I thought this meeting might be of interest to people in GridPP.

VO Architecture Middleware Planning Workshop, September 6,7, Utrecht The 
Netherlands

Terena, together with Internet2 and SURFnet are happy to announce the
first Virtual Organisation Architecture Middleware Planning (VAMP)
workshop to be held on September 6,7 2012 in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

*IdM for research and collaboration*
Goal of the workshop is to foster the deployment of identity management
and collaboration tools within the research community. The organizers of 
the workshop therefore invite the IT architects of key international
research groups (aka VO’s), along with leaders in international
federation and collaboration platform development. The intent is to
directly engage all communities into helping the VO’s in effectively
leveraging the emergent interfederation infrastructure, resulting in
more effective research organizations.

The design of the workshop is to provide structured presentations on the 
infrastructure as well as exemplar deployments within specific VO’s, and 
have extensive open discussion periods for the VO architects to share 
requirements and use cases, best practices, etc. Parallel sessions 
including common identity management needs across the collaborations and 
domain centric collaboration issues will be included.

By the end of the workshop, participants will have a new understanding
of how federations may better support VO’s, how VO’s can (and cannot)
use federation, and how what tools are available to all for
strengthening collaboration.

*Programme and themes*
The workshop will look at the identity management needs across almost
all aspects of the research process in assessing new approaches and
efficiencies. These include:

* Collaboration activities – wikis, videoconferencing and net meetings,
listprocessors, ad hoc scheduling, event calendaring, file sharing and
document centers, annotated video, science gateways and portals,
wireless access, etc.

* Domain specific uses – Grids, cloud services (IAAS and PAAS), large
scale integrated data stores (ala iRods), command line applications,
control of instruments, etc

* Scholarly tools – integration with publishers and citations,
integration with institutional CV systems, work to expedite the grant
proposal process, archival data services, etc.


*Audience*
The workshop wants to cast a wide net among international research
groups, with the expectation that large science and engineering
collaborations will be the primary participants, but also drawing on
social science and humanities international research groups.
Campus and NREN IT architects are invited to learn and contribute when
these are engaged in support of the identity management needs of the
research community. While most VO’s do not have an identity architect
per se, the people serving as “identity architects” for key virtual
organizations are also very welcome. In addition, we will invite key
people from national and international research funding organizations
(NSF, Dept of Energy, JISC, WHO, etc) to observe and hopefully shape
their future solicitations.

Venue & Registration
The VAMP workshop will take place in Utrecht, The Netherlands, an easy
30 min by train from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The venue is located at 
walking distance from Utrecht Central Station. Directions for getting to 
the venue, coming from Utrecht Central Station can be found here:
<http://www.terena.org/activities/vamp/ws1/venue.html>

Several hotels in Utrecht have made available discount rates for this
event. To book your hotel please visit our partner:
<https://secure.hotelpartner.nl/congres/default.asp?cid=A201B29EDACE7714A5169C8ABF301D893438584B>

For registration and other practical information please look here:
<http://www.terena.org/activities/vamp/ws1/>

*REFEDs*
Please note that this event will be organised in conjunction with a
REFEDs (https://ww.refeds.org) meeting on September 5. The venue for
REFEDs will be the SURFnet offices, which are also within walking
distance of the VAMP venue. For the programme and registration for the
refeds meeting please go to the REFEDs meeting page:
<https://www.terena.org/events/details.php?event_id=2287>