SC Global 2003, the largest Access Grid event ever, running in conjunction with SC2003, features participants from at least 60 sites around the world, in 12 different countries and five sovereign tribal nations on five different continents through 60 Constellation and Satellite Sites. Even more Access Grid locations will participate as Observer Sites, watching the conference over the Access Grid and submitting their questions and comments through a Web-based application.

Among the exciting and innovative uses of collaborative technologies to be presented at SC Global is the Tribal Virtual Network (TVN). The TVN, a consortium of Native American tribal museums and education centers, will discuss their unique application of the Access Grid, demonstrating how collaborative technologies are overcoming the "Digital Divide" by providing greater access to education and training.

TVN members see advanced collaborative technologies as a powerful tool for effecting social change. "That villages are located far away from each other is the main problem in getting different tribes to interact," said Barbara Tracy of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, located in Albuquerque, N.M. "This distance factor makes it difficult for them to meet frequently, and as a result, the tribes do not have a strong sense of unity and find it hard to become a political force."

As bandwidth constraints at the TVN sites make a live presentation from their location impractical, the TVN members will record portions of their Access Grid session before the conference. IG Recorder software is being provided by inSORS Integrated Communications. Additionally, inSORS is collaborating with Internet2 on a recording of the entire SC Global program.

SC Global 2003 will also feature a dynamic technical program through a combination of panel discussions, Birds of a Feather sessions and showcase events. Other sessions include:

- Virtual prototyping to increase productivity, turnover and customer satisfaction in engineering designs

- Increasing representation and participation of underserved groups in high performance networking and computing

- Exploring the human and social needs of advanced collaborative environments

- Discussing the future of the Access Grid with some of the top thinkers in the Grid community

SC Global 2003 is made possible through the efforts of Constellation, Satellite and Observer Sites around the world. Constellation Sites are locations from which presentations will be made. Satellite Sites provide interactive participation over the Access Grid from audiences worldwide. Observer Sites receive transmission of the audio, video and data streams from the conference over the Access Grid, and submit questions and comments during sessions using a text-based tool.

SC Global is open to all attendees of SC2003, including those with exhibits-only and exhibitor badges. It will be located in rooms six through 10, near Lobby One at the Phoenix Civic Plaza. For details about SC Global, including the schedule of events and information on how to participate as a remote site, visit http://www.sc-conference.org/sc2003/global.html .

Now in its 16th year, the SC conference is sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture.