Proposal
We propose a sustainable solution for Development, Installation and Maintenance of Content Management Systems through Open Contributions. Specifically, this proposal is for building a module for the Drupal Platform called Open Contributions.
Overview
Instead or charging Universities for the installation of a CMS upfront, and monthly payments for maintenance, we propose another model:
- Charge no money at all or a reasonable amount upfront for installation, giving that the University is willing to allow open contributions from users of the system;
- The Open Contributions module allows users to contribute with any amount of money to help maintain the system;
- All contributions are truly open - not only in the sense that contributions are spontaneous, but also that they are visible. Thus, everyone knows how much each and every individual is contributing. The sum of all contributions is also visible. This helps to keep the process as transparent as possible;
- The usefulness of the system for each individual is also measured and visible. This is measured through a series of metrics;
- An ordered list is presented with individual contributions and individual usefulness;
- It's expected that the individuals who feel that the CMS is most useful for them will make the biggest contributions. But this is not imposed. This is left open. It's up to each individual to understand what's Freedom and Openness. The Open Contributions module only helps people become aware of these open contributions;
- The sum of contributions is used to maintain the system. This will go to pay maintainer(s)/developer(s) for their time and work; All these payments are open and visible for anyone to see;
- The Open Contributions module will also list the current system and modules installed;
- Part of the sum of contributions may be used to pay the developers of each module and the system (in this case, the Drupal Association). These payments will also be open and visible to anyone to see;
- To avoid lock-ins, the university is open to look for other companies for maintenance if there is evidence of abusive practices.
Is this sustainable?
We believe the open contributions will be enough to cover the costs of Development, Installation and Maintenance of Content Management Systems at Universities. An example and a rough estimate is provided below:
- Let us suppose we have a university with 30.000 people;
- Of these, only half uses the CMS, thus: 15.000 people;
- Of these, half doesn't contribute with anything, thus: 7.500*0 = $0
- From the remaining half, only half of these contribute with $10/year, thus: 7.500*$10 = $75.000/year
- From the remaining half, only half of these contribute with $20/year, thus 3.750*$20 = $75.000/year
- From the remaining half, only half of these contribute with $40/year, thus 1.875*$40 = $75.000/year
- ...
- Summing all these budgets, we have a very reasonable amount that can be used to maintain and improve the system;
- The openness of the system will create a positive peer pressure among the biggest users to contribute (for example, researchers who have big projects that enjoy big visibility);
- The openness of the system will create a positive peer pressure for the company that provides the service to distribute the contributions fairly.
We believe that our proposal lowers not only the technical but also the financial barriers to people's entry in the digital conversation.
Further, our proposal not only helps provide powerful tools for digital publication, free and open to all, but also it helps people understand the true meaning of freedom and openness. By people we refer to end-users, developers and companies alike.
Content Management Systems such as Drupal help encourage people to improve their communities by supporting the free exchange of information and ideas. We propose a solution for Development, Installation and Maintenance of Content Management Systems that is truly Open and Sustainable.
The project will take one year to be completed. This include the development of the Open Contributions module and its evaluation. We plan to deploy it at UFRGS university, located in Brazil, along with this proposal. By the end of 2009 we should have results about the success of this project.
Implementation will be done by the UFRGSWeb team, that currently is made of 4 people.
The Open Contributions module will be distributed through the help of the Drupal Community.
Our total budget is estimated to be $30.000, of which $10.000 will be spent to pay project management and marketing for one year, while $20.000 will be spent to pay project development and testing for one year.
Comments
Feedback
Hi everyone,
I would love feedback about this proposal!
For those from the "Drupal in Education" Group, or anyone who provides services to Universities, try to imagine applying this business model at your own university. Do the Math, add up the contributions, both for optimistic as well as pessimistic estimates. The contributions should follow a pattern similar to the one I've described. Thus, many users won't contribute with anything, while a few users will contribute with a lot. On the other hand, many people won't even use the system, while a few will use it a lot.
Reveal the realities at your university. Would this model be sustainable at your university? How much do you think it would add up? Would this help you contribute back to the Drupal community not only with code, but with money as well?
I personally think it will work at my university. I think the sum will add up to be more by asking for open contributions from each individual in a bottom-up manner than for asking for the university to pay for the system. I think it would be better in terms of sustainability as well.
