ClusterBreakoutNotes-OSS-ESIPW-13

Open Source Cluster – Meeting notes Jan 8, 2013

Abstract/Agenda

We'll cover the following material related to open source in ESIP projects.

 1. Winter Meeting 2013 Quick Study - pick 5 concrete, relevant pieces of open source Earth Science software and: a. classify their licenses - classify as "collective work" or "derivative work" b. explain differences c. classify their ecosystem d. classify their open source model  Suggestion: GDAL, Apache Hadoop, Apache OODT, GeoPortal, NetCDF4-Java library, Drupal 2. Open Source Lightning Talks - relevant discussions about open source community, licensing, redistribution, etc., issues. 3. Discussion about possible interest in a Data Library for ESIP. 4. Election of Vice Chair for the Cluster

Ecosystems, licenses, technologies. Chris started this cluster 6 month’ish ago.

1.- (Chris) Quick study: Open Source. Presentation/Discussion: ESIP Open Source 101. Details We get open source software and we incorporate/use it for our purposes. Different ecosystems. Understanding. We have mail list, wiki, meetings. Why do we care about Open Source?: because more than likely there isn’t a strategy at your institution for dealing with the related concerns and taxonomy (e.g. licensing, community models, ecosystem, legal, architectural strategy, responsiveness,...) Concerns: Licensing (copy-left vs. copy-right), redistribution (open source and commercial applications), Help Desk, intellectual property (ownership), ecosystems, contribution (requirements, allowances), responsiveness, help/guidance, interaction (best practices), implementation strategies (insulation from OSS change, config. management), architectural strategies (designs to take advantage of OSS), legal strategies. Open source process: Be able to draw the slide diagram for our own institutions. Connection to other groups. Open source models: help desk, community and mixtures. Different licenses. Reciprocal promise (Drupal).

2.- Lightning talks. People talking about themselves, open source, ...

Robert Downs (CIESIN, SEDAC, EI, Columbia).

ESDS Software Reuse WG.
Dozens people participating.
Develop.
Software usable for people.
Reuse software.
Docs, guidance, mail list, sharing software.
Repositories for Earth Science Systems.
Use cases, requirements for RES.
Awards.
Reuse readiness levels (RRLs): documentation, extensibility, intellectual property, modularity, packaging, portability, standards compliance, support and verification and testing.
Software packaging for reuse.

Joseph VanAndel (NCAR).

Data format for remote sensing.
Use a lot of Open source.
Better ways to share it. Analysis.
Conversion.
Using existing frameworks.

Angel Munoz (IRI – Columbia U.)

Computational physicist.
PhD at International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI).
Experience with open source: climate models, computational and data clusters, data formats.
Bring to the table possible use of a Data Library for ESIP. Advantages.

Christine White (ESRI)

Geoportal Server
ESRI Open Source
Shared her experience.
Moving from help desk model towards a community model.
Interested in defining the process.

John Doe

PhD student. Semantic web technologies.
Link data (health, biological).
Created its own codes.
Sharing experiences, code.
Visualize semantic data.
License issues (experience: Apache license).

Paul Ramirez (JPL-NASA)

Love for open source: figuring out problems/solutions.
Interface to community.
Experience on geospatial software.
OpenStreetMap great crowd sourcing based on open source solutions and open data. Ways to follow this for Earth Science?

Reid Boehm (U. Of Tennessee)

Communications Student.
Experiences on social sciences.
Providing resource to individuals.
Link to social sciences.

3.- Open discussion on why open source is important. Additional experiences. Bruce Caron (), Christine, Chris, Support Open Source: caring abut other people using your software. Institutions become crystallize in units of work that own things. Help people talk to each other. Software more effective. Distributed processes. Open Source is a business model. Example: Red Hat. People do open source because they want to. Open source as a mechanism for capacity building, developing talent. Enforces institutional/personal bonds. Stack overflow: community help desk that uses a merit system. General perception about open source: when people declare something as open source? If I paid for it is not open source?

4.- Electing Vice-chair.

Current soliciting nominations:

Ajinkya Kulkarni, UAH Robert Downs, CU Andrew Hart, JPL Paul Ramirez, JPL Cameron Goodale, JPL

STV vote? Decision: voting now, using a piece of paper.

Elected co-chair: Paul Ramirez. 6 votes.*