Transcript Open/Community Source applications: learning to play with

It's the Enterprise, Dude
Barry Walsh
Indiana University
• The increase in electronic information and service delivery to our
constituents is drawing into sharp focus how we can make interaction
with enterprise services a delightful rather than a frustrating
experience. But it's not just about the technology. The cultural issues,
silos and other, are the greater stumbling block. The work that is being
done in the community source initiatives is helping create that
delightful experience for our users but with it comes new governance
and collaboration imperatives. This session will explore this new and
exciting world where policy, requirements, and technology meet.
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Google earth
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On the Other Hand
Students……….Faculty………..Staff………..Alumni
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Several Forces at Work in our Institutions
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Rapidly expanding user bases;
ERP vendor systems;
Open Source movement;
Portals;
SOAP  Web Services;
They’re not necessarily unrelated!
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Typical Experience Until Recently
• Users logged on to systems and navigated to
find information or perform processes.
• training
• Individual apps
• different sign-ons
• Poor/non-existent user interface standards
• Or worse still, the system sent printed
output to them through snail-mail
The point is they usually had to overtly seek
out the information in disparate systems*
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Gartner on Network Enabled Components—aka Web Services
• Servers at the core of the network will increasingly
act as "facilitators" by guiding procedure calls to
the locations where they can be most efficiently
executed.
• Given such capabilities, the emphasis of software
development shifts to re-architecting business
functions into modular, network-enabled
components spread across a highly-distributed
computing infrastructure. This evolution, more
than anything else, is the fundamental driving
force behind the Web Services architecture.
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Future?
Today’s Integrated Suite
Course Catalog
Personal Database
Standards
Based
Degree Advising
Core Technologies
Financial
Aid Regs/Processing
Registration
for Classes
WS; SOA; Workflow
Admissions
Bursar
Transcripts.
Goal: ZDU (Zero Disruptive Upgrades)
It’s Raining Technology!!
SOA
MOM
ESB
Web 2.0
Directory
Workflow
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AJAX
Notification
JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Options
• More likely you will end up building, buying and
assembling
• Loosely coupled systems are more and more the
future and that’s why integration is key
• Customization takes on a new form
• Based on what and who I am….driven by a directory.
• Role based view; not everybody needs the entire SIS or whatever
• Speaks to a functional component model
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
What might this look like ?
• A more proactive push process to deliver in one
place all information and processes I may
need…the information finds me.
• The ‘official’ place to which the organization
would send stuff it wanted you to address.
• Single sign-on;
• Seamless transport between and among back office and
other systems
• Sounds like a portal to me
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
So…what is an
enterprise web portal?
• A web-based framework consisting of a role
based, but personalized view of an integrated set
of services which provide easy access to
information, applications, processes and
people.
Some caveats and disclaimers
• We in IT and the back office units are
not the primary target audience for
enterprise portals
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Students (and their parents);
Faculty;
Staff;
Alums;
Not all of them are technically savvy;
• Neither IT nor the service providers will
drive the services in the portal….see
Rule 1 above
• IT providing a service delivery
framework and several specific ‘utility’
services
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Enterprise Portals (EPs) and SOA
“To implement a service-oriented architecture, companies
must consider what steps and technologies are involved.
Portals represent a logical first step in the process.
The portal can be a logical and appropriate first step
toward SOA implementation because its fundamental
nature lends itself to SOA approaches.
--The portal uses service-oriented concepts;
--It leverages Web services extensively;
--It leverages portlets, which consume services or
communicate to provide orchestrated flows and on-theglass composite applications.”
Gene Phifer: (Gartner’s leading analyst on EPs)
22 September 2005
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Enterprise Portals (EPs) and SOA
“To implement a service-oriented architecture, companies
must consider what steps and technologies are involved.
Portals represent a logical first step in the process.
The portal can be a logical and appropriate first step
toward SOA implementation because its fundamental
nature lends itself to SOA approaches.
--The portal uses service-oriented concepts;
--It leverages Web services extensively;
--It leverages portlets, which consume services or
communicate to provide orchestrated flows and on-theglass composite applications.”
Gene Phifer: (Gartner’s leading analyst on EPs)
22 September 2005
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Technology and Silo Culture in Portals
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, March 31, 2003:
“Basically, buying software won't get you a good portal
unless you also manage internal company politics.
Technology accounts for roughly one-third of the work in
launching a good portal;
internal processes account for the rest.
The real challenge is to get contributors from individual
departments to comply with the portal rules, enter decent
meta-data, and refrain from fielding maverick intranet
servers outside the portal's scope.
Intranet portals aim to replace the wild Web model with a
tool metaphor, where a company's content and services
work together instead of undermining each other.”
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Gartner: The Big Challenge in Portals
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Every Website is a potential new silo
Silo’d service delivery units
Changing people’s habits
Existing methods have to stay in place during
transition
• That allows those resistant to change to linger
• A long term commitment is required to get through the
transition
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Some ‘Source ‘ Definitions
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Pure Commercial Software
Shareholders
•Goal to maximize profit
•Developer priority profit
Commercial Developers
•Revenue and paycheck!
•stability of software
•Do not even know
stakeholders
Communication between Stakeholders
and Shareholders is in the form of large
checks.
Stakeholders
•Expect indemnification
•allows for a good night’s
sleep?
•Users feel they have the best
product that money can buy
•Can calibrate end-user demands
for change
= Most Powerful in Structure
Attribution to Chuck Severance at U Mich
Pure Open Source Software
Open Source Developers
•Type 1: Passionate individual
•Type 2: Paid consultants
•Teams formed based on personal
time and motivation or a
commercial venture with a shortterm agenda
•Effort level can ebb and flow
•Cool features and programming
chops rule the day (and night)
Stakeholders
•Love “free” stuff.
