POSE: Phase I: Evolving Exosphere with Community-Driven Software Stewardship

该项目由启用开放源码生态系统路径(POST)资助，旨在利用开放源码开发的力量，为国家和社会重大问题创造新的技术解决方案。Exball是一个创新的基于Web的界面，用于非专有云计算基础设施。Exlobe使研究人员能够使用基于云的高级研究工具，而不需要高级系统管理员技能。该项目的创新之处包括：提供一个用户友好的仪表板来管理云计算、网络和数据存储资源，并通过Web浏览器提供对这些资源的交互访问。独一无二的是，Exball无需定制集成工作即可提供对大多数专注于研究的云系统的访问。该项目旨在提高研究人员的生产率，减少科学发现的时间。Exlobe通过缩小云支持研究技术的能力与研究人员可获得性之间的差距来实现这些目标。研究人员和社区贡献者使用完全公共的开发流程来构建Exlobe。他们以免费和开源软件的形式提供结果。这种方法使Exlobe成为JetStream2最广泛使用的接口，JetStream2是一种全国性的研究云。它还带来了先进的功能，如按钮弹性虚拟集群和可重复使用的数据科学工作台。由于与数百家公司和非营利性组织使用的OpenStack应用程序编程接口(API)兼容，Exball可以扩展到服务于整个研究社区甚至更远的地方。开放源码生态系统路径(POST)计划授予的第一阶段奖，使Exball的组织和社区发展活动得以实现。这些任务包括通过会议上的调查和参与来发现用户和贡献者生态系统，与导师合作评估组织和治理模型，以及制定贡献者参与计划、用户文档和网站。成功的结果将是一个全面发展的战略，以扩大和保持Exlobe对整个计算和社会研究的好处。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded by Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) which seeks to harness the power of open-source development for the creation of new technology solutions to problems of national and societal importance. Exosphere is an innovative web-based interface for non-proprietary cloud computing infrastructure. Exosphere empowers researchers to wield advanced cloud-based research tools without needing advanced systems administrator skills. The project's novelties include: providing a user-friendly dashboard to manage cloud computing, networking, and data storage resources, and providing interactive access to these resources via web browser. Uniquely, Exosphere can provide access to most research-focused cloud systems without custom integration work. The project seeks to increase the productivity of researchers and reduce the time to scientific discoveries. Exosphere achieves these goals by closing the gap between the power of cloud-enabled research techniques and their accessibility to researchers. Exosphere also enables computational literacy and workforce development with distributed workshops.Investigators and community contributors build Exosphere with a fully public development process. They deliver the result as free and open-source software. This approach has made Exosphere the most widely-used interface for Jetstream2, a national-scale research cloud. It has also resulted in advanced features such as push-button elastic virtual clusters and reproducible data science workbenches. Exosphere can grow to serve use cases across the research community and beyond, as it is compatible with the OpenStack Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) used at hundreds of companies and not-for-profit organizations. A Phase I award from the Pathways for Enabling Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) program enables Exosphere’s organizational and community development activities. These tasks include discovery of the user and contributor ecosystem via surveys and engagements at conferences, evaluating organization and governance models in collaboration with mentors, and developing a contributor engagement plan, user documentation, and a website. The successful result will be a fully-developed strategy to multiply and sustain the benefit of Exosphere to research computing and society at large.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.