Cultivating Sustainable Software for Research the Perspective from OMII-UK Cyberinfrastructure Software and Sustainability Workshop 26-27 March 2009 Neil Chue Hong Director, OMII-UK

UK e-Science From presentation by Tony Hey GGF5 Edinburgh

UK e-Science Budget (2001-2006) Staff costs - Grid Resources Computers & Network funded separately Source: Science Budget 2003/4 – 2005/6, DTI(OST) Total: £213M + £100M via JISC Slide from Steve Newhouse EPSRC Breakdown + Industrial Contributions £25M

Three “S’s”: Software, Support, Sustainability © Infrastructure Provider Component Provider Solution Provider e-Science End User OMII

OMII-UK Users © Applied Technology Specialists e-Infrastructure e-Researchers (domain & generic) Providers

Technical support and advice In-house core development activity Commissioning software Integration & customization of existing external & internal software Evaluation of existing external software, dissemination of best practice Evaluation of standards, dissemination of best practice Development & implementation of standards Improving ease of use Improving ease of installation Software hardening, reliability, scalability Business intelligence for research Community development and consultancy Information dissemination : website, keynotes, tutorials, other training Project specific technical and managerial consultancy Software Repository Community Building Foundation Services Responsive Development

OMII-UK: Software Development Taverna: effortless workflows for scientists OGSA-DAI: data integration for service providers PAG: AG videoconferencing for anyone Campus Grid Toolkit: easy to install grid for job submission

Support and Helpdesk 439 queries in Q3 ‘08 418 resolved within base period

Software development comes in stages (and it takes time)

Software development comes in stages An idea to solve a problem Scaling to work for others Understand the functionality Allow others to participate Idea Prototype Research Idea Prototype Idea Idea Prototype Research Supported Product Idea Prototype Research Supported

Commissioned Software Programme @ Q1 ‘08 Supporting Developing Evaluating AHE GridSAM GridBS Broker Grimoires KNOOGLE SCAMP Open Grid Manager PAG RAVE OGRSH NGS JSDL App Rep OMII-AuthZ NDG Security SAGA WSRF:: Lite RAPID WHIP BPEL Designer VIC RAT

Commissioned Software Programme @ Q3 ‘08 Supporting Developing Evaluating Commissioned Software Projects progress through the software lifecycle AHE GridSAM GridBS Broker Grimoires KNOOGLE SCAMP Open Grid Manager PAG RAVE OGRSH NGS JSDL App Rep OMII-AuthZ NDG Security SAGA WSRF:: Lite RAPID WHIP BPEL Designer VIC RAT ICT GridSAM

GridSAM – History & OMII-UK Involvement

GridSAM – Releases & Additional Value

GridSAM – Publications & Enabled Activities

There isn’t a single best model for sustainability

Open Source software is free… Free as in speech… free as in beer, or…

Slide from Jim Austin

Increasing participation is the key to long term sustainability

“ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for life.” "Teach a man to fish, and you introduce another competitor into the overcrowded fishing industry. Give a man a fish, and you stimulate demand for your product" Sustainable communities demonstrate 4 key factors: - cohesion and identity - tolerance of diversity - efficient use of resources - adaptability to change

Participation Inequality aka “90-9-1”

Can we still consider traditional notions of software?

Novel reuse of public sector data http://www.mysociety.org

Thank You!