Project acronym AXES www.axes-project.eu Project full title Project No Access to Audiovisual Archives 269980 Large-scale integrating project (IP) Deliverable D11.1 Collaborative Working Environment Documentation June 2011 SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME Objective ICT- 2009.4.1: Digital Libraries and Digital Preservation
PROJECT DELIVERABLE REPORT Project Grant Agreement number 269980 Project acronym: Project title: Funding Scheme: AXES Access to Audiovisual Archives Large-Scale Integrating project (IP) Date of latest version of Annex I against which the assessment will be made: 24 September 2010 Document Deliverable number: D11.1 Deliverable title Collaborative Working Environment Documentation Contractual Date of Delivery: 30/06/2011 Actual Date of Delivery: 30/06/2011 Author (s): Reviewer (s): Work package no.: Work package title: Work package leader: Version/Revision: Draft/Final: Philippe Rohou Tinne Tuytelaars WP11 Project Management Philippe Rohou (ERCIM) V1 Final Total number of pages (including cover): 19 AXES Page2 of 19 D11.1
CHANGE LOG Reason for change Issue Revision Date Creation V0.1 PR 24/06/11 Review V0.2 TT 28/06/11 Final V1 PR 29/06/11 AXES Page 3 of 19 D11.1
Disclaimer This document contains description of the AXES project work and findings. The authors of this document have taken any available measure in order for its content to be accurate, consistent and lawful. However, neither the project consortium as a whole nor the individual partners that implicitly or explicitly participated in the creation and publication of this document hold any responsibility for actions that might occur as a result of using its content. This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the AXES project and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The European Union is established in accordance with the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht). There are currently 27 Member States of the Union. It is based on the European Communities and the member states cooperation in the fields of Common Foreign and Security Policy and Justice and Home Affairs. The five main institutions of the European Union are the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers, the European Commission, the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors. (http://europa.eu.int/) AXES is a project partly funded by the European Union. AXES Page 4 of 19 D11.1
TABLE OF CONTENTS Summary...6 Introduction...7 Internal Repository...8 Project Wiki... 11 Technical Collaborative Tools... 13 Mailing Lists... 14 Audio Conference Facilities... 16 Consortium and WP Meetings... 17 Conclusion... 19 AXES Page 5 of 19 D11.1
SUMMARY This document details the AXES internal collaboration platform that has been put in place at the start of the project to allow beneficiaries to communicate on a regular basis and to share project material and ideas before they become deliverables. Deliverable D11.1 is under the responsibility of the project coordinator and belongs to WP11, Project Management. AXES Page 6 of 19 D11.1
INTRODUCTION Internal collaboration vectors A number of collaboration tools have been made available to the AXES consortium as early as Month 1 in order to foster early communications and teamwork. As it is expected for a large Integrated Project, the collaboration platform is composed of several vectors, each fulfilling a specific role: The internal repository The project Wiki The technical collaborative software tools The Mailing Lists The Audio conference facilities The group meetings Each one of these collaboration vectors are further described in this report. AXES Page 7 of 19 D11.1
INTERNAL REPOSITORY Purpose The internal project repository 1 is used by the AXES participants to store and share data files. It is provided and managed by the project coordinator ERCIM and relies on the BSCW 2 software developed by Fraunhofer FIT and commercialized by OrbiTeam Software GmbH. Although BSCW proposes many collaborative modules, only the file sharing features of the tool is used in the context of AXES. Other collaborative needs are fulfilled by other collaborative tools such as wiki and mail servers. The use of BSCW is subject to a small license fee calculated as a function of the number of registered users. For a project such as AXES, it is estimated that the cost of using BSCW should be in the region of 200 per year, taken on the coordinator s budget. The advantage of BSCW is that it allows central and secure management of all project documents, in particular contracts, deliverables, meeting minutes, presentations, etc. The repository can be organised in a clear and easy-to-use way, yet providing instant and efficient access to master versions of essential project files. It is also a practical way to share very large files or datasets that could not be exchanged by mail. As of today, 64 contributors are registered as members of the AXES shared work space. Access & Management BSCW is a secure and protected environment. Each new member is invited by the AXES work space owner (the coordinator) and receives a username/password to gain access to the work space. Each member can read, modify, delete all files on the work space, which is backed up on a daily basis by the ERCIM system team. The work space owner can grant partial access to BSCW to specific sets of users. For instance: Members of the External Advisory Board could have access to a dedicated EAB folder where selected documents are made available to them, Reviewers from the EC can be given access to a specific folder in which project deliverables are made available for review. 1 AXES Internal Repository root: https://bscw.ercim.eu/bscw/bscw.cgi/842658 2 See http://www.bscw.de/english/ for further product information. AXES Page 8 of 19 D11.1
Structure At Month 6, the AXES internal repository is offering the following folder structure: AXES Page 9 of 19 D11.1
This directory structure allows easy access to all documents that need to be archived and shared at consortium or work package level. The coordinator maintains the folder structure, adapting it to the dynamic needs of the project. To give only a couple of examples, all contractual documents can be found in one single place: all audio call minutes are posted in chronological order: AXES Page 10 of 19 D11.1
