey and Peter Coveney gave stimulating keynote speeches, each worthy of its own blog entry. Mark Linesch, Ian Bird and Mario Campolargo gave overviews of OGF, EGEE and of the latest round of EU funding opportunities. Many other presentations raised interesting ideas and experiences. I was (of course) particularly pleased with the Grids Mean Business sessions, which were well attended and full of interested presentations, even though I say so myself. Gillian Law has written reports of these sessions which you can find on the Grid Computing Now! web site.

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