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Open Standards & Open Source for Long-term Project Success Lessons from 3D Model Management

Open Standards & Open Source for Long-term Project Success Lessons from 3D Model Management. Don Brutzman Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Center for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Research Modeling, Virtual Environments & Simulation (MOVES) Institute 6 January 2005. Topics.

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Open Standards & Open Source for Long-term Project Success Lessons from 3D Model Management

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  1. Open Standards & Open Source for Long-term Project SuccessLessons from 3D Model Management Don Brutzman Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Center for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Research Modeling, Virtual Environments & Simulation (MOVES) Institute 6 January 2005

  2. Topics • Open Standards • Open Standards Organizations • Open Source • Intellectual Property Rights • Business Cases • Summary

  3. Open Standards • Basis for stability amidst technical innovation • Basis for interoperability among systems • Open forums for discussion & development • Non-discriminatory participation by following forum rules • Crucial for long-term success • Numerous reasons for this, especially IPR • Web trumps all: best business, technical case • Most overlooked reason for standards success • Fatal mistakes become nearly impossible, because group scrutiny detects & rejects them

  4. Open Standards Organizations 1 • Results oriented, forums for progress • Caretakers for stability & deliberate evolution • Enough process to ensure stable rules for a working group to fully succeed • Responsive to member needs • Positive press and outreach • Bigger than “just” industry, important for government agencies to support, participate

  5. Open Standards Organizations 2 • World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) http://www.w3.org • Web3D Consortium http://www.web3D.org • Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) http://www.sisostds.org • Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) http://www.ietf.org • International Standards Organization (ISO) http://www.iso.org (often open, not always)

  6. Open Standards Organizations 3 • Object Management Group (OMG) http://www.omg.org • Open GIS Consortium (OGC) http://www.opengeospatial.org • Organization for Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) http://www.oasis-open.org • Important to avoid: industry forums (cabals) that only have buy-in from a few big players

  7. W3C • “Leading the Web to its Full Potential” http://www.w3.org • Central authority for Web standards • Many activities • “W3C in Seven Points” • http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Points • Universal Access, Semantic Web, Trust, Interoperability, Evolvability, Decentralization, Cooler Multimedia

  8. XML is for structuring data XML looks a bit like HTML XML is text, but isn't meant to be read XML is verbose by design XML is a family of technologies XML is new, but not that new XML leads HTML to XHTML XML is modular XML is basis for RDF and the Semantic Web XML is license-free, platform-independent and well-supported XML in 10 Pointshttp://www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points 350+ member companies & institutions in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) already understand the business case

  9. Web3D Consortium • “Open Standards for Real-time 3D Communication” • Extensible 3D (X3D) Graphics • ISO standard for 3D on the Web • 40 industry, 200 professional members • Working groups, proven track record • Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy • http://www.web3D.org

  10. Extensible Modeling & Simulation Framework (XMSF) • Web services for all manner of M&S • A composable set of standards, profiles, and recommended practices for web-based M&S • Foundational precepts: Internet network technologies, Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based languages, and service-oriented architectures for simple messaging • Enable a new generation of distributed M&S applications to emerge, develop, interoperate with tactical systems • Many easily repeatable exemplars using Web Services http://www.MovesInstitute.org/xmsf

  11. Other XMSF projects • XML Tactical Chat (XTC) • XML Overlay Multicast (XOM) • IEEE Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) Protocol via XML, Web Services • Under consideration: unlocking legacy Tactical Data Link (TDL) protocols • C2IEDM/CBML semantic ontologies for battlespace descriptions, semantics

  12. Open Source and Business Cases

  13. Open Source • Open for any use, without license fees • Free = freedom to innovate • Not necessarily free cost (unlike “free beer”) • Common shared example implementation(s) • Not a reference implementation – the specification/standard hopefully provides that • Can provide a self-sustaining business model for continued activity, improvement • Can break logjams when company participants can’t resolve technical issues

  14. Open source organizations, references • Gnu Free Software Foundation (FSF) • http://www.gnu.org • Especially important for licenses • Open Source Initiative (OSI) http://www.opensource.org • Andrew M. St. Laurent, Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing, O'Reilly 2004. http://www.oreilly.com

  15. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) • W3C and Web3D have similar policies • Any known patented technology must be declared by members prior to consideration by working groups • Any patented technology contributions must be licensed on a royalty-free (RF) basis for inclusion in an openly used Web standard • Caveat: any legal problem can be solved, but only in advance

  16. Open Source Licenses • Necessary to protect access and ownership clearly so any other parties can use code • Also prevents hostile patenting by third party • Various similar licences available • Gnu: GPL, LGPL, etc. http://www.gnu.org • FreeBSD • http://www.opensource.org • Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org

  17. Business models with Open Source 1 • Contributions can continue regardless • Independent of access restrictions • No lock-in to single product or vendor • Not vulnerable to market ups & downs, which might block everyone from product access • Some vendors don’t like this… right up until someone else wins the contract renewal! • Protects sponsor from possibly fatal problems • Specific products don’t scale with Web anyway

  18. Business models with Open Source 2 • Service oriented business approaches • Can provide products or services, adding value • Multiple complementary efforts possible • Benefits individual programmers/teams • Expert knowledge & skills not held hostage • Availability of experts helps companies too • Succinct synopsis: is the government buying or renting the code? • Decide up front, or risk blocking completion

  19. Dealing with classified simulations 1 • Most classified information includes specific performance parameters, or place/time data • Algorithms are typically not classified • Parameter values often openly available • Federation of American Scientists www.fas.org • U.S. Naval Institute www.usni.org • Janes’ Fighting Ships www.janes.com • DoD news photos http://www.defenselink.mil/photos • Many other sources

  20. Dealing with classified simulations 2 • Must carefully include metadata giving precise credit to any unclassified resources used • Best is to have an unclassified scenario • Work is able to proceed most rapidly • Separate source code from content • Classified scenarios simply modify the parameter data files • Code changes are reported back to the outside

  21. Tools enabling project-team success 1 • Email list with hypermail archives • Newcomers welcome, also can backtrack topics • CVS or similar concurrent versioning system • Frequent updates maintaining working code • See principles of Extreme Programming (XP) • Easy, and (once set up) it works very well • Bugtracking system such as Bugzilla • Focused dialog on problems and improvements

  22. Tools enabling project-team success 2 • Join, participate in standards organizations • May need a technical architecture group • Meritocracy of core committers, experts • Heavy hand not needed, good ideas rise to top • Test cases, conformance suite • Sometimes challenging, definitely essential • Auto-installers, examples for regular users • Daylight encourages good behavior!

  23. Summary • Open standards & open source for success • Complements legacy approaches, traditional “hierarchical stovepipes,” provides stability • Win-win approach for government, industry • Both wins are needed for program success • Standards organizations, IPR agreements provide a stable playing field for long term • Questions and collaboration welcome

  24. Contact Don Brutzman brutzman@nps.edu http://web.nps.navy.mil/~brutzman Code USW/Br, Naval Postgraduate School Monterey California 93943-5000 USA 1.831.656.2149 voice 1.831.656.7599 fax

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