This plan is also available on our program Google Drive
Background Information
PROJECT DESCRIPTION | The National Science Foundation’s ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support) program builds upon and will transition from the high-performance computing successes of the XSEDE program while also expanding the ecosystem with capabilities for new modes of research and further democratizing participation. Its service tracks and awardees are: Track 1 – The RAMPS Allocations team (Allocations), led by Stephen Deems, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC). The Allocation Services track comprises three defined activities: Allocation Services; Innovative Pilots; and a Service Model. Subawardees include the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Track 2 – The MATCH User Services team (Support), led by Shelley Knuth, University of Colorado Boulder. The End User Support Services track comprises four defined activities: General User Assistance; Allocation and Utilization Assistance; End User Training; and a Computational Science Support Network. Subawardees include the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, the University of Kentucky, the University of Southern California, and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.. Track 3 – The CONECT Operations and Integration Services team (Operations), led by Tim Boerner, National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The Operations and Integration Services track comprises three defined activities: Operational Support; Data and Networking Support; and Cybersecurity Support. Subawardees are Indiana University, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), Florida International University, University of Chicago and San Diego Supercomputer Center (UCSD) Track 4 – The MMS Monitoring & Measurement Services team (Metrics), led by Tom Furlani, State University of New York at Buffalo. The Monitoring & Measurement Services track comprises three elements: Monitoring & Measurement Operations; Service Model; and Data Analytics Framework. ACCESS Coordination Office – The OpenCI team (ACO), led by John Towns, NCSA. The ACO will provide coordination and support services and staffing for top-level coordination and communications among the ACCESS awardees and with the public, including support for top-level inter-awardee governance, coordination of an external advisory board to the ACCESS awardees, maintenance of the top-level landing page of the ACCESS website, and coordinated community-building activities. The ACO itself does not have a direct role in the management of the Service Tracks and overall project execution, rather it facilitates and supports a model of shared governance. Subawardees include the San Diego Supercomputer Center and Georgia Tech. Track 6 – ACCESS Cyberinfrastructure Technology Acceleration Pathway (service name tbd) CITAP (solicitation open in June–September 2023 with award anticipated in Winter 2024) is focused on the translation of innovative research CI software such as system software, libraries, application codes and software enabling data services. NSF seeks proposals that aim to design, test, and subsequently operate a pathway service within the ACCESS program that manages and accelerates the translation of promising research CI software to production-quality services across the NSF advanced CI ecosystem in support of the NSF S&E research community. CITAP proposals are expected to create a new workflow process within the ACCESS program that: (1) identifies novel CI software from diverse sources in a strongly community-informed way; (2) establishes an open and merit-based process for selecting and prioritizing/sequencing which of the identified innovations are of highest and most immediate value to users of the advanced CI ecosystem and can be feasibly translated to production level and made available for use by researchers using ACCESS resources; and (3) establishes an operational process that translates innovations into production services, including the creation of partnerships where necessary to address each of the technical challenges and intellectual property (IP) considerations faced when integrating novel CI software within the advanced CI ecosystem.
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CAMPAIGN TIMELINE | May 1, 2023 - April 30, 2024 |
ORGANIZATIONAL
GOALS & OBJECTIVES | Research CI plays a critical role in ensuring U.S. leadership in science and engineering, economic competitiveness and national security, consistent with the National Science Foundation’s mission. The NSF, through the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC), has published a vision that calls for the broad availability and innovative use of an agile, integrated, robust, trustworthy and sustainable CI ecosystem that can drive new thinking and transformative discoveries in all areas of S&E research and education. ACCESS, with its innovative structure of awards focused on specific goals, will help advance the OAC’s vision of further democratizing access to a national infrastructure of HPC resources. The ACO is a critical conduit for sharing information and facilitating collaboration across the ACCESS program – providing both formal and informal structures for decision-making, allowing flexibility to adapt as the program evolves, promoting transparency and openness of information and decision-making, and providing the tools and support to facilitate important business processes and communicate with the range of ACCESS stakeholders. |
PROJECT / TEAM
GOALS & OBJECTIVES | The ACCESS Communications team, led by ACO personnel, represents all program service areas and works to collectively seek opportunities to communicate news and information, opportunities and successes in broadening the participation of individuals, institutions and communities that have been underserved by the resources, support and services of the national CI ecosystem. Innovations in technology, research and scholarship will be shared with the broader community that seeks to understand and perhaps participate in the role of CI in advancing society. And the private sector will be made aware of new opportunities for collaboration, and through these, help improve the competitiveness of US companies in areas critical for the economy and the workforce. |
COMMUNICATION
GOALS & OBJECTIVES | Overall Support communications internal to the ACCESS program Project a coherent ecosystem of resources and services to the community Hold communications quality to the highest standard Eliminate offensive terms in any ACCESS communications Support the NSF in its oversight function through program-wide communications, evaluation, and reporting Facilitate the development (with direction from the EC) and production of annual community reports highlighting ACCESS-supported research activities, progress of the Service Teams over the preceding year, plans for the Service Teams going forward and other milestones
PY2-Specific Produce two videos for use at SC booth and on our website Upload more content to YouTube Build a list of under-represented institutions and develop a plan for informing them of ACCESS services and lowering the barrier to their use of ACCESS allocated resources Define which campaign(s) should be developed for this year to specifically achieve program goals (e.g. targeting underserved groups or promoting greater use of XDMoD) Roll-out marketing materials ordering process Focus groups review websites to improve user experience Potentially: identify particular NSF-funded awards/projects/communities that we want to target to begin conversations about potential value of them integrating with ACCESS. Mine our mailing lists for any data it can yield about our subscribers
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KEY AUDIENCES | **such as Campus Champions, CSSN Network and volunteers supporting ACCESS functions |
METRICSWhat does success look like? | Appropriate media hits on web stories (understanding some of our “stories” will simply be summaries pointing to a more full story on a partner website - such as SDSC, PSC, etc.) We will develop these metrics over time. Robust Social Media engagement For year one, our KPI is 10,000 engagements/month collectively among Twitter, Facebook YouTube and LinkedIn
Average to above-average open rates and CTRs on emails and newsletters Positive feedback from a survey of internal and external newsletter audiences showing they are finding the content we publish engaging Website engagement at or above that of XSEDE1 in its matching plan year; website engagement compared to the end of XSEDE2 (to measure how we fared making the transition)
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Branding | To build a strong, cohesive, and consistent brand presence, the ACO Comms team led development of a visual identity system, approved by the EC, and subsequently used throughout the ACCESS program content. The visual identity system: includes a defined and distinctive color palette, typography, photography, graphical elements and a logo or wordmark sets the guidelines that promote ACCESS's brand consistency using visual elements such as the logo/wordmark, colors, images, fonts and more from the design toolkit.
Branded assets including PowerPoints, logos, etc. are available on the Comms Team Wiki. Additionally, the ACO Comms team has developed a style guide for written communications and is working on written conventions and a brand voice document. The Branding and Web Presence Working Group has developed style guides and resources for designers and developers available on GitHub. |
| The centerpiece of all ACCESS communications efforts is a web presence that provides access to newsletters, news and feature articles, information on the services provided by the Service Teams, and other user and public-facing communications. Universal navigation will replicate across ACO and service area sites for ease of movement for site visitors A WordPress-style website leveraging a robust yet flexible theme that will allow the site to scale over time. This theme will provide the team with modular components, features, tools, and widgets to add to or optimize the site's functionality. The ACO team will maintain the http://access-ci.org site, with the service areas maintaining their subdomains URL strategy is as follows: Users may log in to the ACCESS portal(s) from the universal navigation.
Content for the site will come from Service Areas providing updates to the Comms Team for story crafting as well as Allocations sharing project information with the Comms Team on science running on machines. |
Newsletters | The ACO Comms team is producing two digital newsletters: Inside ACCESS, the internal newsletter, is targeted at ACCESS staff to allow the ACO and service areas to share achievements and upcoming plans and milestones for awareness and planning purposes The ACCESS Advance, our external newsletter, is targeted at a list of 46k+ members and allows ACCESS to share achievements and news important to a broad range of interests.
Additionally, individual Service Areas also use ACCESS to send out information such as Support’s biweekly ACCESS Support Digest, with news of events and trainings sent to 13k+ subscribers. |
Email Communications | While the website and newsletters will be the primary vehicles of communication, emails can be employed in the case of: Mission-critical information that cannot wait for newsletter publication and/or needs amplification of a website post Opportunities to reach audiences (such as PEARC or SC registrants) not subscribed to newsletters
The ACO Comms team has developed templates with ACCESS branding and leverages the Constant Contact platform to distribute emails. Additionally, Service Areas have access to the email platform along with templates designed for their service areas in order to communicate as needed with audience lists they develop. |
Events Participation | The ACO Comms team provides: booth graphics and oversight of booth production for large-scale events such as SC Branded tablecloths and pull-up banners for smaller events Materials including general informational brochures and swag (giveaways)
ACCESS staff can arrange to order and have shipped materials via the Comms Team wiki. |
| The ACO Comms team maintains social media accounts including: Twitter Facebook YouTube LinkedIn
The team will develop a social media strategy to include amplification of: http://access-ci.org stories including scientific advances enabled by ACCESS Resource provider stories Important training opportunities and events @mentions about ACCESS from other organizations
Due to Twitter’s evolving rules and community, the ACCESS Comms Team reserved an ACCESSforCI username on Mastodon, a social networking site many in the research community have moved to as an alternative to Twitter. The social media landscape is always shifting and the team is monitoring this ongoing situation to best determine where to share news. |
Reports | The ACO Comms team will assist with quarterly and annual reporting with direction from ACO leadership. |
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