Open Collaboration in an Institutional Context

T. Metz, M.J. Mendoza, R. ValerioInternational Rice Research Institute

© IRRI, 2007

This work is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Generation Challenge Programme

• Mission: Use plant genetic diversity, advanced genomic science, and comparative biology to develop tools and technologies that help plant breeders in the developing world produce better crop varieties for resource-poor farmers.

• Structure:– Created in August 2003– 10 year framework in 2 phases (2004-8, 2009-13)

GCP Network

EMBRAPABrasiliaBrazil

CIPLimaPeru

CIATCali

Colombia

CIMMYTMexico City

Mexico

Cornell University USA

Wageningen University Netherlands

John Innes CentreNorwich

UK

CAASBeijing China

NIAS TsukubaJapan

AgropolisMontpellier

France

IPGRIRomeItaly

WARDABouakéCote d’Ivore

IRRILos BañosPhilippines

ICRISATPatancheruIndia

ICARDAAleppoSyria

IITAIbadanNigeria

ACGTPretoria

South Africa

ICARNew Delhi

India

BIOTECBangkokThailand

INRARabat

MoroccoCINVESTAV

IrapuatoMexico

Instituto Agronomico per l’Oltremare FlorenceItaly

9 CGIAR6 ARIs7 NARS

Partners

Consortium

Linking Data and Applications

ComparativeMap & Trait

Viewer(NCGR/ISYS)

GeneticMap DataSource(s)

Generation Challenge Programme Domain Model & Middleware

GermplasmPassport/

Phenotype/Genotype

Querybuilder

Comparative(Functional)Genomics

Tools

DIVA-GIS

GermplasmData

Source(s)

GenomicsData

Source(s)

GISData

Source(s)

Open Collaboration Web2.0 - 2004

• SourceForge.net– 2004: hosting 50.000+ open source collaborative

software development projects– 2007: 150,000 projects, 1.6 million registered users– http://sourceforge.net

• Wikipedia– 2004: containing 300,000 pages in the English

language version– 2007: 2 million pages in the English version, 7.5 million

pages for all languages– http://en.wikipedia.org

CropForge: Source Code Management

CropForge: Communication

GCPWiki: Workshop Documentation

GCPWiki: Best Practices

GCPWiki: Online Course

CropForge Adoption and Use

• Total – currently 71 projects and 180 registered users– http://cropforge.org

• Pantheon (source code)– 4 administrators, 47 developers, 17 months– 27,000 source code contributions from 29 developers

located in 6 institutions worldwide– 4,500 Java code files, 5,800 html documentation files

• ICIS (communication)– 21 team members, 6 institutions worldwide, 31 months– file download (21 files, 200 downloads)– issue trackers (bugs, features, support, 220 issues)– mailing lists (2, 15 messages)– discussion forums (3, 140 posts)

Wiki Adoption and Use

Wiki site GCPWiki ICISWikiNumber of content pages 580 200

Number of uploaded files (jpg, pdf, ppt) 620 1,100

Number of page views 66,000 718,000

Number of page edits 15,000 7,000

Number of registered users 220 100

Number of users with one or more edits 82 94

Number of users with 10 or more edits 42 26

Read access closed open

Months of operation 31 30

Discussion (1)

• Software/platform selection– Functionality (total vs. required)– Cost (free vs. per-user licensing)– Hosting (integration vs. outside hosting)

• Funding– Hardware, configuration, user training,

user support are the major expenses– Formal project, budget, staff time, etc.

recommended

Discussion (2)

• Institutional framework for contributions– IP policy, code of conduct– Publication and quality control procedures – Reward and recognition system

• Ownership of content (copyright)– Difficult/impossible to separate– Open Content license shifts focus from

ownership to freedom to use– Global Public Goods (non-competitive,

non-exhaustive)

Discussion (3)

• Transparency and history– Easy to join– Meritocratic – No anonymous use

• Content scope and quality– Uneven quality, coverage, maintenance– World-visible work-in-progress– Disclaimer

Conclusions

• Successful transfer of Web2.0 platforms from all-voluntary environments into an institutional context.

• There is no such thing as a free lunch.

• Institutional framework needs to change in order to make full use of Web2.0 opportunities.