HTASC: A Technical Advisory Subcommittee for HEPCCC

1
HTASCA Technical Advisory Subcommittee for
HEPCCC

• Tobias Haas
• Chairperson of HTASC
• 1st iHEPCCC, 17 May, 2004

2
This Presentation

• Functioning of HTASC
• Mandate
• History
• Membership
• Topics
• My personal view on HTASC

3
History

• HTASC was founded in 1995 on the initiative of
  the George Kalmus, then Chairman of HEPCCC.
• Mandate
• The HEP-CCC Technical Advisory Subcommittee
  (HTASC) is a subcommittee of HEP-CCC.
• Each member of Restricted ECFA nominates a member
  of HTASC (implicitly for his country).
• It should provide the HEP-CCC with advice on
• future requirements in all areas of computing and
  networking.
• The technical solutions to current and future
  computing and networking problems.
• This advice should be in the form of clear
  recommendations with the technical, financial,
  strategic and "political" implications spelled
  out.
• The areas to be examined by the HTASC may be at
  the request of the HEPCCC or may be initiated by
  the HTASC itself.
• In order to carry out this mission, the HTASC may
  form specialist panels . These panels should be
  working groups with specific goals and time
  scales. Their role and composition should be
  endorsed by the HTASC and brought to the HEP-CCC
  for confirmation. Their mandate should be
  re-examined regularly (e.g. every 2 years).
• The HTASC replaces the HEPnet Technical Committee
  (HTC) and also the HEPnet Requirement Committee
  (HRC).
• The chairman is nominated for three years.

4
History

• Chair
• M. Kasemann (1995 1998)
• D. Kelsey (1998 2001 )
• T. Haas (2001 present )
• Membership
• Currently 19 members.
• Meetings
• 3 times a year, usually ahead of HEPCCC
• 26 Meetings were held since 1995
• Attendance usually 10 15

5
Current Membership

• Chairperson Tobias Haas
• Austria Gerhard Walzel
• Belgium Rosette Vandenbroucke
• CERN Jürgen Knobloch (Scientific Secretary)
• Czech republic Milos Lokajicek
• Denmark Bjorn S. Nilsson
• France Francois Etienne
• Germany Rainer Mankel
• Greece Emmanuel Floratos
• Hungary Jozsef Kadlecsik
• Italy Gian Piero Siroli (Webmaster)
• Netherlands Els de Wolf

• Norway Ola Borrebak
• Poland Grzegorz Polok
• Portugal Jorge Gomes
• Slovakia Peter Chochula
• Spain Nicanor Colino
• Switzerland Christophorus Grab
• United Kingdom Dave Bailey
• Observers
• United States Irwin Gaines
• Japan Setsuya Kawabata

6
Topics

• International Network Monitoring (95)
• EU 4th Framework Project Proposals (95)
• Mail Servers (96)
• Distributed Editing of Papers (96 98)
• Win (NT/2K/XP coordination (96 04)
• SW Licensing (96)
• Wide Area Filesystems like AFS/DFS (97/01/02)
• Programming Languages (97)
• Network Security (99/02)
• Y2K (99)

• Videoconferencing (99-04)
• OO Technology (99)
• Differenciated Network Services (QoS) (00)
• LDAP (00)
• Regional Centers (00)
• X.509 Certificates (00)
• Cost and Size of NRENs (02)
• Traveling Physicist (03)
• Cooperation of Tier2 Centers (03)

7
Documentation and Interaction with HEPCCC

• All info available on the WEB
• Home http//htasc.pi.infn.it/
• Mandate
• Membership
• Meeting Dates/Venues
• Documents
• Meeting Agendae http//agenda.cern.ch/displayLeve
  l.php?fid57
• Chairman of HTASC is a member of HEPCCC and
  reports at every meeting on HTASC activities.

8
My View on HTASC

• What is good
• HTASC is a standing committee
• The threshold for getting a discussion on a
  specific topic is small.
• HTASC has generally reacted to HEPCCC requests in
  a timely fashion.
• HTASC has been able to provide HEPCCC with
  qualified advice in an extremely wide range of
  computing topics
• HTASC has also been able to feed information
  down from HEPCCC in particular to smaller
  countries not as well connected to the HEP
  computing mainstream. This has been the prime
  motivation for many members to participate.

9
my View on HTASC

• What is bad
• The true cost of sending a request to HTASC is
  not accounted for.
• HTASC spends significant resources
• time spent by members and in particular the
  chairperson.
• travel
• HTASC can solicit contributions by good will
  only Cannot even pay travel cost to invited
  experts. This limits the reach on expert
  knowledge.

10
My personal Summary

• A body like HTASC can be very useful but its cost
  must be considered with care
• The motivation for people to serve on HTASC must
  be kept in mind
• Added value for the members
• Information feed down