This document discusses the sustainability of scientific software in complex ecosystems. It notes that while the ability to recombine digital information is beneficial for innovation, it also threatens sustainability by increasing the work needed to maintain software as usage diversifies. Three models for attracting resources to do this work - commercial markets, open source peer production, and grant funding - are examined. Grant funding is found to be weakest at gaining visibility into diverse usage contexts. Improving sustainability therefore requires either suppressing recombination or incentivizing greater visibility into how software is recombined in practice.
Overview of what makes good systems research for the 2012 NSF Social Computing Systems (SoCS) PI Meeting held at the University of MIchigan, Ann Arbor (Jun 17-19, 2012)
Presentation that describes the experiences and insights of the IEDA data facility gained during the >10 years of building cyberinfrastructure for a long-tail community geochemistry
Describes the UbiFit project and how it relates to the general idea of activity-based computing. UbiFit was a join collaboration between Intel Labs Seattle and the University of Washington. The project attempts to use low-cost sensing, inference, and feedback to allow people to stay physically active. This project is an example of the larger thrust of activity-based ubiquitous computing.
This was presented at the 3rd U.S.-China Computer Science Leadership Summit at Peking University, Beijing China on June 14, 2010.
Overview of what makes good systems research for the 2012 NSF Social Computing Systems (SoCS) PI Meeting held at the University of MIchigan, Ann Arbor (Jun 17-19, 2012)
Presentation that describes the experiences and insights of the IEDA data facility gained during the >10 years of building cyberinfrastructure for a long-tail community geochemistry
Describes the UbiFit project and how it relates to the general idea of activity-based computing. UbiFit was a join collaboration between Intel Labs Seattle and the University of Washington. The project attempts to use low-cost sensing, inference, and feedback to allow people to stay physically active. This project is an example of the larger thrust of activity-based ubiquitous computing.
This was presented at the 3rd U.S.-China Computer Science Leadership Summit at Peking University, Beijing China on June 14, 2010.
Slides from guest presentation at Aron Lindberg's Computational-Qualitative Field Research seminar: http://aronlindberg.github.io/computational_field_research/ Needed readings at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1gx9s2zlnxvumbz/AAAV9uSAJHsiPeJhSsNnnM9Pa?dl=0
The competition for bright young agency talent is fierce. Yet many of the mentors that historically helped young talent are now gone. And if talent development is diminished, the future looks bleak.
Here are some thoughts on mentoring that may help your agency.
How to Ask questions people want to answerJames Howison
Why do some technical questions online get lots of responses and help while others get little? This presentation draws on research on open source and draws heavily on ESR and Rick Moen's "How to ask questions the smart way" to give an answer to this question.
Software in the scientific literature: Problems with seeing, finding, and usi...James Howison
Software is increasingly crucial to scholarship, yet the visibility and usefulness of software in the scientific record is in question. Just as with data, the visibility of software in publications is related to incentives to share software in re-usable ways, and so promote efficient science. In this paper we examine software in publications through content analysis of a random sample of 90 biology articles. We develop a coding scheme to identify software “mentions,” and classify them according to their characteristics and ability to realize the functions of citations. Overall we find diverse and problematic practices: only between 31–43% of mentions involve formal citations; informal mentions are very common, even in high impact factor journals and across different kinds of software. Software is frequently inaccessible (15–29% of packages in any form; between 90–98% of specific versions; only between 24–40% provide source code). Cites to publications are particularly poor at providing version information, while informal mentions are particularly poor at providing crediting information. We provide recommendations to improve the practice of software citation, highlighting recent nascent efforts. Software plays an increasingly great role in scientific practice; it deserves a clear and useful place in scholarly communication.
Software Citation and a Proposal (NSF workshop at Havard Medical School)James Howison
Presentation at NSF Workshop on Software and Data Citation. Draws from our study of how software is visible in scientific publications (JASIST) and our CSCW paper on BLAST innovation integration.
