Software Practice 12 breakout - Life for Software Beyond Public Funding

Bruce Berriman Jim Willenbring Michael McLennan Jennifer Schopf Nigel Ward LIFE FOR SOFTWARE BEYOND PUBLIC FUNDING

Funding agency pays model •  Most research so=ware; Condor, GLOBUS, myProxy … •  Pros –  Big money –  Clear project scope & direcJon –  O=en funded over several cycles •  Cons –  Keep jusJfying existence –  Grant goes away, you lose the model –  Maintenance, documentaJon o=en hidden

Resell services model •  HUBzero, RedCloud (Cornell), Nova (OpenStack) •  Generally purchased by an organizaJon •  Pros –  Clarity about specific service for specific $ –  Diverse funding stream •  Cons –  Has to be a good service! –  Scalability trade-‐offs –  FluctuaJons in funding

User pays (app model) •  MatLab, IDL •  Pros –  Per per use, you know what you get –  Cost split over maximum number of users •  Cons –  Finding the right pricing model –  Researchers are thri=y –  Less likely they will just try it –  Small community = high cost

Community development model •  OpenMPI, Apache Webserver, Hadoop, GCC •  Pro –  Harness community experJse –  Project sustainable beyond single funding source or insJtuJon •  Cons –  Careful management of contribuJons –  IP challenges –  Work on relaJonship with the dev community –  Tension when $ Jght : lack of willingness to contribute –  Not developed here syndrome

Corporate spin-‐oﬀ model •  Eucalyptus (success), Globus (fail) •  Pros –  Path to user pays •  Cons –  Diﬃculty establishing a business model

Community development model •  user community •  developer community •  policing contribuJon •  recognizing contribuJon

Brainstorm Topics •  Best pracJces for making maintainable so=ware? •  Paying for so=ware development, maintenance –  Lobbying funding agencies for ﬁnancial support for maintaining so=ware –  funding currently gets hidden in grants –  Amazon cloud in your grant proposal –  Argument for maintaining so=ware outside the organizaJon / funding agency •  Treat so=ware like infrastructure a ship •  Pay for use •  Kickstarter •  Path to commercializaJon –  What is the right amount of money for maintenance? •  Maintenance is ? New features, bugs …

Brainstorm Topics •  Building communiJes –  both user and developer –  policing and recognizing contribuJon •  Are the right people doing the maintenance? –  Grad student porJng the code (not right skill set) –  DuplicaJon of eﬀort •  Overcoming not invented here syndrome

Brainstorm topics •  Needs to be built in from the ground up •  Building a community –  Users –  Developers •  Finding the right people •  Oversight / quality models & processes •  Doesn’t seem to be a non-‐funded sustainable model

Brainstorm topics •  Astounding that funding agencies won’t fund maintenance •  Consider sustainability model while funded •  User communiJes –  Part of funding jusJﬁcaJon –  Understand the community and engage them –  Source of feedback on what’s useful –  Input into licensing models

Software Practice 12 breakout - Life for Software Beyond Public Funding

by SoftwarePractice on Oct 11, 2012

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