The NGS Communities service help NGS users find other NGS users in similar research areas.  The service aims to foster interaction between NGS users and enable collaboration and a sense of community.  The NGS Communities service allows NGS members to search for other NGS Community members by keywords or institution etc and contact other community members.

The presentations at this Surgery will provide a general overview and technical information about the service.
 

One of the underpinning technologies of the grid are the digital certificates which authenticate users. This creates a single sign on for users and can make grid life a whole lot easier once in place. However it is this last piece which is important, "once in place". For some users the use of digital certificates is new and not necessarily very clear. However, certificates themselves are not difficult: it is the tools that we use to manage them that need to become easier, optimised to help users with the things they have to do.

There is a new poll available on the homepage of the NGS website asking which research council you are mainly funded by.  The NGS is funded by JISC and EPSRC and, in turn, they often ask about the funding sources of our users and interested visitors therefore we would be very grateful if you would take a second to complete the poll which can be found just below the NGS load monitor.  Thank you!

It's always nice to see other grid outreach channels featuring research performed using NGS resources and this week one of our users has made the headlines in iSGTW.