Two years ago at Devoxx UK we talked about DevOps, what it was, why it was important and how to get started. Boy, was it scary. Now we’re wiser. More battle-scarred. The large scale of the challenge for application writers exploiting cloud and DevOps is clearer, but so is the path forward. Understanding the DevOps approach is important, but equally you must understand specific deployment technologies, security issues, operational reliability, and how to drive organisational transformation. Whether creating simple applications or sophisticated microservice architectures many of the challenges are the same. Join us to learn how you can apply this within your team and company.
Big Data Analytics of Software Ecosystem Health: Presentation during INFORTECH Scientific Day (23 May 2018) by Professor Tom Mens. The talk reports on ongoing research of the Software Engineering Lab of the University of Mons (UMONS) on health aspects of evolving software ecosystems. This research was conducted in collaboration with postdoctoral researchers Alexandre Decan and Eleni Constantinou, as well as the external partners of two ongoing research projects: SECOHealth (https://secohealth.github.io) and the Excellence of Science research project SECO-ASSIST (https://secoassist.github.io).
Slides from guest presentation at Aron Lindberg's Computational-Qualitative Field Research seminar: http://aronlindberg.github.io/computational_field_research/ Needed readings at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1gx9s2zlnxvumbz/AAAV9uSAJHsiPeJhSsNnnM9Pa?dl=0
The competition for bright young agency talent is fierce. Yet many of the mentors that historically helped young talent are now gone. And if talent development is diminished, the future looks bleak.
Here are some thoughts on mentoring that may help your agency.
How to Ask questions people want to answerJames Howison
Why do some technical questions online get lots of responses and help while others get little? This presentation draws on research on open source and draws heavily on ESR and Rick Moen's "How to ask questions the smart way" to give an answer to this question.
Software in the scientific literature: Problems with seeing, finding, and usi...James Howison
Software is increasingly crucial to scholarship, yet the visibility and usefulness of software in the scientific record is in question. Just as with data, the visibility of software in publications is related to incentives to share software in re-usable ways, and so promote efficient science. In this paper we examine software in publications through content analysis of a random sample of 90 biology articles. We develop a coding scheme to identify software “mentions,” and classify them according to their characteristics and ability to realize the functions of citations. Overall we find diverse and problematic practices: only between 31–43% of mentions involve formal citations; informal mentions are very common, even in high impact factor journals and across different kinds of software. Software is frequently inaccessible (15–29% of packages in any form; between 90–98% of specific versions; only between 24–40% provide source code). Cites to publications are particularly poor at providing version information, while informal mentions are particularly poor at providing crediting information. We provide recommendations to improve the practice of software citation, highlighting recent nascent efforts. Software plays an increasingly great role in scientific practice; it deserves a clear and useful place in scholarly communication.
Software Citation and a Proposal (NSF workshop at Havard Medical School)James Howison
Presentation at NSF Workshop on Software and Data Citation. Draws from our study of how software is visible in scientific publications (JASIST) and our CSCW paper on BLAST innovation integration.
Two years ago at Devoxx UK we talked about DevOps, what it was, why it was important and how to get started. Boy, was it scary. Now we’re wiser. More battle-scarred. The large scale of the challenge for application writers exploiting cloud and DevOps is clearer, but so is the path forward. Understanding the DevOps approach is important, but equally you must understand specific deployment technologies, security issues, operational reliability, and how to drive organisational transformation. Whether creating simple applications or sophisticated microservice architectures many of the challenges are the same. Join us to learn how you can apply this within your team and company.
Big Data Analytics of Software Ecosystem Health: Presentation during INFORTECH Scientific Day (23 May 2018) by Professor Tom Mens. The talk reports on ongoing research of the Software Engineering Lab of the University of Mons (UMONS) on health aspects of evolving software ecosystems. This research was conducted in collaboration with postdoctoral researchers Alexandre Decan and Eleni Constantinou, as well as the external partners of two ongoing research projects: SECOHealth (https://secohealth.github.io) and the Excellence of Science research project SECO-ASSIST (https://secoassist.github.io).
