Sustainability and Business Models for Middleware Governance

1. Sustainability and Business Models forMiddleware Governance JayPearlman, Stefano Nativi, and FrancoisePearlman Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Science and Technology Stakeholder Workshops March 26 2015 Norfolk, VA

2. Agenda • Introduction • Business Model Concepts • Approach and Current Activities

3. Introduction • Addressing the Governance (including sustainability) of middleware • Use brokering as exemplar • Need is to transition from development to sustained operations • Addressing the culture evolution – open data, community involvement • Core work is being done under a Research Data Alliance Broker Governance Working Group Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

4. Barriers and Approaches • Problem: service users without the need to know the nature and location of service providers, • making it difficulttobind and dynamically change the bindings between users and providers • Approach: The broker pattern brings together users of services (clients) and providers of services (servers) through an intermediary, called a broker.

5. Service-driven collaborative Approach Service Providers Service Users Data Infrastructures Data Applications Registry [Governance]

6. CollaborativeManagement approach Service Providers Service Users Mediation Mediation Data Infrastructures Data Applications Mediation Mediation Mediation Mediation

7. Private Company Systems Community Portals GEOSS Portal … . SoS Brokering Framework GEOSS Knowledge Base Software Ecosystem … . GEOSS systems Registry Public Systems GEOSS interdisciplinary Collaboration & Social services NGO systems

8. Evolution Challenge ? ? Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015, Barcelona

9. Broker Requirements • Support users and further interoperability; • Be sustainable; • Support and be compliant with national and international policies (including research objectives); • Support core technical capability advancement, be accessible to a wide range of users; • Create a flexible adaptable framework for incorporation of new developments; • Offer a range of services essential to multi-disciplinary science collaborations –this range of services is expected to grow. • Scalable; supports a wide range of standards and data models • Open, transparent, trustworthy (improved managed access]

10. Global Earth Observation Systems of Systems Science & Society Data & Information Providers

11. OK, How do we address this? • What is essential? • What tools are necessary? • What is the role of community and ? • Can it be sustainable? • Who should do it and how should we go forward? Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

12. Framework for the Discussion? • Governance Working Group • Recommendation in 18 months • Three WPs created • WP1. Business model • WP2. Service agreement • WP3. Use Cases Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

13. Business Models Information and Ad sales • - Google is available at no cost for search and for visualization of earth information - supported by advertising and sale of collected information. Product (Document) Sales • - Standards organizations (IEEE, ISO, etc.) sell standards documents and rely on volunteers and corporate participation to formulate standards. Corporate Support • - OGC has a membership model with fees for participation (different levels are available) and relies on volunteers. • - The Open Source Initiative is moving from a volunteer base to a member/affiliate base. They focus on licenses. The financial base comes from corporate sponsors.

14. Business Models Software as a Service (SaaS) Model • Companies provide a mixture of base and enhanced services. • Wikipedia defines a similar freemium model -“Freemium is a pricing strategy by which a product or service (typically a digital offering such as software, media, games or web services) is provided free of charge, but money (premium) is charged for proprietary features- Examples: WordPress has an open source component (wordpress.org) and a service component (wordpress.com). Government Funding • GEOSS solicits support from governments for their secretariat operations, both in funds and in staff assignments.. • Pan-European research Infrastructures provide an information service based on government grants.

15. Evolution • Unlike traditional software which is conventionally sold as a perpetual license with an up-front cost (and an optional ongoing support fee), SaaS providers generally price applications using a subscription fee, most commonly a monthly fee or an annual fee. • Some of the benefits of the SaaS model are that it is easier to administrate, all users will have the same version of the software because updates and patch management will be done automatically, and therefore collaboration will be easier. Also, it will grant global accessibility, making remote work models easier, which reduces costs and improves performance Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

16. Further evolution • User provisioning (i.e., setting up a new customer) in a multi-tenant environment enables some SaaS vendors to offer applications using the freemium model. • In this model, a free service is made available with limited functionality or scope, and fees are charged for enhanced functionality or larger scope. • Drop Box, Skype, WordPress, etc, etc, etc Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

17. Freemium • Target customers • Creating value from free users • Learn from free users • Cost to serve free users When does it make sense? Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

18. Understanding the customer base • AtTask is a Utah-­‐based startup that has developed a technology solution that it characterizes as Enterprise Work Management. • AtTask believes that it is much harder for enterprise product adoption to happen virally starting with front line employees because this class of products often requires companies to change how they work and because buyers (executive decision makers) are not typically the initial users. It believes that change within enterprises must come from the top. Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

19. Software as a Service (SaaS) • WordPress.com – discussion with Andrew Spittle, Happiness Engineer (Customer support lead) • 12 years and 23% of web-based market for web pages, 300 People (7 in sales), $1B annual sales • Open software encourages local participation, translations, culture, service and innovation, evangeleists (wordpress.org) • Service supports short term sustainability, bundling, scalability, debugging of new capabilities (then open), hosting and mobile support, corporate image support, training Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

20. Red Hat - Linux Kick off meeting. February 18th, 2015. Barcelona

21. Business Models Capacity Based How many? (Dropbox) Feature Based Freemium What features? (Skype) Time Based Freemium offers core services or features for free and charges for more sophisticated components. For how long? (Salesforce) User Class Based Which Communities? (Adobe)

22. Brokering Governance • RDA WG to addressGovernance • Committedmembers and Stakeholders • Exemplar Use Cases • GEO-BON • ICSU-WDS • EC Danube • SIOS • Other???

23. Brokering Governance Areas • Brokering (framework) Sustainability Assessment • Business Models • Agreements between brokering organization and data/service providers • Preserving autonomy required by the Broker pattern • Community adoption and support of the Broker pattern • Use cases, training, pilots, …

24. Brokering Agreements Definition Agreements between brokering organization and data/service providers • Define high-level service interoperability agreements • Consider the specificity of high-level broker pattern (e.g autonomy) Agreements may include: • Agreements for notification of changes (e.g. in formats for data or metadata or changes in web interface protocols) • Data Management plan adopted by the provider • Confirmation of access requirements and release policy • Requirements for sign-on and authorization • Intellectual Property Rights – including access, use and reuse • Security requirements for data uptake and distribution • Code of conduct (e.g., will not distribute user information) • License Agreements (service or operation license agreements)

25. Governance Use Cases • International repositories: ICSU WDS • Metadata catalog was part of a WDS certification process for member infrastructures. Metadata catalogs are not standard –use brokering to extend framework – prefer open source . • Global Changes: GEO-BON • Leipzig meeting will define broker interface of 7 data families for biodiversity to reach across data families – persistent reuse (into GBIF), brokering instructions will be reusable – moving to common practices • SIOS (Svalbard Integrated Observation System) • (Bente Lye) Four Country Arctic agreement for data resources, communication and interface.

26. RDA Broker Governances Status • Three WPs created • WP1. Business model • WP2. Service agreement • WP3. Use Cases • Open Solicitation for participation issued • WP Chairs (Nativi, Pearlman, Craglia): • WP1: Sue Fyfe GEOSCIENCE Australia • WP2: Rebecca Koskela, DataOne) • WP3: Erin Robinson (ESIP), MattiaSantoro (GEOSS Services CNR)

27. Thankyou !