software cots, software components information …ic.fing.org/files/20041209fing_ic_mielnik2.pdf1...
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Software components open directory:Software components open directory:the the eCots eCots platformplatform
www.www.ecotsecots.org.org
jean-jean-christophechristophe..mielnikmielnik@@ecotsecots.org.org
+33 1 69 33 01 15+33 1 69 33 01 15
Collective Intelligence WGCollective Intelligence WG9/12/2004 – 9/12/2004 – Cité Cité des Sciencesdes Sciences
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Software COTS awareness
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COTS Component Off-The-Shelf
A commercial COTS is a hardware or software component that iscommercially available. COTS are generally used “as is” in programs.
COTS software can be described along following axis:•Commercialisation: a COTS is offered for sale, lease or license to thegeneral public.•Licensing : a COTS is distributed along one or several licenses. COTScan be distributed as proprietary software, open-source, software, freeware,shareware or any other type of software license (see COTS License)•Versioning : a COTS has at least one version•Producer : a COTS has an identifiable Producer•Services: services are offered competitively in the commercial marketplaceat catalogue prices•Composition : a COTS can be composed of other COTS
Non commercial COTS include Open Source Software (OSS) andReusable Software Components (RSC)
Software COTS, software componentsand open source software
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The growing use of COTS instead of in-housedevelopments implies
A loss of control of the COTS based systemsAn increased dependency on COTS producersCOTS users need reliable, accurate and continuously updated knowledgeof the software component market.
In practiceFactual data are often missingLegal, commercial and technical information about components are oftenopaqueMarketing strategies often lead to announcements describing an idealizedstrategy
Need forFactual data on actors – producers, distributors and consulting companies –and products, processed on the technical, commercial, economical, financialand legal dimensions
Information on COTS: a strategic involvement
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Describe only WebServices No collaboration
Cover small parts ofCOTS scope Low level of detail No collaboration Expensive
• Unstructured data
Very succinctdescriptions Only open-source
software
Drawbacks
Abundant andaccurate information• Much collaboration
TheServerSide.com,ITToolbox.com
Communityportals
Structured dataIBM, Microsoft, SAPUDDI registries
UDDI catalogs
Structured dataCxp.fr,Softdatabase.com,ProgicielExpert.com
Proprietarycatalogs
• Structured data Recommendations Active collaboration
• Driven by users
Freshmeat.net, LinuxSoftware Map sites
Open-sourcecommunitycatalogs
AssetsExamplesCatalog types
Lack of details or accuracy and interoperability + no standards
Existing catalogs emphasize the need of acommon description model
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The Genesis Of eCots ProjectMany companies lead COTS assessment campaigns on a regular basis
Technical and purchasing experts elaborate detailed description of COTSCollected data and complementary experiments result in company’srecommendationsThis data is used in commercial negotiations and technical proposals
Drawbacks of this processAssesment campaigns are not frequent enough when organized by a singleactorProducers benefiting from a monopoly are reluctant to comply with theframework that any single industrial group can proposeCollected data becomes obsolescent after few months, to maintain it ishighly expensive
Improvement: to freely share part of information on COTS, in order toInvite the growing community of COTS users to participate more directlywith a view to contribute to the definition, qualification and maintenance ofthis informationMotivate COTS producers to participate as wellTaking benefit of the open content dynamicsINRIA and Thales joined by EDF and Bull, supported by RNTL (Ministry ofindustry)
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How to improve COTS awareness:the eCots approach
Sharing within a communityIntra-enterprise users -> inter-enterprises usersVendors as writers -> vendors as writers and readersNational dimension -> international dimension
Sharing based on standardsSharing means standardsXML-based dialects for generic level information and for eachcategory of COTSCertification
Sharing open contentsFrom open source to open contentsThe societal issue (bootstrap)The legal issue
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eCots association and eCots portal
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eCots: an association and a portaleCots is an inter-industrial association foundedin January 2004 by Thales, EDF R&D, and Bull,based in Soissons Informatique Libre + a portal:www.eCots.org (opened end 2003)Objectives