DevOps Beyond the Buzzwords: Culture, Tools, & Straight TalkMark Heckler
Discussion of DevOps concepts, enabling tools & platforms, and some candid observations. Small plug at end for Cloud Foundry. Slides only, sparkling commentary & conversation with attendees only available in person. :)
Scientific Software Challenges and Community ResponsesDaniel S. Katz
a talk given at RTI International on 7 December 2015, discussing 12 scientific software challenges and how the scientific software community is responding to them
ICSME 2016 keynote: An ecosystemic and socio-technical view on software maint...Tom Mens
These are the slides of my ICSME 2016 keynote, presented on 5 October 2016 in Raleigh, North Carolina. I focus on the difficulties of maintaining and evolving software ecosystems, large collections of interacting software components that are maintained by a large and active community of contributors and that evolve together in the same environment. Software ecosystems are becoming ubiquitous due to the omnipresence of open source software. I present several problems that arise during maintenance and evolution of software ecosystems, and I argue how some of these challenges should be addressed by adopting a socio-technical view and by relying on a multidisciplinary and mixed methods research approach. I illustrate this with examples of social network analysis, complex systems research, ecological biodiversity, and survival analysis.
How different groups think about software sustainability, what "equations" we might use to measure it, and how it really can't be measured looking forward but only predicted.
Six Principles of Software Design to Empower ScientistsDavid De Roure
Keynote talk for Workshop on Managing for Usability:
Challenges and Opportunities for E-Science Project Management, 10-11 April 2008,
OeRC, University of Oxford, UK
ORION Workshop: XSEDE and Building a National/International CyberinfrastructureJohn Towns
Title: XSEDE and Building a National/International Cyberinfrastructure
Abstract:
In this talk I will present a high level overview of XSEDE from the point of view of building a national/international scale cyberinfrastructure and the associated collaborations necessary. If nothing else, XSEDE has been an adventure in social engineering and I will comment on some of the aspects of these highly distributed and complex interactions. Along the way I will share some of the pitfalls, lessons learned and continuing challenges.
The number of connected devices is growing at an accelerated pace. We developers must have the knowledge & skills to help make that happen. But how? As device deployments and data collected grow exponentially, DevOps is the answer to fast, consistent, and sane systems, organizations, and developers. This session will provide a brief-but-thorough examination of key DevOps tenets and how they apply to large-scale deployments of small-scale devices and the platforms that tie them together. A live-coding demo will convert these concepts from ideas to implementations.
Adoption of Cloud Computing in Scientific ResearchYehia El-khatib
Some might say the scientific research community is somewhat behind the curve of adopting the cloud. In this talk, I present a few examples of adopting the cloud from the wider research community. I also highlight some of the aspects by which cloud computing could affect scientific research in the near future and the associated challenges.
From Obvious to Ingenius: Incrementally Scaling Web Apps on PostgreSQLKonstantin Gredeskoul
In this exciting and informative talk, presented at PgConf Sillicon Valley 2015, Konstantin cut through the theory to deliver a clear set of practical solutions for scaling applications atop PostgreSQL, eventually supporting millions of active users, tens of thousands concurrently, and with the application stack that responds to requests with a 100ms average. He will share how his team solved one of the biggest challenges they faced: effectively storing and retrieving over 3B rows of "saves" (a Wanelo equivalent of Instagram's "like" or Pinterest's "pin"), all in PostgreSQL, with highly concurrent random access.
Over the last three years, the team at Wanelo optimized the hell out of their application and database stacks. Using PostgreSQL version 9 as their primary data store, Joyent Public Cloud as a hosting environment, the team re-architected their backend for rapid expansion several times over, as the unrelenting traffic kept climbing up. This ultimately resulted in a highly efficient, horizontally scalable, fault tolerant application infrastructure. Unimpressed? Now try getting there without the OPS or DBA teams, all while deploying seven times per day to production, with an application measuring 99.999% uptime over the last 6 months.
