CHARTER: comp.distributed

Although the name "comp.distributed" has been chosen due to its familiarity and convenience, the discussion in this unmoderated newsgroup is broader than just those topics traditionally regarded as "distributed computing". Specifically, topics include any unique issues relating to the creation and exploitation of collectives of geographically distributed and potentially heterogeneous resources such as computers, data/information sources, peripherals, instruments, and humans. Appropriate areas of discussion in this context include (but are not limited to):

* discovering, scheduling/brokering, and accessing remote resources * exploitation of heterogeneous resources * resource management, scheduling, and computational economy * portable/adaptable communication substrates * quality of service approaches * portable program development tools, languages, techniques * data management tools and techniques * exploitation of distributed memory hierarchy * decentralized security * practical accounting, reimbursement, and business & revenue models * overcoming impediments to wide-area connectivity * cross-organizational policy issues and ways to address them * mechanisms and policies for intellectual property * programming tools, environments, and languages * applications, collaboration, and distributed agents * simulation and performance modelling * comparisons of grid and p2p, and issues unique to each * events, surveys, news and general announcements

It is expected that additional 3rd-level subgroups addressing some of these topics or others may be created as dictated by the volume and cohesiveness of resulting message traffic.

END CHARTER.