EPS Project Proposal

1. EPS Project Proposal Stefano Stramigioli Paolo Fiorini S.Stramigioli@ieee.org OUTLINE • Why a new WWW and EPS • Technical Approach • Management Structure • Planning IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

2. Why a new WWW • The WWW is THE BUSINESS CARD of our society • Even if managed with great care, the current WWW misses sharp layout and functionality • Difficult to manage since STATIC and with no CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM • NO ACTIVE FUNCTIONALITIES available to help running the society IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

3. Goal • To review and restructure all Electronic Products and Services of RAS in order to: • Improve the RAS Professional Presence • Facilitate volunteers serving the society • Serve better our members • Create a central E-presence for Robotics and Automation • Create an a working instrument for RAS activities IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

4. Technical Approach WWW Interface(Apache) Wrappers and Scripts (PhP) DataBase (MySQL) Tools: GD library, PDFlib, PHP Pear Library, Xstandard, Mambo, Typo 3.. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

5. Database Layer General RAStables VP specificor commeteetables Access Rights control IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

6. Access Rights control Scripts and Wrappers Others Export Filters Import Filter wrappers Consistency checksInfo requestsReminders HTMLExcelLatex …. IEEE DB…. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

7. WWW interface www IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

8. Possible interface IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

9. Rationale or Plan • Ensure quality and continuity without unnecessary waste of money. • Involve end-users continuously in the cycle to ensure final satisfactory results • Create a standing structure to address future electronic needs of the society promptly IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

10. Management Structure • The decisional entity will be the Electronic Products and Services Board (EPSB) • Any investments in the development will have to be approved by the board and financed by a yearly board budget. • The board will report either directly to the President or to the VP TAB. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

11. EPSB Chair: Stefano Stramigioli Co-chair: Paolo Fiorini • Members: • Excomm: Dick Volz (Presidency), Kevin Lynch (Secretary), Seth Hutchinson (PUB), Ken Golberg (TAB), Antonio Bicchi (MEMB), Max Meng (CONF), Tony Maciejewski (FIN), Shukan Lee (IAB) • Committees: Paolo Dario and/or Steve Hsia (Nomination), …. ?? • Others: Roz Snyder (current WWW adm.), Bruno Siciliano (AdComm member), Klas Nilsson (AdComm Member) IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

12. Decisional Structure (1/4) • Small atomic projects (APs) will be proposed to the EPSB. • A proposal will have to concisely include: • The Goal of the AP • The expected time frame • The requested Budget IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

13. Decisional Structure (2/4) • If AP proposal is accepted, the EPSB board will also assign/approve an AP responsible (APR). The APR will have to supervise the development of an AP and make sure goals defined in the AP proposal are met and that the time frame is respected within acceptable bounds. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

14. Decisional Structure (3/4) • Each AP will have a half life evaluation by EPSB. This will be done by a real demonstration which will have to take place via the WWW to be sure that the required functionalities are properly addressed. This half life feedback will have to define desired modifications and possible adaptation in the goal definition IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

15. Decisional Structure (4/4) • Each AP will have to be extensively documented. A subgroup of the EPSB will be appointed which will have to take care that the documentation is sufficient for the AP to be eventually modified by others if necessary in the future. The documentation will be based on: • Commented on line code • Small User Manual and specification Description of the Functionalities • This documentation will be centrally available in the DB system IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

16. Who is doing the work • This will be decided by ESPB for each AP: it may be people supervised by volunteers or professionals. Rationale: Many subprojects can be professionally carried out under direct supervision of volunteer without unnecessary waste of money with big enterprises. The board has the power to enforce professional involvement if necessary. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

17. Maintenance • Technical Maintenance • Changes or support related to technical problems like access rights, backups and general support. A responsible person will be appointed for this task and yearly costs will be budgeted for this purpose which will ensure a smooth usage. This person does not have to be directly related to RAS and he/she will be likely an external professional. • Content Maintenance • Rosaline Snyder IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

18. Continuity • Everything will physically reside in one location which will be properly backed-up not to have fragmentation • In this location there will be a Data-Base of all APs and their documentation so that anybody could find information of any part of the system and modify it if necessary. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

19. Time Plan • Host decision and testing of the required functionality • Creation of an initial Portal Interface • Porting of the main data of the current WWW by making the layout consistent and uniform and enforcing the usage of CSS. This first porting may be done using an initial Context Management System. • Porting of the TAB functionalities developed under the supervision of Stefano Stramigioli and than reengineered under the supervision of Ken Goldberg. • Definition of the first APs. IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

20. Budget 2006 2007 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

21. Conclusions • The society needs to address the EPS • We need to have a structure to promptly address Electronic Needs • We believe to have a procedure to • Ensure Quality and Goal achievements • Do not unnecessarily waste money • Ensure Continuity an proper Maintenance • Give RAS a professional and functional view IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA

22. Motion “ I move that an Electronic Product and Services Board (with the goal to implement what presented in the report) will be formed and given a provisionally approved running budget of 35K$ for 2006 and 35K$ for 2007 with possible extension to be approved for future years in 2007” IEEE Robotics and Automation Society AdCom October 2005 San Francisco, USA