Similar to Scientific software sustainability and ecosystem complexity (20)
Innovating Inference - Remote Triggering of Large Language Models on HPC Clus...Globus
Large Language Models (LLMs) are currently the center of attention in the tech world, particularly for their potential to advance research. In this presentation, we'll explore a straightforward and effective method for quickly initiating inference runs on supercomputers using the vLLM tool with Globus Compute, specifically on the Polaris system at ALCF. We'll begin by briefly discussing the popularity and applications of LLMs in various fields. Following this, we will introduce the vLLM tool, and explain how it integrates with Globus Compute to efficiently manage LLM operations on Polaris. Attendees will learn the practical aspects of setting up and remotely triggering LLMs from local machines, focusing on ease of use and efficiency. This talk is ideal for researchers and practitioners looking to leverage the power of LLMs in their work, offering a clear guide to harnessing supercomputing resources for quick and effective LLM inference.
Globus Connect Server Deep Dive - GlobusWorld 2024Globus
We explore the Globus Connect Server (GCS) architecture and experiment with advanced configuration options and use cases. This content is targeted at system administrators who are familiar with GCS and currently operate—or are planning to operate—broader deployments at their institution.
GraphSummit Paris - The art of the possible with Graph TechnologyNeo4j
Sudhir Hasbe, Chief Product Officer, Neo4j
Join us as we explore breakthrough innovations enabled by interconnected data and AI. Discover firsthand how organizations use relationships in data to uncover contextual insights and solve our most pressing challenges – from optimizing supply chains, detecting fraud, and improving customer experiences to accelerating drug discoveries.
Providing Globus Services to Users of JASMIN for Environmental Data AnalysisGlobus
JASMIN is the UK’s high-performance data analysis platform for environmental science, operated by STFC on behalf of the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). In addition to its role in hosting the CEDA Archive (NERC’s long-term repository for climate, atmospheric science & Earth observation data in the UK), JASMIN provides a collaborative platform to a community of around 2,000 scientists in the UK and beyond, providing nearly 400 environmental science projects with working space, compute resources and tools to facilitate their work. High-performance data transfer into and out of JASMIN has always been a key feature, with many scientists bringing model outputs from supercomputers elsewhere in the UK, to analyse against observational or other model data in the CEDA Archive. A growing number of JASMIN users are now realising the benefits of using the Globus service to provide reliable and efficient data movement and other tasks in this and other contexts. Further use cases involve long-distance (intercontinental) transfers to and from JASMIN, and collecting results from a mobile atmospheric radar system, pushing data to JASMIN via a lightweight Globus deployment. We provide details of how Globus fits into our current infrastructure, our experience of the recent migration to GCSv5.4, and of our interest in developing use of the wider ecosystem of Globus services for the benefit of our user community.
Enterprise Resource Planning System includes various modules that reduce any business's workload. Additionally, it organizes the workflows, which drives towards enhancing productivity. Here are a detailed explanation of the ERP modules. Going through the points will help you understand how the software is changing the work dynamics.
To know more details here: https://blogs.nyggs.com/nyggs/enterprise-resource-planning-erp-system-modules/
OpenFOAM solver for Helmholtz equation, helmholtzFoam / helmholtzBubbleFoamtakuyayamamoto1800
In this slide, we show the simulation example and the way to compile this solver.
In this solver, the Helmholtz equation can be solved by helmholtzFoam. Also, the Helmholtz equation with uniformly dispersed bubbles can be simulated by helmholtzBubbleFoam.
Check out the webinar slides to learn more about how XfilesPro transforms Salesforce document management by leveraging its world-class applications. For more details, please connect with sales@xfilespro.com
If you want to watch the on-demand webinar, please click here: https://www.xfilespro.com/webinars/salesforce-document-management-2-0-smarter-faster-better/
Navigating the Metaverse: A Journey into Virtual Evolution"Donna Lenk
Join us for an exploration of the Metaverse's evolution, where innovation meets imagination. Discover new dimensions of virtual events, engage with thought-provoking discussions, and witness the transformative power of digital realms."
