On 1 September 2010, a new communications project, e-ScienceTalk, was launched. e-ScienceTalk will build on the impressive achievements of the GridTalk project to bring the success stories of Europe's e-Infrastructure to policy makers in government and business, to the scientific community and to the general public.

Over the last 10 years, the European Commission and governments have invested substantial funds in scientific grid computing. Scientists have access to state-of-the-art computational and data resources located around the world, putting European research into a leading position to address the greatest challenges facing us today, such as climate change, pandemics and sustainable energy.

Catherine Gater, e-ScienceTalk Project Coordinator says, "The European Grid Infrastructure has been up and running since May this year, taking grid computing into new and exciting areas. In future, boundaries will blur between grids, clouds, supercomputing networks and volunteer grids. A clear, consistent source of information aimed at non-experts is now more important than ever, and as a communications project that crosses national boundaries, e-ScienceTalk is uniquely placed to help."

e-ScienceTalk will produce a series of reports aimed at policy makers to disseminate key policy issues underpinning grid and e-Infrastructure development in Europe. The GridCafé website is a definitive source of information about what grid computing is and what it should be and will continue to explore new developments in distributed computing. The GridCast blog and the GridGuide, a virtual world view of the sights and sites of grid computing, will also cover new topics and explore novel web technologies -- as well as integrating closely with GridPP's Real Time Monitor to combine live views of grid activity with the human aspects of computing.

e-ScienceTalk brings together several expert partners from the world of e-Infrastructures: EGI.eu who coordinate the pan-European grid infrastructure, Queen Mary University of London in the UK, CERN in Switzerland, Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine in London and APO, a Web design company based in France.

Sarah Pearce, former project manager of GridTalk and chair of the e-ScienceTalk PMB said: "The GridTalk project was very successful in bringing stories about the world of grid to its audiences and has recently been given a very positive review by the EC. I am very pleased that GridTalk's good work will continue through the e-ScienceTalk project and I am looking forward to seeing the exciting new developments in store."

As well as working with projects across Europe, e-ScienceTalk will co-ordinate activities with international partners, both in areas with well-established grid infrastructures such as the US, and also in regions with burgeoning e-Infrastructures, such as Latin America, South Africa and Asia. International Science Grid This Week is jointly funded by the European Commission through e-ScienceTalk, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and the U.S. National Science Foundation via Open Science Grid; iSGTW will continue to bring weekly news and views from the e-Science communities to its growing readership.

About GridBriefings

GridBriefings interpret EC policy documents and reports in an accessible and attractive format. These short, full-colour policy articles illustrate the scientific results and impacts arising from grid computing. For e-ScienceTalk, GridBriefings will be aimed at policy makers in all layers of government and industry and describe for a non-technical audience how long-term investments in grid technology and e-Infrastructures have led to concrete results.

About GridCafé

The GridCafé website was launched by CERN in 2003 to explain to the public "what grid computing is and what it could soon be." e-ScienceTalk will extend the GridCafé website to keep it at the cutting edge of grid and e-science dissemination, exploring interactive materials and 3-D virtual environments.

About GridCast

This is where scientists blog about their experiences live from grid events around the world - from high level European policy events, to workshops and grid schools, to the major gatherings in the grid calendar.

About GridGuide

The GridGuide website gives a human face to e-Infrastructures, allowing users to listen to podcasts from grid sites worldwide and read interviews with researchers. During e-ScienceTalk, the GridGuide will expand to include more sites, including the National Grid Initiatives and will be integrated more closely with GridPP's Real Time Monitor, which shows the data traffic moving around the grid.

About Real Time Monitor

The Real Time Monitor is a visualisation of current activity on the grid. Using the grid infrastructure's own monitoring tools, the RTM overlays information about every site and job running on the grid on to an interactive 3D globe. This allows users to see various levels of information about the current state of the grid. Originally launched in 2004, the current version is a very popular tool within the grid community and now includes information from the GridGuide website.

About International Science Grid This Week

iSGTW is a free weekly online publication that covers distributed computing around the world by sharing stories of distributed computing-empowered research. Now reaching over 6500 readers in more than 195 countries and territories, it is an international publication by nature, funded jointly by European and American governmental agencies (the European Commission via e-ScienceTalk, the U.S. National Science Foundation via Open Science Grid, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science). It has a European editor based at CERN, and a US editor based at Fermilab, as well as several contributing writers worldwide. During e-ScienceTalk, the scope of iSGTW will expand to include technologies such as distributed high performance computing, volunteer and cloud computing.