This post is part of a series aiming to explain and give examples of what it means to be part of the Community Programme. Read the previous blogs “Added Value and Impact” and “Who is it for?”.
“We launched many specific services after discussing them in the group – spam filtering, phishing simulation, joint purchase of digital certificates & cloud services, systems for fast data transfer of scientific files, DDoS mitigation, etc.”
In the past two blog posts, we painted a picture of the GÉANT Community Programme (GCP) with the words of the members themselves who shared what it means to them to be part of the Community.
The testimonials collected give a special focus to non-tangible benefits like the sense of community and support, the international connections with likeminded peers and the continuous learning through interactive and engaging online and offline conversations.
These impalpable yet invaluable benefits are paired with the fact that the GCP has also contributed to a number of initiatives that developed into services for the wider research and education community. eduroam, InAcademia and eduMEET are probably among the most known services that were discussed or developed originally in the Task Force on Mobility and Network Middleware (not operative anymore), the Research and Education Federations group (REFEDS) and the Task Force on Multimedia Applications respectively.
Other successful outputs from REFEDS include SCHAC (SCHema for Academia, which promotes common schemas in the field of higher education to facilitate inter-institutional data exchange); TACAR (Trusted Academic Certification Authority Repository); and eduPKI for the provision of trusted digital certificates.
The list goes on and on including applications for file sharing (OpenMeshCloud and FileSender), training courses (TRANSITS training), workshops on crisis management and communications (CLAW workshops) and a website entirely dedicated to the value offer and societal impact of NRENs (The Case for NRENS).
Discussions within the groups have also contributed with ideas to the development of the SPEC Cloud IaaS 2016 benchmark to measure cloud performance, the 2020 OCRE cloud tender and the addition of the Service Matrix in the NREN Compendium.
“Many ideas on how to engage HR and how to better communicate with them. It was really useful!”
“I am inspired to make a surveys strategy and incorporate metrics”
These and many other ideas are innovative solutions that were found within the GCP in response to common cross-country and cross-organisation issues, to which the members found answers by sharing ideas and experiences.
As a consequence of the ever-evolving nature of the technology trends and challenges, the topics and the specialised groups of the programme are also always evolving to ensure they are up to date to respond to the Community’s needs.
If you are interested in reading more about the GCP, its activities and achievements, visit the website: https://community.geant.org/