AI Fusion Buddy Review: Brand New, Groundbreaking Gemini-Powered AI AppGoogle
AI Fusion Buddy Review: Brand New, Groundbreaking Gemini-Powered AI App
👉👉 Click Here To Get More Info 👇👇
https://sumonreview.com/ai-fusion-buddy-review
AI Fusion Buddy Review: Key Features
✅Create Stunning AI App Suite Fully Powered By Google's Latest AI technology, Gemini
✅Use Gemini to Build high-converting Converting Sales Video Scripts, ad copies, Trending Articles, blogs, etc.100% unique!
✅Create Ultra-HD graphics with a single keyword or phrase that commands 10x eyeballs!
✅Fully automated AI articles bulk generation!
✅Auto-post or schedule stunning AI content across all your accounts at once—WordPress, Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogger, and more.
✅With one keyword or URL, generate complete websites, landing pages, and more…
✅Automatically create & sell AI content, graphics, websites, landing pages, & all that gets you paid non-stop 24*7.
✅Pre-built High-Converting 100+ website Templates and 2000+ graphic templates logos, banners, and thumbnail images in Trending Niches.
✅Say goodbye to wasting time logging into multiple Chat GPT & AI Apps once & for all!
✅Save over $5000 per year and kick out dependency on third parties completely!
✅Brand New App: Not available anywhere else!
✅ Beginner-friendly!
✅ZERO upfront cost or any extra expenses
✅Risk-Free: 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee!
✅Commercial License included!
See My Other Reviews Article:
(1) AI Genie Review: https://sumonreview.com/ai-genie-review
(2) SocioWave Review: https://sumonreview.com/sociowave-review
(3) AI Partner & Profit Review: https://sumonreview.com/ai-partner-profit-review
(4) AI Ebook Suite Review: https://sumonreview.com/ai-ebook-suite-review
#AIFusionBuddyReview,
#AIFusionBuddyFeatures,
#AIFusionBuddyPricing,
#AIFusionBuddyProsandCons,
#AIFusionBuddyTutorial,
#AIFusionBuddyUserExperience
#AIFusionBuddyforBeginners,
#AIFusionBuddyBenefits,
#AIFusionBuddyComparison,
#AIFusionBuddyInstallation,
#AIFusionBuddyRefundPolicy,
#AIFusionBuddyDemo,
#AIFusionBuddyMaintenanceFees,
#AIFusionBuddyNewbieFriendly,
#WhatIsAIFusionBuddy?,
#HowDoesAIFusionBuddyWorks
Top 7 Unique WhatsApp API Benefits | Saudi ArabiaYara Milbes
Discover the transformative power of the WhatsApp API in our latest SlideShare presentation, "Top 7 Unique WhatsApp API Benefits." In today's fast-paced digital era, effective communication is crucial for both personal and professional success. Whether you're a small business looking to enhance customer interactions or an individual seeking seamless communication with loved ones, the WhatsApp API offers robust capabilities that can significantly elevate your experience.
In this presentation, we delve into the top 7 distinctive benefits of the WhatsApp API, provided by the leading WhatsApp API service provider in Saudi Arabia. Learn how to streamline customer support, automate notifications, leverage rich media messaging, run scalable marketing campaigns, integrate secure payments, synchronize with CRM systems, and ensure enhanced security and privacy.
Developing Distributed High-performance Computing Capabilities of an Open Sci...Globus
COVID-19 had an unprecedented impact on scientific collaboration. The pandemic and its broad response from the scientific community has forged new relationships among public health practitioners, mathematical modelers, and scientific computing specialists, while revealing critical gaps in exploiting advanced computing systems to support urgent decision making. Informed by our team’s work in applying high-performance computing in support of public health decision makers during the COVID-19 pandemic, we present how Globus technologies are enabling the development of an open science platform for robust epidemic analysis, with the goal of collaborative, secure, distributed, on-demand, and fast time-to-solution analyses to support public health.
