Documents:Functionality

From ssc.aspirationtech.org

What Will the Social Source Commons Do?

Working from existing software maps, and in collaboration with all stakeholders, SSC will:

1. Build comprehensive maps of software designed for non-profit/non-governmental organizations (NPO/NGOs).

2. Provide different ‘lenses’ on NPO/NGO software that are currently missing. For example:

• NPO/NGOs and Non-Profit Technology Assistance Providers (NTAPs) will be able to locate existing software, documentation, training materials, and other resources required for successful deployment by sector or application category.
• Developers will be able to see “who else is doing what” in the NPO/NGO software space. Those seeking to engage in software initiatives will find projects to join and an outlet for publishing their code.
• Funders, lacking a clear map of existing software coverage, will better understand where their resources are most usefully directed.

3. Offer a venue for discussing what software and related resources are missing and how to fill the gaps. SSC will function as a place to catalog requests for missing features and applications

4. Supply missing documentation and manuals. A primary focus of SSC will be on achieving better and broader use of existing resources. Software relevant to NPOs/NGOs often lacks appropriate documentation and user manuals. SSC will support efforts to identify and generate these resources.

5. Collect and emphasize case studies, peer reviews and how-to guides which allow NGOs and their intermediaries to better select, deploy and utilize software for their work. An eventual goal will be to provide “Consumer Reports”-style assessments, rankings, and decision support tools.

6. Support outreach efforts which will encourage NPOs/NGOs to publish and share in-house software and technologies they’ve developed, permitting other organizations to find and use existing applications, and allowing developers to enhance and broaden the utility and impact of these tools on a global scope.

7. Promote volunteer and professional efforts to localize existing software and documentation into additional languages and port it to different platforms. Social Source Commons will serve as a hub for translation efforts, providing a dashboard to display what is available and in progress for different locales. Services, tools and documentation will be aggregated to support developers adapting existing applications for new locales and guiding them in creating localization-ready software.

8. Be accessible to those with limited or no internet connectivity. Software tools will be distributed on CD, and printed materials will offer selected content to “off-line” of constituents.

The Social Source Commons Web Tool Preliminary Feature List

The SSC web strategy can be summarized as "provide tools that allow any individual or organization the ability to track parts of the NPO/NGO technology landscape by maintaining one or more lists of software, documentation, services, and/or events, and sharing that data to benefit the larger community".

The vision is based on the following observations and assumptions:

• NGOs have unique software and associated workflow needs.
• Many relevant resources already exist, but are not well linked or broadly visible
• No single entity can sustain the effort needed to realize and maintain the entire SSC universe.
• A collective approach is the only sustainable model for driving the Social Source Commons. The tools provided need to empower anyone wishing to contribute knowledge and resources to do so, at whatever scale or scope they consider appropriate.
• An organic bottom-up build-out (partnering with domain experts to document pieces of the landscape, and using this to inform design of the larger architecture) is most likely to succeed.
• Such a model requires thoughtful staging and must offer ability to provide top-down comprehensive views in order to be of general value.

The SSC Tool: Basic Features

The full requirement and feature list of the SSC Tool will be scoped in subsequent phases of the project. The following describes the tool's core functionality as currently envisioned. The SSC Tool will couple a range of features for publishing data into the SSC network with another set of features for browsing, searching and aggregating that SSC data. These features will be merged into a single application that informs users of available software and allows them to publish and share their knowledge of software products.

For publishing into the SSC network, the SSC Tool will support:

• A "list manager" for maintaining lists of software, services, events, and documentation including manuals, training materials, case studies, testimonials, reviews and more.
• Tracking of both common attributes (e.g., name, URL, license, publisher, cost, etc.) and custom attributes on a per-list and per-data type basis
• Consistent templates for documenting individual NGO software (e.g. download and acquisition information, developer information, case studies, training materials, localization information, links to relevant resources, places to register “missing features” and “resource needs”, etc.)
• Additional metadata to indicate relevance to particular NGO sectors, locale, geography, technology category (monitoring, advocacy, etc.) and language information
• Linking of software, both explicitly and via metadata, with associated services, documentation and other resources
• Reviews for groups of applications and feature comparisons within those groups
• Creation of blogs, wikis and other collaborative spaces which are associated with SSC data at all levels of granularity (e.g. at the application, software vertical or issue area layer).
• A feedback and incentive system that rewards users for their use of the tool and encourages them to contribute to it.

For browsing and remote access of SSC data, the SSC Tool will support:

• Browsing of all lists maintained by users, similar to the del.icio.us social bookmarking site and the flickr photo sharing service.
• Syndication and aggregation of "new" additions to the SSC database, with support for filtering. (Example: "aggregate all new donation management tools that are licensed under GPL").
• Searching of lists by keywords, all attributes and metadata described above
• Filtering of results, to exclude non-relevant items and to scope lists, e.g., to a specific region, license type, cost range, NGO sub-sector etc.
• Services allowing other sites to query SSC data and embed SSC content, lists and elements to their own web pages. (Example: a human rights group queries the SSC database to obtain a "Top 10 Most Popular Human Rights Software Tools" and embedded that content on their web site).

Several longer-term visions for the tool include support for:

• True ASP-model usage, allowing anyone to create an account, manage lists and publish into the network. Early versions of the software will be partner-based as features are prototyped, workflow evolves and value is established.

• Distributed deployment, so sites can be maintained locally or regionally and the SSC evolves into a federation of hubs internationally.

• Collaborative filtering, similar to the Amazon.com "Customers who bought this book also bought" and "Explore Similar Items" features, to allow NPOs/NGOs and NTAPS to get software recommendations and discover relevant tools based on a profile they enter and maintain.