[NeXus-committee] HDF WSSSPE2 Paper

[Ted Habermann]

Hello all,

I let you all know some time ago that the paper we put together for the second Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE2) workshop was accepted and wanted to thank those of you who sent in suggestions for responding to the reviewers. The length limit on the paper remained at a strict 4 pages, and there was not much room for cutting, so it was difficult to make a full response. After reading and thinking, I decided to focus a bit more on concrete actions in the last section of the paper. The revised version is still at http://figshare.com/articles/The_Hierarchical_Data_Format_HDF_A_Foundation_for_Sustainable_Data_and_Software/1112485.

The action oriented section of the paper proposes two steps:

The initial goal is a set of stories that go beyond technical details to build a clear picture of the Whole Product (Moore, 1991) that managers and decision-makers can understand and respond to. The goal of this effort is to create the information needed to make decision makers aware of the multi-disciplinary consensus that has already formed around HDF5. They need to know that their communities are not alone in their quest for interoperable data. In fact, there is a bandwagon that they can join.

The second step is more technical. We will create a repository of conventions that communities have implemented in HDF5 and tools that use those conventions to support interoperable data access. This repository will be designed to facilitate recognition of similarities and convergence towards multi-disciplinary best practices that will be integrated into a “conventions layer” in the HDF5 toolset. This layer will form a foundation for interoperable data sharing and understanding across disciplinary stovepipes, facilitate description of data in terms of “science data types” that are familiar to communities and scientists, and support the entire information life-cycle from data design to re-use to preservation.

As a third step in this direction, I hope to find support for several meetings of HDF cognoscenti with the goal of sharing these success stories and other ideas about solidifying the community into a foundation for sustainability. I like the model of “Convening” developed by the Rockefeller Foundation for these meetings… Thoughts / suggestions definitely welcome...

Obviously success in this adventure will be depend on input from this group and from others that we connect with. I have been re-reading Geoffrey Moore’s classic Crossing the Chasm and have been thinking of how the “Whole Product Model” fits into this plan. He makes a statement about partnerships that I think is really insightful: "Once formalized relationships are in place, use them as openings for communication only. Do not count on them to drive collaboration. Partnerships ultimately work only when specific individuals from the different companies choose to trust each other.”

Looking forward,
Ted

[cid:3777702D-45F4-4250-BB1C-8AFBD78174C5]


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