How Recreation Management Software Can Streamline Your Operations.pptxwottaspaceseo
Recreation management software streamlines operations by automating key tasks such as scheduling, registration, and payment processing, reducing manual workload and errors. It provides centralized management of facilities, classes, and events, ensuring efficient resource allocation and facility usage. The software offers user-friendly online portals for easy access to bookings and program information, enhancing customer experience. Real-time reporting and data analytics deliver insights into attendance and preferences, aiding in strategic decision-making. Additionally, effective communication tools keep participants and staff informed with timely updates. Overall, recreation management software enhances efficiency, improves service delivery, and boosts customer satisfaction.
Unleash Unlimited Potential with One-Time Purchase
BoxLang is more than just a language; it's a community. By choosing a Visionary License, you're not just investing in your success, you're actively contributing to the ongoing development and support of BoxLang.
OpenMetadata Community Meeting - 5th June 2024OpenMetadata
The OpenMetadata Community Meeting was held on June 5th, 2024. In this meeting, we discussed about the data quality capabilities that are integrated with the Incident Manager, providing a complete solution to handle your data observability needs. Watch the end-to-end demo of the data quality features.
* How to run your own data quality framework
* What is the performance impact of running data quality frameworks
* How to run the test cases in your own ETL pipelines
* How the Incident Manager is integrated
* Get notified with alerts when test cases fail
Watch the meeting recording here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbNOje0kf6E
Prosigns: Transforming Business with Tailored Technology SolutionsProsigns
Unlocking Business Potential: Tailored Technology Solutions by Prosigns
Discover how Prosigns, a leading technology solutions provider, partners with businesses to drive innovation and success. Our presentation showcases our comprehensive range of services, including custom software development, web and mobile app development, AI & ML solutions, blockchain integration, DevOps services, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 support.
Custom Software Development: Prosigns specializes in creating bespoke software solutions that cater to your unique business needs. Our team of experts works closely with you to understand your requirements and deliver tailor-made software that enhances efficiency and drives growth.
Web and Mobile App Development: From responsive websites to intuitive mobile applications, Prosigns develops cutting-edge solutions that engage users and deliver seamless experiences across devices.
AI & ML Solutions: Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Prosigns provides smart solutions that automate processes, provide valuable insights, and drive informed decision-making.
Blockchain Integration: Prosigns offers comprehensive blockchain solutions, including development, integration, and consulting services, enabling businesses to leverage blockchain technology for enhanced security, transparency, and efficiency.
DevOps Services: Prosigns' DevOps services streamline development and operations processes, ensuring faster and more reliable software delivery through automation and continuous integration.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Support: Prosigns provides comprehensive support and maintenance services for Microsoft Dynamics 365, ensuring your system is always up-to-date, secure, and running smoothly.
Learn how our collaborative approach and dedication to excellence help businesses achieve their goals and stay ahead in today's digital landscape. From concept to deployment, Prosigns is your trusted partner for transforming ideas into reality and unlocking the full potential of your business.
Join us on a journey of innovation and growth. Let's partner for success with Prosigns.
A Sighting of filterA in Typelevel Rite of Passage
Scientific software sustainability and ecosystem complexity
1. Sustainability in
Scientific Software:
Ecosystem context
and science policy
James Howison
School of Information
University of Texas at Austin
(based on joint work with Jim Herbsleb at Carnegie Mellon)
This material is based upon work supported by the US National Science Foundation under
Grant Nos. SMA- 1064209 (SciSIP) and OCI-0943168 (VOSS).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/demandaj/
2. How does working on things made out
of digital information change the way
we collectively work?
@jameshowison
3. Affordance 1: Reuse
• Digital information can be copied
– High design costs
– Ultra-low instantiation costs
– Cheap network distribution
• Implications:
– “Write once, run anywhere”
– Think of software as an artifact
– Everyone gets a car!
@jameshowison
4. Affordance 2: Recombination
• Digital information is very flexible
– Patched
– Wrapped
– Extended
– Recombined
• Re-combinability is great for innovation
– Lots of new ways to do things
– But a sting in the tail?
