E-Science City

e-ScienceCity is an educational resource created by the e-ScienceTalk project. Its primary aim is to convey the ideas of e-science (grid computing, volunteer computing, high performance computing and cloud computing) in a way that is easily digestible when viewed by the general public. It is a non-profit project and is currently European Commission funded. It was officially launched at the e-Infrastructure concertation meeting on the 22nd September 2011. It is also useful to note that the American term cyberscience is equivalent to the European term e-Science.
Aims
The main project aim is to communicate the many aspects of e-science to the general public, scientists and the media. The main channel is via the website, however a teaching pack is currently in development so that it can be viewed without the need for internet access. There is also a 3D environment called e-ScienceCity hosted by New World Grid, produced by the Virtus Association, which allows participants to explore the information represented in a more interactive and experiential way. The project aims to promote the term e-science as a way to describe today's data intensive science, as at the moment it is a term well-known mainly within the scientific community.
Project Content
The project covers many aspects of e-science, which are communicated through their individual sections on e-ScienceCity. The sections included convey information about grid computing, volunteer computing, high performance computing and cloud computing.
GridCafé
GridCafé was originally created as an educational resource by CERN. It is now a founding part of the e-ScienceCity. The aim of GridCafé is to provide accessible information on grid computing. It describes its origins, its benefits and challenges, and what it is used for.
Cloud Lounge
Cloud computing is something of a buzzword, both within science and in popular culture. However the definition of such a term is often unclear. What is cloud computing and how is it different from the many other aspects of e-science? Cloud Lounge attempts to deliver a starting point to answer these questions in a simple way.
Volunteer Garage
Volunteer computing is an aspect of e-science that is more well-known, thanks to GIMPS, , and other projects delivered by the BOINC server. The basis of volunteer computing is that people allow their PC's processor time to be used to process information, when the computers would be otherwise be sitting idle. Volunteer Garage explains some of the history, motivations and successes of volunteer computing. It provides links for users to get involved with volunteer computing projects.
Virtual World Portal
e-Science City is also available as a 3D virtual world known as e-Science City island. It is hosted on the Second Life-like NewWorldGrid. The portal is intended as a virtual learning tool, and is currently still growing.
Communication Centre
The Communication Centre delivers up-to-date news on current developments in e-science, including links to games and multimedia content.
HPC Tower
The HPC Tower section of the website is currently under development. Once finished it aims to provide simple to understand information concerning high performance computing.
Origins
The origins of e-ScienceCity extend back several years. In 2006 a team affiliated with CERN decided to create GridCafé, a project to help teach members of the public deeper aspects of grid computing as well as provide a learning resource. As part of the work they also ran the first two GridCasts at and the EGEE . A closely related team at CERN had also launched iSGTW a weekly online publication in November 2006. All of these proved extremely popular, and by 2008 it was decided bring them together under one banner. This idea grew into the GridTalk bid that was funded, by the European Commission and ran from 2008 to 2010. In September 2010, GridTalk was succeeded by e-ScienceTalk which will run until May 2013 and cover all aspects of e-Science. After several months of hard work and labor the website e-ScienceCity was launched at E-Infrastructure Concertation meeting on the 22nd September 2011 in Lyon.
Other Projects
There are several other projects that along with e-ScienceCit y, fall under e-ScienceTalk. These include GridCafé, International Science Grid This Week, GridGuide, GridCast, a YouTube Channel, and the Real Time Monitor, which shows grid jobs around the globe in real time.
Affiliations
The project is affiliated with the Citizen Cyber Science Centre and CERN. The project e-ScienceTalk that created the website is led by EGI.eu and includes partners Queen Mary University of London, APO, CERN and Imperial College London.

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