[OWW-SC] OpenWetWare and Nature Publishing Group

[Sri Kosuri]

Hello all,

First, thank you to everyone that helped with drafting the grant and writing
letters of support.  The proposal is essentially in final form and it took
much effort by many of us.  Having the document will have benefits beyond
this grant, and will help with any new venture or collaboration in the
future.  The grant will be submitted by the OSP (Office of Sponsered
Projects) on Monday, and at that point I will send out a copy of the grant
to everyone.

Second, we were approached recently by Peter Collins and Greg Urquhart of
Nature Publishing Group about strengthening ties between our two groups.
For the past few years NPG has been exploring how best to engage
communities of scientists more directly, as well as provide new
communication tools for them (or so they say).  They are interested in
forming relationships at many levels depending on our interest: from just
general support and help with funding all the way to complete managerial
take over of the site.

Obviously such an offer, while flattering makes us ask questions about the
intentions of such a venture and the trustability of relinquishing control
to or even establishing close ties with an old and venerated for-profit
publishing group.  After giving it some thought, a few of us thought we
would put together a reasonable set of offer  and then run it by the
committee for thoughts/reactions/suggestions/or better proposals that would
seem to work. So here goes:

In general, we are asking for collaboration at first, and would consider
tighter relationships with NPG in the future depending on the success of
these initial projects.

1.  What we are asking for: NPG and OpenWetWare would form a relationship
which could include any or all of the following things:
A.  Direct support for hardware and/or support for that hardware.
B.  Direct support of a software developers tasked by the steering
committee.
Both of these could either take a form of a direct monetary donations, or
contractual committments to provide these services through NPG's existing
infrastructures.
C.  A major project chosen by the steering committee is planned and execute
independently by NPG in house.  For example, NPG could become responsible
for development of a personal OWW distribution.  This would involve simple
installers for Unix, Mac, PC, installation instructions, and simple ways to
publish to OWW.  The specifications for such software would be made by the
Steering Committee, and NPG would produce the software, and committ to
continued development for some time period.
D.  Advertising for OpenWetWare.  This is minimal and obvious to some
extent.
E.  Tools that make sense for NPG.  For example, a link on all of their
papers saying "discuss and comment on OpenWetWare".  They would be taking
advantage of our existing community and we would get traffic and growth.
(and perhaps tools to support this with other publishing groups).

2.  What they would recieve: We can also imagine a couple of things that
could be pallatable depending on the level of committment and support.
A. On every page will be a link to Sponsors.  Upon clicking that link, there
will be a page describing sponsoring groups and details on how they are
helping OpenWetWare.  For example, such a page would already include MIT
CSBi for server space, and Microsoft iCampus project for seed funding
through the end of the year.  That page could also describe the current
status of any relationship with NPG along with a logo.

B. A small NPG image on the bottom of OWW pages (i.e, the CC logo).
We need help with all aspects as we are a volunteer effort.  We can begin by
some modest levels of support for some basic hardware/et cetera as well as
people that will help support openwetware.  those members would work with
OWW on projects of mutual interest. (i.e., the distribution, tighter
integration with the literature, et cetera).  If the relationship is
fruitful for the both of us, we will continue to make stronger committments
to each other.

So we are asking for your thoughts and comments specifically on these
proposals, and also on what proposals you think could work better.  Finally,
I also should say that of course these discussions are somewhat private, and
that they not be disclosed directly on OpenWetWare.  So please email me, or
the steering committee list if appropriate.

Thanks,
Sri
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