Schumpeter, Ethiraj and Levinthal, Baldwin and Clarke
@jameshowison
5. Today’s questions
1. How does the recombination affordance
threaten sustainability?
2. What can be done about this?
@jameshowison
6. Sustainability: the condition that
results when the work needed to
keep software scientifically useful
is undertaken
@jameshowison
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kitch/5179039214
7. So what work needs to be done?
Develop Maintain
?@jameshowison
8. What drives the need for work?
1. Difficulty of production
2. Difficulty of use
3. Changing scientific frontier
4. Changing technological capabilities
5. Ecosystem complexity
@jameshowison
9. How do scientists use software?
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
Edwards, Batcheller, Deelman, Bietz and Lee,
Segal, De Roure and Gobels, Ribes and Finholt,
Howison and Herbsleb
@jameshowison
10. Re-animating assemblages
• Scientists pull an assemblage together, “get
the plots” and often then leave it, often for
months or years.
• When they return they return to extend; to
use the software assemblage for new
purposes, for new science, not simply to
replicate.
@jameshowison
11. But the world changes …
• Reanimation encounters change in the
software ecosystem
– Updated packages, New packages, New interfaces
• And not just in the immediate components of
a workflow, but in the dependencies.
• This work is echoed at component producers,
since components are themselves
assemblages.
@jameshowison
13. What holds a complex software
ecosystem together (if anything)?
• Sensing work
– knowing how things “out there” are changing
• Adjustment
– making appropriate changes to account for
changing surroundings
• Synchronization
– ensuring that changes in multiple components
make sense together, avoiding cascades.
@jameshowison
14. Number of users (reuse)
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
@jameshowison
15. Diversity of use (recombination)
v 2.0.1
v 2.0.1
v 2.2.8
Workflow
Software assemblage
Dependecies
@jameshowison
16. Ecosystem Position
Diversity of use
NumberofUsers
Generally unreachable area
Unlikely region
low high
Few
Many
@jameshowison
17. How do different kinds of needed work
scale with ecosystem position?
• New feature development/Technology adaptation
– At most linearly across both dimensions
• User support
– Linearly, perhaps even reducing at high numbers as users
support each other
• Sensing work
– Linearly with diversity of use
• Adjustment and synchronization
– Exponentially with diversity of use (recombination)
– Even assuming a constant rate of change of complements
@jameshowison
18. Holding things together is hard work
But you can’t unlock the potential of cyberinfrastructure without it
@jameshowison
19. Strategies for reducing needed work
1. Suppress the drivers
2. Increase the efficiency of work
… but, ultimately, work is always needed …
1. Attract resources willing and able to do the
work
@jameshowison
25. Questions of sustainability
• How, and to what extent, does a project
attract new resources?
– Turn use and impact into more resources?
• How does a resource attraction system handle
sensing, adjustment, and synchronization
work?
@jameshowison
27. Open Source Peer Production
Howison and Crowston (2014) Collaboration through Open Superposition. MIS Quarterly
Value-producing
activity
Software Use
ImpactResources
Devs
Time
@jameshowison
29. How do resource attraction systems
cope with challenges of ecosystem
complexity?
@jameshowison
30. Markets and ecosystem complexity
• Sales provide insight (sensing) at the same
time as they generate resources
• Emergence of Platform strategy:
– Suppress complexity by disallowing recombination
between customer apps.
– Sensing undertaken by code review (via app store
submission)
– Adjustment and synchronization through new
releases of the API
@jameshowison
32. Open source peer production
• Sensing:
– Contributions from the edge, driven by use value,
provide direct insight into usage.
• Adjustment:
– Pushing upstream uses the cheap copies affordance
of software to scale adjustment.
• Synchronization:
– Emergence of distributions which collate the
adjustments and attempt synchronization.
