In the spirit of sharing ideas early (even before they are fully developed), I’m posting a prospectus I put together on building an Open Infrastructure for the Greater Good. Maybe it already exists and I just don’t know about it, that’s why I put them into the public realm for comment. I think it is a good idea, but I’d be interested to see what others think:
Developing an Open Infrastructure for the Greater Good
A Brief Prospectus
R. David Lankes, Syracuse University
[email protected]
Vincent and Didi Frochette lost their son Lukie to a rare form of cancer. In memory of their son they formed a charitable foundation to raise money for the Syracuse Childrenâ??s Hospital. Each year they hold a golfing event and want to put up a website to both advertise the event and recognize sponsors. Both Vincent and Didi had full time jobs, and no technology experience. Imagine if they could go to a place on the web and with three clicks of a mouse and 5 minutes time build a web site. Not a simple 1 page brochure on the web, but a website that allows Vincent to blog about the upcoming event; allowed the couple to upload pictures of the current and past events, allowed them to set up e-mail accounts and listservs for volunteers, and ensured their site conformed to standards for disabilities, usability.
Funding agencies are taking scarce funds from program activities and devoting it to building project websites. While there may be projects where the construction of highly unique web resources is key to the success of a program activity, in many cases funds for web sites lease web server space, hire designers, and train staff in how to build web pages. If the primary purpose of funding organizations is to promote Internet literacy, this makes sense. Otherwise these dollars represent money that could be spent on program objectives.
This constant re-investment also puts a significant burden on the funded organizations. Many of these organizations are unprepared for the complexity of managing web sites, dealing with increasing cyber-security issues, and are unaware of best practices in web design and information dissemination. They are small operations, with knowledge about improving communities, not building websites. Maintaining an effective website is more than simply HTML. It involves technical knowledge, knowledge of usability, design knowledge, information organization, information architecture and more. While those new to web design might master attractive static websites, they will never be able to put up interactive websites with database infrastructures needed to maintain program information and user interest by the end of the grant period. In much the same way funding agencies do not ask recipients to become book publishers, they should not expect all grantees to become effect web publishers.
So what is the alternative? There is a low-cost, high impact way for a funding agency, or preferably a consortium of funding agencies, to pool a fraction of their current web investments into a scalable, open platform for the not-for-profit sector. Using open source technologies, a funded project could build a highly responsive, customizable and secure technical environment for small not-for-profit organizations.
I propose the construction of an Open Infrastructure for the Social Good. This centralized facility would offer hosted services built specifically for the not-for-profit sector. This infrastructure would be much more than a web accessible hard drive, but rather a suite of integrated services such as content managements system, full text search engines, blogging, mailing lists, podcasting, streaming media servers, RSS feeds, technical support and more all managed from an integrated web â??control panel,â?? that hides the details (and complexities) of managing these services.
By centralizing the hosting of these tools, the technology (and associated learning) can benefit from economies of scale. Also, by standardizing on a suite of highly adaptable services, backups, upgrades, security patching, and the like can be done by a single team in one place. This central support should not be underestimated. Just ask the East Side Moms club who had their site hackedâ?¦twice. Not keeping up with security patches can be devastating for the public face of small not for profits.
So how would the open infrastructure work? The infrastructure would need four components:
â?¢ a governance structure,
â?¢ a technical set up,
â?¢ an education program, and
â?¢ a community of not-for-profits
Governance
The governance structure, a steering board, would consist of technical experts, representatives of funding and hosted organizations. This board would set polices for the service as well as decide what features need to be included in the infrastructure as it evolves. The idea would be to build a common platform of policy and technology that represents the community it seeks to serve.
Technical Infrastructure
The technical infrastructure would be a cluster of servers and storage with redundant backup. The system itself would be highly scalable. It would also have high-bandwidth access to the Internet. Since this is a hosted service, visitors to the sites of hosted organizations could enjoy broadband applications (such as video streaming) even if the funded organization has a dial-up connection to the net.
All of these services are available today in the open source domain. However, two problems are faced by someone seeking to set these services up: implementation and integration. Implementation refers simply to having a web space available that provides key software such as a databases, scripting environment, and a stable Internet address. Implementation is also complicated by the need to learn the intricacies of each of these open source applications. Each one has separate procedures and issues. Integration refers to the fact that each of these applications was developed separately. Each has a different look and feel. The goal of this infrastructure would be to integrate these applications so that funded organizations wouldnâ??t need to know the details of installation, and the user wouldnâ??t need to learn different interfaces.
The use of open source software to build this infrastructure is purely practical. It is assumed that some not-for-profit organizations would not want to be part of a hosted service. Whether it be policies of a parent organization, a unique need, or the fact that they simply grow large enough to host their own web services, an organization might need to run their own servers. The open infrastrucutre could then provide a â??web portalâ?? in a box – a CD of the integrated applications that can be installed on any compatible open source platform.
Education Program
The Open Infrastructure would be an education program for those organizations that want to either increase their technical abilities or learn best practices in using web services to meet their strategic plans. Using streaming technology a user could walk through what it takes to set up a web server, how to better be found in search engines like Google, how to design web information for best impact in special populations like schools, and more. The point is to have the open infrastructure remove barriers to getting up and running, but provide support for organizations that want to be more Internet literatre.
Community
A goal for the infrastructure should be to retain a hosted organizationâ??s identity. A visitor to the Lukieâ??s Soul Foundation should see the site as unique. Through the use of logos, themes and unique domain names, the foundation should be able to brand their work and their space on the web. However, once hundreds of sites are hosted together, new community benefits among these unique sites are possible, much like a concerted warehouse of artists lofts allow for new creative collaborations. The infrastructure could provide for â??matchmakingâ?? services where projects with common goals could join up in activities. Materials produced for one organization, such as photos or teaching materials, might be reused by organizations in different locations or topical domains.
In addition to a home for not-for-profit organization, the open infrastructure can become a home for other common not for profit activities. Increasingly, foundations, government agencies and other funders are paying for the development of standards and software. Many organizations are not prepared for the ongoing maintenance of such technical tools, and yet many organizations are becoming dependant upon them. The infrastructure can become a repository of such projects, ensuring long-term maintenance and development.
The ultimate goal of the community function would be to reduce duplication of effort and promote collaboration of like-minded organizations.
What it Would Take
The details of the technical implementation are best left for another forum. The basics are a number of light-weight scalable servers that can be added to as the number of hosted sites increase. These servers would be networked together with high volume storage expandable as needed. This type of hosted configuration is rather standard and the means of managing this set up well established.
The core of the open infrastructure would be technical and program expertise. A multidisciplinary team would be needed to first construct the infrastructure, and later maintain and expand it. Programming expertise would be needed to first evaluate, and then integrate the various open source packages hosted (and develop any new applications that might be required by the governance board). A separate set of expertise would be needed to maintain the basic infrastructure of servers and databases. The last set of expertise would be in education and program development. This expertise would be used in developing the education program, but also in working with not-for-profits to determine their needs, match up technical capabilities with not-for-profit needs, and ensure the open infrastructure continually met the needs of the hosted services.
Conclusion
The overall goal of the project is to save funding organizations money, to provide small not-for-profits access to cutting edge technologies, and increase the impact of programs. There are a huge number of worthy small not-for-profits seeking to improve our society. How to build a web site shouldnâ??t get in their way.