PROJECT WIKI Purpose The AXES wiki 3 is a dynamic collaborative platform that allows project participants to exchange information and ideas on a regular basis. It is provided and moderated by the scientific coordinator, KU Leuven. The AXES wiki uses MoinMoin, an advanced, easy to use and extensible Wiki engine with a large community of users, allowing collaboration on easily editable web pages. MoinMoin is free software licensed under GPL (General Public Licence). Although the wiki and the shared work space on BSCW may seem at first sight to present a similar set of topics, the nature of the information is quite different between both platforms. While BSCW keeps an historical record of project files, acting as a contractual archive so to speak, the wiki offers a more dynamic way to discuss various parts of the project work plan and to present punctual information on day-to-day events and issues. Both of them, in their respective role, are key to a successful team work within the project. As an example, the wiki is currently used by the Project Executive Board to propose possible members of the External Advisory Board. Earlier in the project, it has been used to build the table of internal reviewers for each deliverable due in Period 1. Access & Management The AXES wiki is moderated by the scientific coordinator but is opened to all project participants who wish to contribute. The moderation consists in defining the structure of the wiki pages, so that it remains easy for contributors to find relevant information. The content however is provided by the project participants themselves who can edit all pages of the AXES wiki. Access to the wiki is secured via username/password, granted to project participants by the moderator. Structure As previously mentioned, the wiki is a living tool, adapting itself to the changing needs of the consortium. As such, the structure is subject to change during the course of the project. At the end of Month 6, the current wiki structure is illustrated in the following screenshot: 3 AXES wiki root: https://wiki.esat.kuleuven.be/video/axes AXES Page 11 of 19 D11.1
AXES Page 12 of 19 D11.1
TECHNICAL COLLABORATIVE TOOLS FTP During the course of the project, partners will need to exchange very large files on a regular basis. These unusually large files will typically contain video and audio streams from BBC, NISV and Deutsche Welle used as test beds for the evolving AXES software. Files used for the participation of AXES to the TrecVid international benchmarking initiative also fall in this category. The transfer of such files requires a special network protocol known as FTP (File Transfer Protocol). FTP allows the exchange of large files over a TCP/IP network in a clientserver mode. In the early stages of the project, such FTP facility has been installed and made available to the consortium partners. The sub-domain ftp://ftp.axes-project.eu has been set-up on the NISV FTP server, allowing users and technologists to efficiently share these extremely large datasets. To avoid issues related to NDA, different passwords grant access to different parts of the ftpsite. SVN Very early in the project, the integration work package (WP8) identified the urgent need for a version control system, easing the management of the different baselines of the AXES software. In collaboration with the ERCIM system team, Cassidian defined the scope of this versioning tool that ERCIM was already providing to other user groups working on similar projects. As a result, Subversion 4 (a.k.a. SVN), and an instance of Trac 5 which is an enhanced Wiki and issue tracking system, were made available to the technical partners of the consortium. Trac offers an interface to Subversion, an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities. The Bitten 6 extension was added, which adds continuous integration support with mail notification. These tools facilitate the integration and sharing of the AXES code amongst the partners. An account on this collaborative platform has been created for each project partner. 4 http://subversion.apache.org/ 5 http://trac.edgewall.org/ 6 http://bitten.edgewall.org/ AXES Page 13 of 19 D11.1
MAILING LISTS Purpose In order for project participants to communicate efficiently, a number of mailing lists have been set up to serve the different needs of the project. Each list is targeted to a specific set of users or interest group. Any participant is informed of the existence and content of these lists and may decide to become part of any given list. At Month 6 of the project, 13 AXES mailing lists are operative. New mailing lists can be created with a 24-hour turnover time as the need arises. The coordinator (ERCIM) manages the AXES mailing lists from its mail server system. Access & Management All AXES mailing lists are owned and managed by the coordinator and hosted on the ERCIM mail server. They are all private lists, meaning that only members of the list can send to it. Non-members sending mail to a list will see their mail going first to the moderator of the list (the coordinator) for authorization of distribution to the list. Members are added to or removed from a list by the coordinator, upon request by mail from the beneficiaries. The mail server also flags unreachable recipients as bouncing, which allows the coordinator to identify list members who are no longer receiving mails sent to a list. Since only the coordinator has access to the mail server and to the content of the mailing lists, a detailed report of mailing lists and their recipients in Excel format is regularly posted on the project shared work space. This Excel file is updated each time a list is amended and all project participants can consult this report and instantly find out who belongs to which list. This report on mailing lists is available on the AXES shared work space at location https://bscw.ercim.eu/bscw/bscw.cgi/880662 Structure All AXES mailing lists are using the extension @ercim.eu. The table below shows the 13 AXES mailing lists currently in use, with a short description of their purpose and the current number of recipients in each list: AXES Page 14 of 19 D11.1
