The Klearinghouse - a network based model for user support George H. Brett II The National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR) has as its primary goal to provide technical, engineering, and traffic analysis support of NSF High Performance Connections sites and HPNSP (high-performance network service providers) such as the NSF/MCI very high performance Backbone Network Service (vBNS). Funded by the National Science Foundation Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, NLANR is a distributed organization with three parts: Engineering Services The Engineering Services team, located at CMU/PSC, provides in-depth information and technical support for connecting to and effectively using high-performance wide-area networks to campus network engineers, gigapop operators and other high-performance networking professionals. Measurement and Analysis The Measurement and Network Analysis team, located at UCSD/SDSC, conducts performance and flow measurements for HPC sites. Applications/User Support The Distributed Applications Support team, located at UIUC/NCSA, provides support to vBNS users and assistance with high-performance applications. My work has been primarily focused with the Distributed Applictions Support Team (DAST). During the past year I have been working on a Clearinghouse for Advanced Applications. This effort involves an inventory of applications requiring high performance networks. Recently we submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation for expanded funding for The Knowledge Management Clearinghouse (The Klearinghouse). The Klearinghouse will evolve to become a national center for the identification, collection, and dissemination of information about tools, resources, and projects that require high performance networks and computational environments. While recent advances in networking and meritorious applications have been proceeding at a rapid pace, what has been lacking is a coordinated effort to capture, collect, or otherwise systematically organize experience, knowledge and other by-products of network utilization. The Klearinghouse will do this. The Klearinghouse will focus on three areas of information technologies: 1. People to People Communications - this is the space (kSpace) that knowledge grows and evolves from. This includes real-time (synchronous) and any-time (asynchronous) communications services such as video conferencing, web conferences, and electronic mail. 2. People to Content / Data - this is the knowledge base (kBase) or collections of information that are growing in number and size. 3. People to Work-Specific Technologies - these are the applications and technology tools (kTools) used to perform the research and educational activities. These tools are dedicated to serve specific purposes such as numeric analysis, genomic sequencing, or digital biological workbench. Along with the development of information resources, The Klearinghouse will encourage discussion revolving around issues of user support in these dynamic areas. While technology is advancing at increasing pace, we are observing that support services for the human infrastructure (end users) are demanding new models. Therefore, not only should we consider issues related directly to the technologies (distributed or centralized) but we need careful consideration of the issues and other costs of supporting those people using these new application environments. ------------------- George H. Brett II Senior Project Coordinator NLANR / DAST NCSA ACCESS 901 N. Stuart Str, Suite 800 Arlington, VA 22203 office 703-248-0120 mobile 202-256-1304 fax 703-248-0100 ghb@dast.nlanr.net http://www.nlanr.net http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~ghb