• Debian, Red Hat, Eclipse
33. Grant funding
• Service center argument places burden on core
team
• Little visibility into use context of software
– Developers are not front-line scientists
– No scalable way to see what is happening in use
contexts
• Success via focusing on low diversity of use/high
user numbers
– Works in specific locations (e.g., BLAST)
– Often impossible, so focus on “power users”
(Batcheller and Edwards; Bietz and Lee)
@jameshowison
34. Attempting command and control
• Scientific software developers sometimes
appeal for hierarchical control
– “The funder should just make it mandatory”
– “We should meet and plan a roadmap”
– All focused on suppressing complexity
• But digital flexibility inhibits this
– Scientists are going to tinker, new technologies are
going to suggest new technologies
@jameshowison
36. Improving Synchronization
• Fund software distribution work and innovation in
distribution
– Distributions can manage cascades
• Opportunities for research including simulating
ecosystem impact of changes
– If we knew how tools, data and questions were linked we
could test possible changes.
@jameshowison
37. Improving Adjustment
• Accept that adjustment happens best at the
edge.
• Incentivize projects to be open to gathering
and rationalize outside adjustments.
• Overcome the “service center” framing
• Inculcate stewardship orientation within
grant funded projects.
@jameshowison
38. Improving Sensing
Fund, but more importantly develop reputational rewards to, innovation in
sensing the scientific software ecosystem:
• Measure diversity of use contexts, understand how users
recombine
– Go beyond single tool user-studies.
• Increase visibility of software in publications
– See Citation session this afternoon.
• Software that reports its own use?
– See “Software Metrics” session this afternoon.
• Overcome concerns about visibility and scientific
competition
– Yes, privacy matters, but users have responsibilities as well.
@jameshowison
39. Takeaways
• Recombination is a key affordance of software, but leads to
diverse use contexts
• The work needed to maintain usefulness in a complex
ecosystem grows exponentially with use context diversity.
• Two real options:
– Suppress recombination
– Gain visibility into recombination
• Grant-making seems weaker than markets or open source
at supporting visibility
• Thus incentivizing visibility is key to a sustainable scientific
software ecosystem.
Paper at
http://james.howison.name/publications.html#cyberinfrastructure
@jameshowison
Editor's Notes
Going to explore two different affordances of software that are related to its nature as being made of information:
“Everyone gets a car!”
Archer points this out in his Chpt 5 – the progress of science is an exogenous (or structurationally linked) cause of change or pertubation in the system. He draws on Hughes “reverse salients”, points that hold back the progress of the system as a whole. The workflow idea is well understood in studies of science software (e.g., Dennis and Loft).
Show that the develop and maintain model relies only on the reuse affordance. Let’s look closer at Maintenance (Bietz and Lee).
Picture of assemblages. They pick up the software and adapt and improve it later.
It is far from uncommon to discover what appear to be cyclic dependencies, to require missing historical versions, or to require multiple, incompatible versions, requiring some level of jerry-rigging at points in the stack. This experience is common to those working with software, even outside science, and is described as a descent into "dependency hell."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_hell
In aggregate, if we pull the camera back, we can envision the world of software workflows as a pond. Changes (from many different sources) spread out through their users and demand many small changes, each of which spreads on out further. Once the ripples start to overlap, or catch up with each other, true chaos emerges.
Exploding the category of maintenance work, from the perspective of a component producer.
A single component flows out to many places. Initially similar, but changing over time.
The component gets combined with a differing set of components.
You can place software along these dimensions. It’s hard to get to the top left, since as you get more users they will tend to combine your software in more ways. The bottom right is also pretty unlikely (thankfully) as useful recombinations tend to be useful to many people. Yet in some cases, especially in science, you could end up out there.
The more diverse the recombinations that your users are employing, the more points of origin for change, the more potential for cascading changes that undermine
How does the way we attract resources relate to the needed work (and, in particular, to the challenges of ecosystem complexity?)
Probably this splits into 2 slides
Probably also splits into two slides. Note that distributions handle synchronization, but only at the level of dependencies, not complements.
Echo Ribes and Finholt about the teams that prioritize research first, then software dev then maintenance. But maintenance is crucial.
Take these in reverse order, leaving the most actionable for last.