List Name List purpose Nb of recipients 7 Axes Main project list, including all project participants except F&A contacts 47 Axes-admin-finance F&A contacts for each beneficiary 27 Axes-contact Recipients of messages sent by visitors via the contact page on the AXES web site 3 Axes-dissemination List of participants driving the dissemination activities 4 Axes-eab List of members of the AXES External Advisory Board 0 8 Axes-feedbacktool Axes-peb Axes-webmaster Users of the project feedback tool between users and developers List of members of the Project Executive Board, with at least 1 name per beneficiary Technical contact point for the project web site, also accessible to visitors from the web site pages 27 23 1 Axes-wp1 Participants and followers of WP1 32 Axes-wp2 Participants and followers of WP2 21 Axes-wp3 Participants and followers of WP3 18 Axes-wp4 Participants and followers of WP4 22 Axes-wp5 Participants and followers of WP5 29 Axes-wp6 Participants and followers of WP6 28 Axes-wp7 Participants and followers of WP7 33 Axes-wp8 Participants and followers of WP8 34 Axes-wp9 Participants and followers of WP9 35 7 At month 6 8 The External Advisory Board is in the process of being constituted at the time of writing this report. AXES Page 15 of 19 D11.1
AUDIO CONFERENCE FACILITIES Purpose Another important aspect of the AXES collaborative environment is its capacity to provide readily available, professional audio conference facilities to its participants. Audio conferencing is a widely-used mean of communication within European project teams and there s nothing more frustrating than using free VoIP software of random quality when key discussions are taking place and important decisions have to be made for the good advancement of a project. Access & Management Fortunately, a number of AXES beneficiaries do offer the consortium the use of their internal audio conferencing system, meaning that all AXES audio calls are carried out with an optimal level of quality. The main supplier of audio conferencing lines is KU Leuven who supports the monthly PEB audio calls, using Arkadin Global Conferencing Services. Other beneficiaries can organise audio conferences at short notice using equally professional systems. Usage In terms of collaboration, these conference calls typically support 3 levels of information exchange, decision-making process and drive for action: Project Executive Board (PEB) monthly audio calls at consortium level, Inter-WP calls, for collaboration between work packages Intra-WP calls, in support of team work between the participants of a given WP The last two categories of audio calls are used extensively and on an ad-hoc basis. Details of audio calls organised so far are given in the next paragraph. AXES Page 16 of 19 D11.1
CONSORTIUM AND WP MEETINGS Plenary meetings It has been decided at the kick-off meeting of the project, in Month 1, that the consortium would hold an all-member audio conference (PEB call) every month and would meet face-toface 3 times per year. The third annual consortium meeting would also serve to prepare the annual project review. This frequency of face-to-face meetings was deemed necessary and sufficient, as well as being in line with the travel budgets of each partner. As the project progresses, we may revise the frequency of consortium-wide face-to-face meetings, depending on the actual needs. At month 6, the consortium has held the following meetings, either by phone or face-to-face: Date Event Type Venue 13-14/01//2011 Kick-off meeting F2F KU Leuven 22/02//2011 PEB conference call Phone 24/03//2011 PEB conference call Phone 29/04//2011 PEB conference call Phone 11-12/05//2011 Consortium meeting F2F KU Leuven 31/05//2011 PEB conference call Phone 04/07/2011 PEB conference call Phone Minutes and actions from these meetings are available on the AXES shared work space. WP meetings More focused meetings are also organised within and between the 11 AXES work packages. Inter-WP meetings would result in the publication of minutes and actions, shared with the rest of the consortium. A number of such inter-wp face-to-face meetings have already taken place to deal with matters related to user requirements, dissemination, technical issues and participation to international benchmarks. These come in complement to the collaboration facilities available to the AXES partners and demonstrate a high level of motivation and energy deployed by all members of the consortium. The main inter-wp F2F meetings over the AXES Page 17 of 19 D11.1
first 7 months of AXES are listed in the table below. This list does not include individual visits of project members to other partners. Date Event Type Venue 12-13/04/2011 WP9 dissemination meeting F2F London (UK) 12-13/04/2011 WP2,3,4 technical meeting F2F Fraunhofer Institute, Sankt Augustin (GY) 22/03//2011 WP1 user requirements meeting F2F NISV, Hilversum (NL) 29-30/06/2011 WP7 benchmarking initiative F2F DCU, Dublin (IRL) July 2011 (planned) WP6,7 integration workshop F2F TBD 20-21/07/2011 (planned) WP9 dissemination meeting F2F London (UK) AXES Page 18 of 19 D11.1
CONCLUSION After six months of activity in the project, all required collaborative tools are operational and widely used by the AXES participants. Actually, most of these tools were available a few weeks after the project started. As far as mailing lists, shared work space and wiki are concerned, the structure has been progressively adjusted to the needs of the consortium and the content has become more relevant over the first few months of the project. Between Months 4 and 6, the file transfer and code sharing tools have been installed at the request of the technical partners. The AXES collaborative platform as it is available today globally satisfies the needs of the consortium. The AXES partners however do not consider this set of tools as being exhaustive and definitive; they will be happy to test and adopt novel ways of communicating and sharing material as the project unfolds over the next three and half years. AXES Page 19 of 19 D11.1