Colloquium Details
Problems of and Mechanisms for Instantiating Virtual Organizations
| Author: | Carl Kesselman Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California |
|---|---|
| Date: | November 05, 2003 |
| Time: | 16:00 |
| Location: | 220 Deschutes |
Note: Special Day and Time
Abstract
In the past, significant accomplishments in science, engineering or business were the product of the work of an individual, or a small, tightly knit work group. However, today accomplishments of merit are often produced within the context of dynamic, distributed, multi-organizational collaborations whose participates are drawn from different, autonomously operated "physical" organizations. We call these collaborations virtual organizations, or VOs.
By sharing the resources and capabilities of its participants with other members of the collaboration, a VO provides value not found in traditional organizational structures. However, the dynamic and multi-institutional nature of a VO creates unique challenges to resource sharing. We require mechanisms for formulation and enforcement of VO wide security, usage policies, resource management, and a means of mapping these mechanisms into the corresponding policies and mechanisms of the physical organizations from which the virtual organization draws resources and services.
In this lecture, I will describe some of the basic mechanisms that have been developed to create and maintain virtual organizations, and how those mechanisms have been used to create the Grid, an emerging information technology infrastructure being deployed to support VOs. I will also discuss open problems and research directions for these open problems.