Inaugural International Open Research Cloud Congress
Hosted by: The OpenStack Foundation and MIT
Location: Hynes Convention Center and MIT Stata Center
Advancing International Cooperation and Collaboration Between and Among Open Scientific Research Clouds
Congratulations to the participants in the Inaugural International Open Research Cloud Congress on May 11th-12th in Boston. Over 80 participants, including representation from the academic research community, major funding and national policy agencies and industry from a dozen countries came together for an extraordinary and open dialogue about the need for international cooperation and collaboration between and among private and public clouds supporting scientific research.
We heard from thought leaders leading initiatives including major scientific clouds, public cloud providers, funding agencies, identity and research data federation initiatives – a series of panel presentations and discussions were substantive, informative and collectively formed the basis of what is starting to take shape as an Open Research Cloud Declaration describing those conventions that the community is prepared to adopt and support.
The discussions concluded with initial draft statements and framing of the scope of coverage for the declaration. Participants were asked to continue contributing to the draft their input and feedback as well as any references to the ongoing work of community groups that should be included in our considerations so that the ORC effort builds on the great work already in progress. Indeed, one very important outcome of the meeting was the opportunity to inform participants of initiatives and meaningful progress already underway globally.
The group also agreed to continue the discussion on recurring bi-monthly calls that will focus on the initial drafting of the conventions, coordinating on outreach to funding agencies and planning for the second congress in Amsterdam (September 2017) and third congress in Sydney (November 2017). There was also a consensus agreement that we would individually within our respective research communities identify and encourage “experiments” and practical use cases that would serve to tease out challenges and provide real examples of potential ways of resolving issues and problems.
Those interested in the activities of the group should write Khalil Yazdi (khalilyazdi@outlook.com) directly.
On behalf of co-Chair Wilfred Brimblecombe and the planning group, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to the OpenStack Foundation and the event staff for their support on Thursday and to MIT for hosting us on Friday at the Strata Center.
