Cyberbridges—magically built from the middle out

Munich Airport Main Terminal

I’m thrilled to be in Munich for the EGI Community Forum as US Correspondent once again this year! This is my third year to attend the EGEE/EGI event and I see many familiar faces, and some new ones.

When I write about cyberculture, inspiration can come from anywhere—session content, dinner conversations, or those ah-ha moments we all have when we least expect them. This year, I thought about focusing on EGI’s underlying themes of collaboration and sharing, but I changed my mind. Instead, I will write about bridging, for bridges enable collaboration and sharing. Unlike bricks and mortar bridges, cyberbridges are built from the inside-out. Therefore middleware development has my attention.

Since I’ve been intimately involved with the US academic high-performance computing realm, I’m especially interested in EU/US research collaborations and progress made toward the integration of HPC and HTC resources. Because sharing involves data, I’ll explore innovative ways the EGI community is handling the data tsunami and, of course, the magic in the middle.

Please help by identifying relevant topics for me to explore this week. Send email introductions and/or suggestions with the subject line “BRIDGING” to e_leake@hotmail.com. You will find me on FaceBook and LinkedIn, or ping me on AOL instant messenger (itbeth).