•Hate that there is no one to call “if it breaks you get to keep both
pieces”
•Hate that there is no one to sue
•Must self-indemnify by keeping
lots of staff “in case” something
goes wrong.
•Once open source is chosen,
may find it hard to sleep at night.
Virtually no communication at all between Stakeholders and Developers
Attribution to Chuck Severance at U Mich
Attribution to Joseph Hardin at U Mich
Community Source
Secondary Stakeholders
•Look to Core developers
for reliability/performance
•The Core developers have
a boss!
•Pay money to Core to get
“indemnification”?
•Can contribute to the Core
“in kind”?
•Can join the core with
enough commitment
•Can pay Commercial
Support for “extra
indemnification”.
Open Source Developers
•Limited ways to play in this
game
Core Stakeholders
•May represent a significant pool of
resources
•If they pooled resources, they
would be instantly larger than
many small commercial R&D
operations.
•Tired of writing big checks, and
begging for features
•Form coalition of the “committed”
•Must learn that this is harder than
it looks - must gain company-like
skills.
•Actually responsible for both the
development and production of the
software.
Commercial Support
•Can contribute in several
ways
•Can make money from
secondary stakeholders
Core Developers
•Work for the stakeholders
so they want to make the
Stakeholders happy:
•By, of and for HE!
Attribution to Chuck Severance at U Mich
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Community Source Projects
“Community source describes a model for
the purposeful coordinating of work in a
community. It is based on many of the
principles of open source development
efforts, but community source efforts rely
more explicitly on defined roles,
responsibilities, and funded commitments
by community members than some open
source development models.”
…. from www.sakaiproject.org
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Attribution to Joseph Hardin at U Mich
JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Community Source Projects
“Community source describes a model for
the purposeful coordinating of work in a
community. It is based on many of the
principles of open source development
efforts, but community source efforts rely
more explicitly on defined roles,
responsibilities, and funded commitments
by community members than some open
source development models.”
…. from www.sakaiproject.org
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Attribution to Joseph Hardin at U Mich
JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Three Critical Stages
Harmoniou
s Execution
Formation
Funding
Ongoing
Support
Scope
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Governance
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Formation:
Formation
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Formation: Choose Partners Judiciously
• Like-minded Institutions
• Shared vision
• Functionally
• Technically
• Ya gotta WANNA!!
• Synchronized institutional clocks
• Within reason
• Long term commitment:
• Beyond Project?
• Tolerance for ambiguity
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Formation: Participants’ Volunteer Modes
So Where’s
uPortal?
Applications
(Kuali/Sakai)
Institutional
uPortal
Middleware
(Apache; CAS)
Operating System
(Linux)
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Institutional/Individual
Individual
JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Formation: Creating the resources
• Defined Contributions
• Cash or Tendered Resources
• Tendered to Board
• For Duration of Project
• Qualified Resources
• As Judged by Peers
• Functional
• Technical
• Grants
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Harmonious Execution
Harmoniou
s Execution
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Harmonious Execution: Personal
• Good behavior begets good behavior.
• If you seed the core development team with good, well
behaved people... they attract good, well behaved
people.
• The weaklings and bullies just don't fit in and don't
hang around.
• Likewise, well-behaved commercial partners set high
bar for future behavior of commercial partners.
…Carl Jacobson
7/20/2015
JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Harmonious Execution: Logistical
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Co-location is optimal but unlikely
Don’t skimp on the F2F opportunities
Always-on Video
Virtual-Meeting Software
• Webex, Breeze, LiveMeeting, etc.
• Prototype sharing/demonstration
• Collaborative Software
• Sakai, JIRA, Confluence etc.
• Time Zones!!!
• Animal House!!
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Harmonious Execution:
Overhead
• Remote sites
• Team makeup/leadership
• Work Allocation
• Time-Zones
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Ongoing Support
Funding
Ongoing
Support
Scope
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Governance
JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Ongoing Support:
Funding
• Community Source Requires Defined, Tendered
Resources
• Commercial partners  A good thing
• Long term sustenance?
• A "grant-funded project" is different from an
"open source" project.
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Ongoing Support: Scope
• Scope Creep
• A grant is a contract and an agreement to accomplish
something.
• If the grant money was received to "paint it red" and the
community wants to "paint it white"... it will be red as
long as the grant is driving the bus.
• When the community process kicks in, they can paint
it white.
…Carl Jacobson
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Ongoing Support: Scope--The Rules of the Game
The
Reality
Triangle
Resources
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You May
Pick Any
Two
I Get the
Other
☺
JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Ongoing Support: Governance
• Strong community is more valuable than strong
governance.
• Early stages: a little more hands-on?
• Later: Zen?
• "Inclusive" is better than "exclusive“
• largest possible community;
• accept free-riders;
• welcome commercial partners;
• Open-open licensing encourages inclusion and
therefore the largest possible community.
…Carl Jacobson
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
Ongoing Support:
Governance
• Founding Investors:
• uPortal
• UDel, Princeton, Andrew W. Mellon, JA-SIG, etc.
• Sakai:
• U Mich, Stanford, MIT, Indiana, Andrew W. Mellon
• Kuali:
• UA, UH, CU, SJD, MSU, IU, NACUBO, Andrew W.
Mellon;rSmart
• FEDORA:
• UVa, CU, Andrew W. Mellon
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta
In the end, it’s all about the Community
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JA-SIG 2006: Atlanta