Consortia and Public-Private Partnerships: Informing the GENI Transition Ilya Baldin RENCI Director for Network Research and Infrastructure

2 Ensuring the technical and financial sustainability of the iRODS open source software Core staff: Consortium leadership and lead software development team Executive Committee Planning Committee Technology Working Group External advisory board 4 membership levels, from $10k to $150k Graduated levels of support hours, priority, and voting privileges Continuous integration and test of vendor platforms iRODS Consortium

Focused multi-sector, multidisciplinary data science community to solve big data challenges and drive the field forward Key areas of focus: Research (via seed grants) Education programs Engagement (workshops, other events) Sector-based membership model : $25 to $50K Working groups form around specific areas of member interest: IoT, Data anonymization, etc. 3 National Consortium for Data Science

Some Lessons Learned Value: Hard to show in early stages & with broad membership—but essential to build momentum Managing needs and expectations of members requires balancing what members value and strategic goals Membership: How to accommodate multiple units in large organizations? How to accommodate small business and entrepreneurs? How to diversify (location, domain/sector, culture/race/gender)? Need “evangelicals” to show the way for other prospects Legal/Structural: Legal/structural details take time Tradeoff between structure and flexibility Needs vs. Means: “Incubating organization” must lead in earliest stages, but key transition point is to a member-driven consortium

How a consortium might address challenges Enlarging and diversifying user communities Adopt development processes that improve software stability Provide paths to participation in shaping future directions to different stakeholders Identify prospects for new members/users Advancing architecture and standards to support new features Technology Steering Committee written into the charter, includes community input for deciding priorities Long-term sustainability Set vision Use annual recurring membership fees. Create an advocacy and coordinating structure for helping shape funding decisions at funding agencies

Phase 1Ideation: articulating the idea and the vision Phase 2Formation: getting early members; establishing an actual group of stakeholders Phase 3 Implementation: establishing bylaws, some initial programs, working groups; beginning to show value and build momentum; programs mostly founder-driven. Phase 4 Growth: developing new programs and building on existing ones as determined by membership; organization becomes member-driven and founders give up some control. Phase 5 Maturity: consortium is now a sustainable, member-driven organization, perhaps with professional administrators/managers. New org structure? Consortium Five-Phase Process IdeationFormation Implementation GrowthMaturity

More information Charter documents, founding whitepapers, bylaws, and membership agreements can be found at: