Collaborative Tools

Collaborative Tools • Sharing Knowledge: Media Wiki and other collaborative tools -- Matt Bellis • Sharing Code: Distributed version control and social development -- Joe Blaylock • Sharing Science: SSRL Remote Lab -- Thomas Eriksson • Sharing Results: Reading, writing, citing and sharing HEP-- Travis Brooks • Collaboration tools: What is (or should be) centrally supported at SLAC -- Tony Johnson • Favorite collaboration tools for science -- open mike

Collaboration tools: What is (or should be) centrally supported at SLAC Tony Johnson tonyj@slac.stanford.edu SLAC Scientific Computing Workshop June 2011

SLAC Web Tools • There was a time when SLAC led the world in collaborative web tools for science • That time was 1991 – and back then it didn’t take very much

Collaborative tools at SLAC (20 years on) • Centrally Supported Tools • Confluence Wiki • JIRA web based issue tracking • Forum • (Share point) • Single sign-on service (crowd) • What tools should be centrally supported (if any)? • Discussion

Confluence Wiki • Installed for use by Glast/Fermi in 2004 • Rapidly adopted by collaboration • Very mild learning curve • people just pick it up • Became focal point for software development and later physics analysis discussion • Recently modified documents page provided easy way to see what was happening in the collaboration • Although installed initially for Fermi many other groups started using it • 2010 support migrated from Fermi to computing division

Confluence Features • Powerful search capability • Search inside attached documents (pdf, word, ppt, …) • Ability to watch spaces or individual pages • Allows you to be notified on changes • wysiwyg editor or wiki markup editor • Wide range of macros for developing advanced pages • All the other features you would expect (and many more): • http://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/full-features.jsp

Current usage • >100 spaces • Used by many experiments and groups

Creating a Confluence Space • Create a personal space • Login (with SLAC windows or unix password) • Click “Your Name” in top menu and select • “Create Personal Space” • Create a space for your group/project/experiment • Send e-mail to confluence-admin@slac.stanford.edu • Name of space • Brief description of space • Who will be the administrator(s) of the space • Who should be able to view space (everyone, anyone logged in, specific group of users) • Who should be able to edit the space • Whether “collaborators” without existing SLAC accounts should be able to request access.

JIRA Issue Tracker • Web based issue tracker • Used at SLAC since about ~2000 • Adopted by Fermi in 2003 for tracking issues in software development • Centrally supported by computing division since 2010 • More than a bug tracker • Track issues and feature requests • Allow users/developers to comment on and discuss issues • Allows bugs/features to be associated with specific future release • Lightweight project planning • Designed from outset as entirely web based product • All administration can be done by web • Well suited for distributed development of software • Very flexible permission/notification scheme • Custom workflows allow specialized use • Tracking configuration control requests • Tracking mc simulation requests

JIRA screenshot

Using JIRA on your project • E-mail apps-admin@slac.stanford.edu • Requested name, description, adminstrator(s) • Explain how you plan to use JIRA • JIRA has many configuration options so the more you can describe anticipated use the faster your project can be set up • Feel free to contact me to discuss more details

SLAC Forum • Discussion software such as hypernews has been very popular on BaBar and other experiments • IT steering committee + Scientific computing steering committee + Computing division have recently set up discussion forum software for use at SLAC • Initially restricted to discussion of computing • Intended to encourage peer-2-peer discussion on topics of general interest • Mechanism for bi-directional communication with steering committee • Available to anyone with a SLAC windows or unix login (or approved collaborators) • https://forum.slac.stanford.edu/ • You are encouraged to use it • At least to tell us how we can make it more useful

https://forum.slac.stanford.edu

Aside: Single sign-on • Confluence, JIRA and Forum all use a common authentication mechanism • Based on crowd: http://www.atlassian.com/software/crowd/ • Allows users to login with unixor windows id/password • Or allows “collaborators” to sign on without a SLAC accounts • Provides a lightweight entirely web based mechanism for authorizing collaborators • http://jira.slac.stanford.edu/signup/ • Crowd can be used for your own web based applications • You can set up your own collaborator groups

What tools should be centrally supported • Conferencing tools? • Teleconferencing tools? • Developer tools? • Or should we encourage “cloud” based collaboration tools?

Indico – conference planning software • Meeting planning software • Developed at CERN • Suitable for simple workshops or complex conferences • Installed at many labs • Useful to install at SLAC? • Or is there some way to encourage US/world-wide installation all labs can share? • Do we need more central support for teleconferencing tools? • Or remotely supported tools fine • Webex • EVO • Readytalk • Google talk …

Developer tools • Central support needed?

Or should we leap to “cloud” based tools • Maybe the time for installing and supporting our own web tools is past • Perhaps we should encourage lab wide adoption of cloud based solutions such as google docs • Google apps for business cost $50/employee • Would solve problem of working with microsoft documents on Linux • Collaborative authorship of documents much easier • Or is security too much of an issue?

Questions/comments/ideas?What are your favorite collaborative tools?

Collaborative Tools