Overview of the LIGO-GEO S5 and Virgo VSR1 Science Runs, and Sources of Transient Gravitational Waves

The five kilometer-scale gravitational-wave detectors in the United States and Europe collected data in 2005-2007 with better sensitivity and observing time than ever before. The data collected has been analyzed jointly, for maximum sensitivity, with a number of results released so far and more to come. I will summarize the instrument performance and data collection, and survey some of the transient gravitational-wave signals that we are searching for. Later talks in the same session will describe the specific searches carried out using the data.