EGI Training Working Group
Support for training is a key user community service that helps EGI expand the size and expertise of user communities. Training within EGI is distributed by nature: NGIs organise training events and NGIs develop training materials. However, EGI.eu contributes to the success of these activities with efficient communication mechanisms and services that allow the NGIs’ training activities to improve in quality and quantity.
Within EGI.eu the coordination of training is the responsibility of the User Community Support Team (UCST). During the first six months of EGI the UCST worked together with the UK NGI, provider of the EGI training site, to make the training calendar, digital library and training feedback forms accessible for all the NGIs through the EGI Web site and the EGI document database. These services allow NGIs to share training materials, training events and “lessons learnt” with each other and with European research communities. Furthermore, API interfaces are also under development to enable Virtual Research Communities (VRCs) to integrate these services into their own gateways for their own communities if required.
It’s now time to take this one step further! The UCST recently initiated an Training Working Group to monitor and develop training needs within the EGI community. The plan is to extend the currently existing functionality of the training site with a broader support structure whereby users can submit suggestions and requests for training and others can offer topics and services around which training could be developed or events could be planned. Such functionality would enable people planning events and those developing training material to have advanced knowledge of requirements and opportunities. The end result will be a more productive training landscape that is better aligned to the needs of the communities and which is implemented in the form of an online “training marketplace”.
What services do you think the EGI training marketplace should offer? Let us know through this blog, or by joining the EGI Training Working Group!
