John Walz, IEEE-CS VP for Technical & Conferences Activities Board 26-Mar-2010

1. CS Electronics Products and Services Committee (EPSC) report to SAB on Instant Communities and Special Interest Groups • John Walz, IEEE-CS VP for Technical & Conferences Activities Board • 26-Mar-2010

2. Standards Development observations from Gartner • Gartner group reports “NIST's [Smart Grid] actions have had an impact, by declaring that the Standards groups are turning to content management and Web 2.0 technologies to overcome challenges. Collaboration software platforms are ideally suited to support the transparency and interactions of standards-making processes and are making a difference.” • An important strategic step for IEEE may be to focus its attention and resources on enabling technologies that support rapid development of IEEE standards [IEEE Strategy] 02/26/10

4. Standards has many groups • Variety of groups • Committees / Sponsors, • Working Groups, • Study Groups, • SA Ballot Groups, • Technical Advisory Groups [LMSC], & • User Groups [P1471] • Most group communications are • face-to-face (F2F) meetings for collaboration and decisions, • email chains for news and decisions, • static web pages for governance 02/26/10

5. EPSC is implementing Instant Communities and considering pilots on Special Interest Groups • Sense of identification / association / network • Collaboration, • Focus on IEEE & CS products & services • Attract web traffic to computer.org 02/26/10

6. Instant Communities (IC) • Quickly formed by individuals with common technical interests • Communicate, operate, collaborate remotely and asynchronously • without depending on F2F meetings • Governance can be added as the IC becomes more mature / complex • Technology is Liferay web portal 02/26/10

7. Standards Groups benefits with Liferay web portal • Collaborative applications, managed by volunteer community leaders and members: • Web content • blogs, for leadership news to members and potential members, • content management system, with versions and permissions • wiki, for scope and future directions / roadmap • message forum, • calendar, • etc. • Provides transparency to volunteer leaders & members, next higher organization, & staff • Inexpensive open source architecture allows new & improved features / applications  • Consistent branding and look & feel with other CS web portals • Two year experience with IEEE-CS allows easy startup  02/26/10

8. Standards Groups roles with Liferay web portal • volunteer "community” leaders to manage and recruit / assign "community” members web portal roles including adding content to Web Content sections / pages • delete and change permissions of Member and Guest • "community” members to be engaged and contribute to web portal roles • "guests" to browse and make community membership decision • staff to position the right IEEE products & services on the right web pages • IT support (e.g. startup portal template, help desk, etc)  • CS EPSC to manage feature / applications additions 02/26/10

9. Liferay web portal attributes • Open source, free to encourage wide-spread use • Rapid innovation with customer-contributed sponsored development and new releases every eight months • Maintenance / SLA fees • Requires low staff support as Self-Service Portals are volunteer responsibilities • http://www.liferay.com/products/liferay-portal • CS has two year experience started at version 3 and now at version 5.2.2 • Version 5.2.3 built for IC and rolls out mid-April • One collaboration example is S2ESC P730 SQA with 18 month experience on computer.org/portal/web/sqa (demo shortly) • Your Standards Committees leadership is needed to migrate to CS Liferay 02/26/10

11. P730 Liferay demo

12. IEEE Computer SocietyPilot Special Interest Groups (SIG) for invited groups • John Walz, David Allen Grier, Pieter Botman • March 17, 2010 • Washington, DC

13. Purpose of Society & IEEE • Serve Public with Technical Knowledge 02/26/10 13

14. Two Purposes • Knowledge • Keep Abreast of Knowledge • Lead current trends, activities, etc • Membership • Attract Members who can develop and apply that knowledge 02/26/10 14

15. Key Issue for Society: Identification • Focus of Attention • Source of Professional Benefits • Assets • Leadership Opportunities • Stake in Organizational Success 02/26/10 15

16. Field of Computer Science • Too Diverse • Attention Shifting too fast • Risk having a monolithic society that appeals to few 02/26/10 16

17. Proposal At Hand:Special Interest Groups (1) • Revitalize the two key elements of society • Knowledge and Service • Smaller Unit • Stronger identification • More leadership opportunity • Better able to follow field 02/26/10 17

18. Proposal At Hand:Special Interest Groups (2) • Flexible: • Intellectual, Professional, Topical or other valid problems • Easy to Create • Easy to Expand • Natural path • Easy to change or terminate 02/26/10 18

19. SIGs • Online community • Online Tools • Learn lessons of information age • Concentration of like minded individuals • Focused on defined subjects • Common work of Professionals • Creating, validating and disseminating knowledge 02/26/10 19

20. SIGs Concept • New online communities formed around a common interest (e.g., professional, technical, social, geographic) • Specifically set up to support authorship and generation of IP • Flexible membership – not limited to CS members, a distinct “package” • Includes logistical support from CS, and a preliminary funding model w.r.t. the CS 02/26/10

21. Infrastructure for SIGs • A general collaboration environment (private area, login, discussion, posts, etc.) • Must support generation of newsletters, papers, materials and other IP • General integration with identity mechanism from IEEE and CS for login • Liferay platform identified at least for initial trial SIG implementations • Publishing now means -> CSDL & IEEE Xplore 02/26/10

22. Standards Committees Consensus IPProducts • Podcasts, i.e. IEEE Talks Software Process • Webinars, i.e. Home Networking Standards • Video, i.e. WirelessMAN: Inside the IEEE 802.16 Standard • Computer Standards Column, i.e.Safety Issues in Modern Bus Standards • White Papers, i.e.‘Coexistence Assurance’ (CA) Document - TAG 802.19 • Journal, tbd • Tutorials, i.e. IEEE 802.16 • Workshop / Conference papers / presentations, i.e. IEEE 802 Standards: A Standards Education Workshop • ReadyNotes, i.e. IEEE Software Engineering Standards Support for the CMMI Project Planning Process Area • Books, i.e. 802.11 Handbook By IEEE-CS, IEEE-SA, IEEE-ComSoc, & IEEE-EA 16-May-08 Walz

23. Standards Committee / WG migration • Move offsite web sites back into computer.org using IC Liferay web portal • improve standard development cycle & quality • Expand standards into technical, conference, publication, educational, or professional activities as part of CS SIG • become part of CS business model w/ annual budget funding based on revenue recognition • candidates: LMSC, S2ESC 02/26/10

24. Backup slides 02/26/10

25. Liferay web portal template • Committee/WG Name & Abbreviation • Web Content • Charter / Mission • Scope / PAR • Plan for this year • Report for last year • Officers, roles & emails • Call for new Volunteers • Volunteer Guidance • Members Committee Newsletter • Sponsored Technical Meetings, • Blog • Messages • Calendar events • Wiki • Library w/ leadership permissions • Annual Reports, • Annual Plans, • Annual Budgets, • Meeting agendas, minutes, action items • Governance documents • Annual Archives, e.g. Newsletters • Product & Services and Contributors / Authors • Standards, • IP supporting Standards deployment • PodCasts • Webinars, tutorials • Handbooks, ReadyNotes, Books • Conference presentations / papers • Periodical articles • Recognition • Awards, • Fellows, • Archives of past Leadership rosters