HEP Software Foundation Startup Team Meeting notes Nov 10 2014

https://indico.cern.ch/event/352465/

Present: Torre, Andrea, Dario, Graeme, Michel, Pere, Peter, Frank

Meeting notes:

News on contacts made, discussions had, …

Pere - met with LHCb on Monday. Generally positive. They expressed worry over how an experiment can participate, whether significant effort is required, e.g. packaging requirements.
Torre - presented to CMS. Generally positive, concerned that there wouldn’t be time at the SLAC workshop to fully present CMS views. I agreed and said there should be an HSF-CMS discussion in the round of contact discussions coming up. Conveyed the same message to ATLAS computing management. Some discussion of initial scope, might it include distributed software, eg. workflow management. Responded that scope isn’t confined to core focus areas, can respond to proactive initiatives as to what to include.
Graeme - spoke to GridPP project leadership. Generally positive. They want HSF to focus on being practical and useful. Also discussed with Rivet and Yoda authors. They had impression HSF is concerned only with big players. Definitely not the case. Arranging to discuss with HepForge creator.

Michel - planning to meet with FastJet authors.

Dario - had INFN discussions on common framework for TDAQ. Favorable view on HSF.

Torre - sent feelers to a couple of astroparticle people, Richard Dubois and Andy Connolly (both LSST).

Graeme - concern from some that HSF will become a monster, taking over software right and left.

Peter - HSF is what people bring to it.

*** review the draft, particularly the executive summary, to be sure these core messages are clear.

Pere will present to the GDB, background on HSF and recent progress.

Points from the discussion:

make sure these messages are clear:
- the content is draft, for revision in response to feedback, nothing cast in stone
- HSF is what people bring to it
- HSF is attempting to marshal existing resources so they are used more effectively in the community. It is not establishing a program that will take new resources and funding to bring into existence.
add a list of prospective activities/services (should avoid the word services in case it wrongly suggests that HSF must be resourced/funded). The list will then be a primer for discussion, to hear from people/projects what they’re interested in having from HSF. Not a pre-ordained list of decided activities.
we will release as PDF
Version 1.0
add footer identifying version

The CHEP list is strictly reserved for CHEP business, we can’t use it. So we will fan out the mail to our communities.

We will first create a google group as a HEP S&C community forum and in the mail invite people to subscribe to it.

The timing is now such that we’ll be able to include reference to the public draft.

Hopefully when we define what HSF activity will take place at CHEP we can get in mention of HSF in a future CHEP bulletin.

Regarding workshop preparations/content

questionnaire is a good idea. Not urgent, can take shape between now and the holidays.
lightning talks are a good idea. Through the questionnaire and other guidance we should help people make them most useful. They can be used to look for collaborators, express what HSF could to do benefit my project, present what my project could do for HSF.
the hepsoftwarefoundation.org web page for the workshop reflects what was presented last week in the progress report for an agenda outline, have a look

finalize the draft between now and tomorrow
set up HEP S&C-wide forum
release V1.0 tomorrow
revise the mailing to go to community lists, with an invitation to sign up to the forum, and referencing V1.0
Pere will present HSF to GDB on Wed. Michel will invite startup team members to attend.

Pere will hold a meeting next Monday. Torre will be away.