Grid 2.0: Collaboration and Sharing on the Grid

Grid computing, the application of many loosely-coupled computers in federation to provide shared resources makes significant compute or storage capabilities accessible to distributed teams of researchers. In doing so, it also poses a challenge: How do distributed teams collaborate effectively with these resources? This project will determine how best to apply social and collaboration software techniques to improve the efficiency of collaboration between distributed teams working on grid computing systems. To determine the feasibility of bringing open collaboration tools to grid researchers, we conducted a test case for the integration of off-the-shelf collaboration software tools with grid infrastructure. We developed a prototype software architecture and prototype integration of atypical web-based collaboration application with an open source grid computing system. We identified those features of existing grid infrastructure that limit the adoption of collaboration tools in this environment. In Phase II, we directly address the weakest component: open, standardized protocols for identity management, authorization, and delegation on the grid, via a federated identity management system providing support for software authorization and delegation. In Phase I, we conducted a feasibility study for running collaboration-oriented web applications on grid systems, developed a prototype architecture for integrating them, and a proof-of