John Towns will present an overview of DAST and Von Welch with Jim Ferguson will give a two-hour session on distributed application optimization. Butler gave an overview of distributed applications concepts and offered online information sources. Until DAST support staff are hired, the current consultants are fielding calls and email. Technical support is provided by the co-PIs and team leader as well as NCSA networking specialists. Planning is underway for the first two DAST-sponsored user workshops, tentatively scheduled for March and June 1998.
Problems Hiring new staff is a challenge with stiff competition for experienced personnel.
Advertising and interviewing for consultants and an engineer is ongoing. Some current NCSA staff have been partially re-assigned to work on DAST activities as the project ramps up. These will continue as needed. A meeting between representatives of Internet2 and DAST is being planned for 2Q98 to explore how the groups can leverage each other s efforts. No changes in future plans have been made.