The city of Rio hosted, on May 18 and 19, the gathering that marked the beginning of the second year of Magic (Middleware for Collaborative Applications and Virtual Global Communities) activities, global collaborative project that intends to improve the ability of researchers from all over the world to collaborate with one another. The event was the opportunity for researchers from the 19 participating NRENs to share deliveries, pending issues, plans, challenges and operational facilities in the six work packages that integrate the project.

In the opening, the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks’ (RedCLARA) executive director, Florencio Utreras, presented a summary of the Magic’s first year of activities, highlighting landmarks and deliveries, in addition to expected improvements. “We are a heterogeneous group, which gathers persons from different parts of the world – America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania – with distinct cultures, languages, human and financial resources. It is essential for us to meet to approximate our goals, because we are going to work together in various Magic deliveries. We need to assure that such deliveries shall be done in the best possible way”, said Utreras.

One of the presentations was conducted by Antônio Carlos F. Nunes, the Brazilian National Research and Educational Network (RNP)’ representative in the Governance Committee of the project, and Leandro Guimarães, the coordinator of the work package (WP) 2, which shall address the diffusion of identity federations and eduroam to other regions of the world. They highlighted the commitments and efforts of the WP2 members in this project, and received feedback on the deployment of the actions in partner localities.

One of the next steps agreed between the members of the group was to schedule fortnightly or monthly meetings to exchange experiences. “The communication among the participants of the package is essential. This was crucial for the success of the Elcira project and we want to recreate it in Magic. I hope to count on the commitment by all to share information. We must seize this collaboration opportunity to propose solutions and settle any doubts. Antônio and I are available to help you deploy the actions in your localities”, Guimarães emphasized.

During the event, activities from WP3, 4 and 5 were also presented, which feature the support from RNP collaborators. Alex Galhano, Services expert who operates in WP4, explained the benefits of the use of real-time applications (telephony and video conferencing) in various regions of the world, using, for example, the NRENum.net service. The goal is to ensure the interoperability between solutions from different manufacturers and communication protocols, through the adoption of unique standards.

WP5 created four Global Scientific Communities (GSC), with themes of great interest for most regions in the world where the project operates: eHealth, Biodiversity, Environment and Remote Instrumentation. The first virtual meeting of each took place this February, and a leader for each community was selected. “This person shall be a reference and is responsible for moving the community. For eHealth, Luiz Ary Messina was chosen, the Telemedicine University Network’ national coordinator. Now, the challenge is to attract more projects and researchers to partake in these communities and check which services could be provided for these communities”, said Leandro Ciuffo, RNP’ manager of Communities and Applications, which supports WP5.

Messina also presented the Telemedicine University Network (Rute), the available technological development, such as 4k broadcasts, and Brazil’s efforts in this path. “I am happy to partake in this project and support telemedicine in the world. To have the support from other places shall be a way to join forces so someone takes over this area, which includes eHealth, Telemedicine and Telehealth. We do not have the investment, and to spread this community and invite people to participate may be a great step in this sense”, the coordinator stressed.

Among the 26 participants in the meeting, Iara Machado, the deputy director of Advanced Internet, Luiz Coelho, deputy director of Services, and Telemedicine University Network’ Innovation manager, Paulo Lopes also attended.

Learn more about the RNP’ participation in Magic.