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DART News September 2006

DART Progress

Things are progressing, somewhat slowly at the moment, as a number of ongoing issues need to be resolved, plus the complexity of the whole DART project kicks into reality.

The last progress reports circulated to the board indicated the DART project about 48% complete, but I feel this is over estimated.

Some items of interest reported to the Board were:

  • A very useful one-day DART portal workshop was held on August 2 in Melbourne, with 20 participants from all partner universities. The workshop agreed that the DART project will utilise the GridSphere portal architecture, using JSR168 portlets in a modular design.

  • The DMQ2 team visited Indiana University to meet and discuss CIMA.

  • Solid progress on Fedora–SRB interface, after feedback from the US Fedora team.

  • The SI5 team added GFarm replication management.

  • The CR3 team converted the standalone java prototype into a web application prototype to assist connecting to Fedora.

  • The CR5 team completed the initial analysis of the VALET/FEDORA interface.

  • AA1 team has developed semantic searches of annotation data, using SPARQL.

  • AA2 team has integrated Annotea Sidebar with Crystallographic Web application.

  • AA3 team have modified Vannotea2006 UI package to add features such as toolbars, menus, Jabber Chat module, looping capabilities, browser controls.

  • The AA4 team has released PLONE user documentation and the user newsletter.

  • The DA1 team has extensively analysed XACML and Fedora’s implementation.

New DART Integrator

Anthony Beitz started with the DART team on September 4 and his role is to bring the various parts of DART together, focussing on the three demonstrators, portal development plus security. He has already visited both UQ and JCU, plus he will catch up with all the Monash people very soon. Welcome on board Anthony

ARCHER project

As previously mentioned, the ARCHER project was successful in attracting funding of $4.545 million for 2007. A new logo has been designed, web domain registered, plus the website will be available soon at www.archer.edu.au

Since the announcement, lots of discussions have been taking place regarding the format of the ARCHER project, discussions at the board level, between DART Chief Investigators, with DEST, as well as with a number of NCRIS facilitators.

Archer Logo

Ah Chung, myself and Andrew have visited several people to explain the role of ARCHER and how we can potentially work with individual NCRIS capabilities. As the project will be more focused on production and development rather than research, the first dedicated position we are seeking for ARCHER is an experienced Director of Engineering.

We also had a very good meeting in Canberra on September 8, with Rhys Francis (NCRIS Facilitator for 5.16 – Platforms for Collaboration), Mike Sargent (who heads the NCRIS strategy in Australia), plus Margo Bell and Ian Lucas from DEST. Strong advice from Rhys and Mike was for ARCHER to focus on a smaller number of key NCRIS capabilities, based on need plus existing expertise in each research area.

New DART Staff

Apart from Anthony, the following people have recently joined the DART team:

  • Ron Chernich (UQ) – for the SI3 WP (replacing Stephen Jeffrey)

  • Tony O’Hagan (UQ) – for the DA3 WP (replacing Suzanne Little)

  • Natalie Pang (MU) – for the CR4 WP and Digital History demonstrator

  • Mathew Swift (MU) – for the SI7 WP (with ABM Russel)

  • Cameron Huddlestone-Holmes (JCU) – for the DMQ1 sensor network deployment.

DART Project Review

The DART Board of Management has agreed to employ an external independent consultant, to review the progress of the DART project. Mr. Richard Tan (ex ITS Director from Deakin University) has been engaged and he is currently talking to DART Chief Investigators and project managers, as well as board members.

JCU’s UK trip

I was lucky enough to join the JCU trip to the UK, with Frank Eilert, Matthew Wyatt, Tristan King and Trina Myers. We visited Southampton, Oxford, London and Manchester. Carole Goble’s group at Manchester University was the most impressive for me, with an extensive group of people supporting production e-Research middleware tools, including MyGrid and the Taverna workbench, with ‘MyExperiment’ in the pipeline. The JCU guys reported that their visits to the CCLRC sites at Southampton, Oxford and Manchester were very impressive. Trina, who is a PhD student working with Ian Atkinson, was most impressed by the semantic web and ontology people she met, discussing leading edge developments in these fields. Hopefully we can organise the mutual exchange of people between Australia and the UK, possibly on 3-4 month e-Research technology visits.

DEST Reporting

The final DEST reports for 2006 are due internally by October 20, prior to the October 27 DART Board of Management meeting. Note that both progress and cash-flow reports are required. The final 1/6th portion of DART funding from DEST will be then be available, subject to satisfactory reporting from DART. I will also be formally writing to DEST to request that the DART project carries forward unspent funds from 2006 into 2007.

DART Project Office

Jeff, Anthony and Judy are shifting office on September 27, across to 700 Blackburn Road, Clayton. However this will be temporary until our ‘new’ offices are renovated. The new area (still in 700 Blackburn Road) will be shared with VeRSI or the Victorian e-Research Strategic Initiative, to be headed by Paul Davis, currently Director of GrangeNet.


Jeff McDonell, DART Project Director

September 22, 2006



dart@dart.edu.au | DART Project Office, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; Telephone +61 3 9905 4187; Facsimile +61 3 9905 3024