Help industrials to manage risks implied byextensive use of COTS softwareShare the various industrial efforts tocharacterize SW COTSBring together Web communities, academicgroups and industrials to build an Open Directory/ Wikipedia of SW COTS descriptions oneCots.orgPropose a common description model for COTSSW (see OASIS-OPEN association, ebXML, UBL,WSDL, DOAP)Propose an identification scheme for COTSproducts, versions, articles
Association membership annual fee 5000€ for large corporations, with possibility to
get a private platform synchronized with thepublic data in-house ("replication service") 3000€ for SMEs Free for Universities / associations
eCots.org - Data Growth Sept 2003 - Oct 2004
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COTS Products
COTS Versions
Members
Working Groups
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eCots today
220 registered users on the portal: 10% COTS editors, 40%industrials (EDF, BULL, Volvo…), 20% researchers4 paying members650 referenced products in + 200 families300 products having detailed descriptions, 250 having at least oneversion described+ 1000 Web links on COTS related topics: COTS evaluation,lifecycle managementWorking groups: both general COTS WG and specific families WG
COTS lifecycle managementCOTS taxonomy and classificationMILOS WG (OSS / EuroFinder)NATO COTS WG ("NOTS")ICCBSS 2005 WGXML Databases WGStrategic and Steering Committees
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Legal Issues
As an information exchange platform on theInternet, eCots faces legal issues regarding:
Ownership and licensing of the documents providedby the portal,
Legal responsibilities and liabilities due to thedocuments and activities of the portal
eCots contributors publish information in theirown name, choosing among a set of threepublication licenses (close to CreativeCommonsLicenses)
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Main Portal AreaseCots Directories:
products andorganizations
Search
Content Publishing Area
Workinggroups area
My eCotsarea
14 Top Level Categories(built from Dmoz, Thales,EDF, Milos taxonomies)
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Browsing A COTS FamilyNavigation bar
Sub-Families
Products’ overviewsDirect access to editors’or versions’ cards
Type filtering bar
Results can beexported in XML
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COTS Product Description. Ex: JBossCOTS Families
Toolbar
COTS NameCOTS VersionsCOTS Producer
Supported OS,ProposedLicensesCOTS features(ex: JSP support,EJB support etc.)
AuthorCreation dateModification dateRelated contents
Memberreviews anddiscussions
Author type:• Individual• Organization• Workgroup
Content withdrawalrequest
Reuse license type
Editing the content
Printing the content
Mailing the content
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COTS Producer Description
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Describing COTS Versions Features
Example: J2EE Support Category•EJB support: EJB spec versions•JMS•JCA•JDBCetc…
Possibility to add textual commenton any checked category
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Searching for a COTS
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Query examples:•Search all RT Operating Systems distributed along GPL license, supporting a typical thread switchlatency between X and Y, and having a guaranteed maximum interrupt level of...•Search all COTS that have a confirmed obsolescence alert and that are used within Thales Communication
Query examples:•Search all RT Operating Systems distributed along GPL license, supporting a typical thread switchlatency between X and Y, and having a guaranteed maximum interrupt level of...•Search all COTS that have a confirmed obsolescence alert and that are used within Thales Communication
Search criteria:•COTS family•Supported OS•Licenses•Functional and technicalfeatures
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eCots Working GroupsTwo types of working groups:• Family specific WG, eg XML databases,RTOS etc.• Cross-domain WG: COTS life-cycle,COTS identification, …
• WG related to one COTS family define aschema describing technical and functionalfeatures of the family• Schemas are expressed in XML, in a formatclose to XML schemas• Schemas are based on a common model
eCots collaborative tooling•Online workspaces to sharedocuments and bookmarks•Read/update rights management•Forums•Email notifications•Publication area
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Dissemination of MILOS dataon eCotsMILOS: EUCLID / CEPA6 projectEvaluation of evaluation of more than 400OSS components in 44 tools families
• Technical assessment which focuseson the component's technical featuresand effectiveness (performance)• Non-technical assessment, calledindustrial assessment in the following,which deals with support, componentmanagement & maintainers' strategy,durability (the ability to last and toevolve)
All descriptions have been imported intoeCots database. Can be browsed in MILOSWG main category.
