One VRE to Join Them All (OneVRE)
Outline
OneVRE is funded by JISC within the third phase of the Virtual Research Environments (VRE). It is managed by Martin Turner.
This project will enable enhanced data and application sharing between communities that are already using separate VREs. A new VRE Framework will be created through the integration of the Portal Access Grid (PAG) into and joining together existing VREs, which are based on JSR-168 standard portal environments such as Sakai.
Many research communities already utilise portals as an environment in which to collaborate; however, this project will allow users to bridge between individual portals and thus enable cross-portal collaboration.
This enhanced and broadened interoperability will use existing tools to enable completely novel functionality beyond the scope of most existing VREs. The project will address two significant challenges in realising this goal: the need for simple, intuitive user interfaces to allow this cross-portal interoperability to be accessible and the need to retain a high level of security by default.
As a test case, this project will engage two related but separate research communities: the National Centre for e-Social Science and the National Centre for Research Methods each of which use their own collaboration environment. We will use the outputs of this project to enable these two communities to share data and applications and thus enhance and extend collaboration between them.
The full project proposal can be found on the RCS website
Virtual Organization Security Model
- Each PAG server hosts a Venue Server
- Venue Server that creates a new VO hosts the VO venue
- Bridging between venues?
- Each PAG server has a list of trusted PAG servers that can be updated by the “local PAG admin” – new role in the portal container to be set by Portal admin
- PAG server certificate exchange
- Users can create a new VO on the local Server and invite local users into VO
- the local VO is administered by VO administrators (the VO creator and users selected by him/her) – each of the VO admins has the same permissions as the creator
- the local VO administrator can request a user list of a VO on a remote trusted PAG server (remote VO admins will be highlighted)
- the local VO admin can invite remote VO – remote VO admin approves
- Users can request entry into a local VO (what criteria should be used to decide opening to a new user)
Security implications
- who permits access?
- How do we bar users?
- Local users are barred by VO admin
- Remote barring is the whole remote VO being barred with a text message to the remote VO admins that they are barred and a reason can be provided (problem with user X)
User Partners
Evaluation is in active collaboration with Meik Poschen (MeRC - Manchester eResearch Centre); under the CoI position of Rob Procter (MeRC).
A current list of users and stakeholders as well as members of the steering panel.
- Mark Birkin GENeSIS, as well as 'NeISS' (National e-Infrastructure for Social Simulation) at Leeds.
- Andy Turner NeISS, at Leeds.
- Paul Lambert DAMES, at Stirling
John McDonald (Mac) NCRM ADMIN, at Institute of Education University of London
- Alastair Gill CRESS (the Centre for Research in Social Simulation) - SIMIAN, at Surrey
- Tim Parkinson OMII-UK
Also Simon Hettrick at OMII-UK aiding in dissemination.