EOT-PACI is the Education, Outreach, and Training component of the Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure. It is part of a National Science Foundation-funded effort to bring together professionals from the computational sciences and other disciplines to help construct the advanced computational capabilities of the 21st century. EOT partners represent many research institutions working collaboratively to assess and meet the needs of schools, businesses, government, as well as the scientific and engineering community. As the lead government outreach partner, CTG works with PACI researchers and government leaders to identify, develop, and disseminate innovative applications of high performance technologies to practical problems of federal, state, and local government.

Some of the most powerful PACI technologies deal with the analysis of very large and complex data sets. Government is both a provider and user of this kind of data. This year, while the IT researchers focused on the computational side of "big data" challenges, CTG focused on the organizational and policy dimensions of providing access to huge government data resources. We used cutting-edge technology to develop a Web-based workbench for designing electronic records access programs. The workbench is based on two years of CTG work funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to develop practical guidelines to encourage and support access to and use of government information. The Web application guides access program designers through the processes of description, assessment, diagnosis, design, and cost estimation as they work to create records access programs that meet the needs of users and are workable and affordable for the providers.

• National Science Foundation
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• San Diego Supercomputing Center, University of California at San Diego