ACE Communication Toolkit Description Sheet
MILOS Working Group Area on eCots20
Populating eCots databaseDirect publication + RSS and DOAP feeds decreasing the
publication and diffusion costs
RSS / DOAP feeds
Producers publishinformation in RSS or DOAPformat on their Web site
• Data published on eCots isavailable as RSS feeds• Several cataloguing iniativescan take advantage of theprocess• Bolsters the emergence ofstandards through usage
New versions or products arepublished / updated on eCotsUsers/Editors choose amonga set of templates
eCotsProducer’s sites Other COTS portals
DOAP: Description Of A Project http://usefulinc.com/doap/
« DOAP is a project to create an XML/RDF vocabulary to describe open sourceprojects. In addition to developing an RDF schema and examples, the DOAP projectaims to provide tool support in all the popular programming languages. »
RDF schema comprised of: description, language, license,categories, maintainers, documentation, testers etc.
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COTS Identification
Need for an ISBN of SW COTS easing the selection, maintenance,integration, update of COTSWhich kind of ID? Arbitrary number? MD5? URI?Inspiration sources and possible partners
European Telecommunications Standards Institute 800 members frommore than 55 countries inside and outside EuropeECCMA open technical dictionary http://eccma.org/eotd/ “60,000Standard Item Names and over 30,000 Standard Attribute Names, withdefinitions, multilingual translations and classification tables to theUNSPSC, CPV, eClass, FSC and HTS classifications”UNSPSC http://www.unspsc.org/ “The United Nations StandardProducts and Services Code® (UNSPSC®) provides an open, globalmulti-sector standard for efficient, accurate classification of productsand services.”Taxonomy working group initiated by Marco Torchiano at ICCBSS 2004Industrial initiatives like TCIS (Thales Components Information System)http://www.isbn.org
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eCots intranet portals
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eCots replication servicePrinciple
allowing eCots members to have access both to their ownconfidential items of information – in local mode – and tothe data managed by the portal
MeansOptimistic protocol to manage conflicts in a programmablemanner ensuring consistencyOne single interaction for synchronizing two replicatesPrivate portals can be disconnected from externalenvironment
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Replication serviceInternet Company’s local
network
Company’s localnetwork
Replication
Replication
eCots.org
eCots local
eCots local
Create publiccontent
Create privatecontent
Create privatecontent
Public Datavisualization
Private Datavisualization
Private Datavisualization
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Replication serviceInternet Company’s local
network
Company’s localnetwork
eCots local
eCots local
Replication
Replication
eCots.org
public aupdate
updated Datavisualization
updated Datavisualization
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eCots platform extensibility
eCots.org
Public database
eCots-Thales
eCots.org replicate(periodic synchronization)
eCots-Thales extension: Thales-specific information
on various COTS and producers
1) Model extension2) Data extension
Thales-specific data typesextending common types
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Content Rights Management
Publication P1Ex: DOORSdescription
Publication P2Ex: Group recommendations for
requirements mangementCOTS
Unidentified Thalesusers
Group G3Ex: Buyers
Publication P3Ex: corporate agreement with
Telelogic – work document
Group G2Ex: Working Group
« Requirements Management »
Can read and can update
Can readUser U1
Belongs toUser U2
Conclusion
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eCots future: some tracks
To become a major reference platformComponents repository (Commercial and Open Source)
Experimentation field for collaborative approaches andtools
Domain specificDeployment: increase the size of the database and ofthe community (both users and members)
Host domain-specific communities producing ontologies
Develop new services
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Collective Intelligence and eCots platform
Engineering & research
Humans, hierarchies, communities & tools
Black boxes & white boxes -> « confidence » boxes
Open source progress & dynamics
Copyright & public domain -> open contents
Central support -> collaborative approaches
Structured contents / Collaborative processes
Sharing / Private contents
Industrial deployment / Technological progress time scales
The eCots-Wiki example
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eCots NetworkOrganismes
INRIA / AFULFING / COOPILSIL (Soissons)Université de Savoie / Université de Comahue (Argentine)
ProjetsMILOS / MERCEDeComponents / SEIFondation(s) logiciel libreNouveaux usages des réseaux et medias numériquesSSLL
PublicationsICCBSS / SEI / NRCICSESpringer Verlag
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URLs and Contacts
eCots public portal URL: http://www.ecots.org
eCots-Thales URL: http://www.trt.thales/ecots/
Contacts :[email protected]
Help build the largest open softwaredirectory of the Web!