Thanks,
Nick
How would you measure usefulness?
I'm a newbie and don't feel qualified to vote but was curious how you would build the metrics for judging usefulness. For example, how would you compare a group with three very massive, vital, and confidential file uploads but very little user activity to a group that chats non-stop in the forums and needs lots of phone support ("I lost my password again."). One eats up hard drive space and has important security concerns (https?), the other eats up bandwidth and support time. Would each organization be able to adjust the usefulness metrics for their particular community/politics?
Good Question
That's a very good question!
My current focus for my university is this Information-Sharing System. In this case, I see the usefulness for each individual as the visibility of their projects/ideas. I think it's fair to calculate this visibility by adding up the popularity of each author's channels. This would be done by analyzing 3 metrics: how many times each channel has been accessed, how many subscribers it has, and the dissemination of the author's entries in the site.
The service would have to be flexible enough to calculate this. I think it will require some PHP programming, but it doesn't have to be complicated! This data can either be fetched directly from the database, or preferably, if the modules used by the site were well structured, by calling their APIs.
It's up to each maintainer/company/university to create their own metric. But the important thing is to somewhat represent the usefulness of the site for each individual and help them become aware that their open contributions will help maintain and enhance the service.
multiple proposals
I have to wonder if it might be too soon for you to be making another proposal, considering that you have one in the pipeline already.
We do not have any rules set down yet, as the idea has been that rules will be created as needed. If anyone feels the need to debate this point, please create a new discussion for it, since it is a procedure question.
Unless someone objects (other than me) and we open a discussion, I would say we judge this on its own merits.
--
http://ken.therickards.com/
--
http://ken.therickards.com/
Explanation
Hi Ken,
I think it's best for me to explain my reasoning.
I found 3 very good students who currently are working as volunteers on the Information-Sharing proposal:
They are waiting for the proposal to be fully accepted by the Knight Foundation so that they can receive their scholarship, but this will only last 6 months ($12.500 goes really fast).
I'm thinking about what happens next. This proposal will help them continue their work with Drupal over the next year and, most importantly, this proposal will help them help themselves and others to create an independent and sustainable ecosystem from 2010 forth.
In my opinion, I think this is pretty fair and the responsible thing to do.
And I think it was the right thing for you to ask what was going on as well! :)
Sure
I would agree. Just reminding people that we want to be fair, so if people think it is unfair, they should speak up.
--
http://ken.therickards.com/
--
http://ken.therickards.com/
Here's some comments...
"The Open Contributions module will also list the current system and modules installed;" -- Is this a system or a module, you seem to use the two terms interchangably at times so I'm just curoius which this open contributions "module/system" is.
I'd have to see a demo / poc of it to tell if it would be something PSU would be interested in. I know there's a big push internally for repositories / content management systems that everyone can openly access / share the content from. It's also a huge movement in the OER / open education segment of the edu community. Maybe try pitching it to a few of them too. There's definitely some room in that market for something like this if it's implemented the right way.
"Plaguing the world with Drupal; One Plone, Moodle, Wordpress, Joomla user at a time since 2005." ~ btopro
http://elearning.psu.edu/
http://elearning.psu.edu/projects/
http://elearning.psu.edu/drupalineducation/
Ex Uno Plures
http://elmsln.org/
http://btopro.com/
http://drupal.psu.edu/
System/Module
Hi Bryan,
By System, I mean Drupal.
The list would be something like this:
The system (Drupal) and modules (Buddylist, FeedAPI, etc) and themes (XYZ) are presented. The amount of money that Penn State, for example, is giving back is also presented. And the issues resolved by Penn State for each system/module/theme is also presented. By Penn State I mean either the university itself or the company responsible for maintaining the system at this university.
Where is the money coming from? From the users of the system. For example, a Penn State researcher recently receives $500.000 to fund one of his projects. He finds the system valuable for his projects. He may openly decide to contribute $1.000 to maintain/enhance the system. Summing up all the contributions, the money is used to pay local developers and maintainers, as well as developers and maintainers of the modules and themes used by Penn State.
In other words, this proposal exploits the long tail to help finance and sustain an ecosystem of information management services through an open and transparent process.
Hmm, deleting a comment...
Hmm, deleting a comment...