Fiji Software Sustainability

斐济软件可持续性(FISS)项目的目标是将斐济生物图像分析研究的开源平台提升到一个新的成熟水平，为可持续地向科学界提供这一重要软件铺平道路。我们将建立在斐济在全世界生命科学研究人员中的使用达到前所未有的水平，以及斐济开放源码社区在其存在的第一个十年中组装的现有基础设施基础上。具体地说，我们将推行三个工作包(WPS)，旨在加强斐济软件生态系统中目前需要调整和改进质量的领域。在WP1中，我们将扩展现有的并建立新的最先进的软件工程基础设施，以开发、提供和传播斐济。这些现代实践将使这一重要平台的开发人员和用户都受益。在WP2中，我们将开发多维数据可视化和大图像数据处理的新功能，消除已知的使用障碍。这可能会进一步提高斐济平台的吸引力，特别是对于面临最近显微镜数据爆炸性增长带来的新的生物图像分析挑战的用户。WP3将通过提供结构化教育、文件编制、问题解决和其他社区服务来提高斐济体验的质量。我们认为，1)考虑到斐济社区的规模和目前开发人员所面临的问题的严重性，这些措施是适当和必要的；2)雇用两名专门执行这一议程的维护人员将充分解决这一问题；3)改进、调整和在实施工作方案期间获得的经验将为建立斐济长期运作的可持续性模式奠定必要的基础。我们讨论了未来财务规划和可持续发展概念实施的几种情况。至关重要的是，这涉及到将斐济平台固定在经过时间考验和成功的MPI-CBG研究服务和设施系统中。斐济是一个具有全球影响的大型软件生态系统，因此是一个理想的软件基础设施模式，可以在其上记录长期可持续提供研究软件的挑战和解决方案。通过这笔赠款建立稳定斐济平台的最佳做法，我们将树立榜样，并为其他科学软件开发项目发出积极信号。

The goal of the Fiji Software Sustainability (FiSS) project is to elevate the open source Fiji platform for research in biological image analysis to a new level of maturity that will pave the way towards sustainable provision of this crucial software to the scientific community. We will build on the unprecedented level of Fiji usage among life science researchers worldwide and the existing infrastructural groundwork assembled by the Fiji open source community over the first decade of its existence. Specifically, we will pursue three Work Packages (WPs) aiming at enhancing the areas of the Fiji software ecosystem where the current status quo requires adjustments and quality improvement.1. In WP1 we will extend existing and establish new state-of-the-art Software Engineering Infrastructure for the development, provision and dissemination of Fiji. These modern practices will benefit both developers and users of this important platform.2. In WP2 we will develop novel capabilities in multidimensional data visualization and Big Image Data processing removing known usage barriers. This will likely further enhance the appeal of the Fiji platform, in particular for users facing new bioimage analysis challenges posed by recent explosive data growth in microscopy.3. WP3 will increase the quality of the Fiji experience by providing structured education, documentation, issue resolution and other community services. This will, in conjunction with WP1 and WP2, lead to an overall more stable and better supported, more viable research software.We believe, that 1) these measures are suitable and necessary given the size of the Fiji community and the magnitude of the problem being faced by its current developers, 2) that hiring two maintainers dedicated to implement this agenda will address it sufficiently and 3) that the improvement, adjustments and experiences gained during implementation of the WPs will form the necessary groundwork for establishing models of Fiji sustainability for long term operation. We discuss several scenarios for the future financial planning and implementation of a sustainability concept. This involves, crucially, the anchoring of the Fiji platform in the time tested and successful research Services and Facilities system of MPI-CBG.Fiji is a large software ecosystem with worldwide impact and thus serves as an ideal model software infrastructure on which the challenges and solutions for long term sustainable provision of research software can be documented. By establishing the best practices that stabilize the Fiji platform through this grant we shall set an example and send a positive signal for other scientific software development projects.