What is the POSE II Project?

[Jamaica]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve made some posts that reference the POSE II project. I thought it might be helpful to share a little background on the project for those who may not be familiar.

The POSE II project is funded by the US National Science Foundation through its Pathways to Enable Open Source Ecosystems program. The project is designed to strengthen the CKAN ecosystem by making it easier for people to participate and contribute, supporting long-term sustainability, and helping identify indicators by which we can assess and monitor ecosystem health.

Bob Gradeck (@rgradeck), of the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center (WPRDC) at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR), is the project’s Principal Investigator. Bob also served as Co-PI on the earlier POSE Phase I project, which brought together members of the CKAN ecosystem to identify opportunities to strengthen the community and inform the work we’re carrying out now in Phase II.

I joined the project as CKAN/POSE Community Manager after the Phase II award was made. Since then, our team at Pitt has been working closely with colleagues across the ecosystem to turn many of those ideas into practice. The Ecosystem Catalog, this Forum, and several other ongoing initiatives are all part of that work.

The current project is expected to run through May 2027, however many of the initiatives it has supported (including this Forum) are intended to continue well beyond the life of the grant. Over the coming year, we’ll be working with you to think through how these efforts can best be sustained, and what future opportunities for collaboration might look like, including those supported through new partnerships and funding opportunities. Hopefully, an opportunity will arise here, with you!

[mueez]

Thanks for the details about the POSE project. I’m curious as to:

• What other collaborative initiatives are supported through this project? Also are there avenues for collaboration or improvement for each of them that relevant community members should be aware of?
• Are there any external examples of initiatives that could be adapted for (or are being considered for) the CKAN ecosystem such as those of other ecosystems/communities?
• Where can one view the opportunities identified from Phase I regarding “scoping activities” and “training”? I’m particularly interested in learning what users’ needs are from a variety of backgrounds regarding the CKAN ecosystem, such as through the previous “sensemaking workshops” or more recent research.

[Jamaica]

@mueez

• What other collaborative initiatives are supported through this project? Also are there avenues for collaboration or improvement for each of them that relevant community members should be aware of?
• Are there any external examples of initiatives that could be adapted for (or are being considered for) the CKAN ecosystem such as those of other ecosystems/communities?
• Where can one view the opportunities identified from Phase I regarding “scoping activities” and “training”? I’m particularly interested in learning what users’ needs are from a variety of backgrounds regarding the CKAN ecosystem, such as through the previous “sensemaking workshops” or more recent research.

Hi @mueez, and thank you for these thoughtful questions! I really appreciate your interest. You get at a lot of different threads and components of the POSE Phase I and Phase II work here, so while I will do my best to be succinct in my reply, it may make for a longer-than-usual comment:

A really important part of the Phase II work has been convening the CKAN Steering Committee, which brings together custodians, co-stewards, and other representatives from across the ecosystem to help guide the project and think particularly about its longer-term sustainability. Lately, we’ve been working together to identify indicators of ecosystem health, drawing in part on the CHAOSS metrics and also thinking about what would be useful/applicable across the ecosystem. This Forum also grew, in part, out of Steering Committee conversations about the need for a space for broader discussion and connection across the ecosystem.

The Ecosystem Catalog is another major piece of the work, and one where community participation is especially important. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be reaching out and encouraging people connected with existing entries to claim them and help keep their information current. We’re also beginning to think about how the Catalog can support connections and knowledge exchange across the ecosystem, including through its integration with this Forum.

We’ve definitely also drawn on work happening outside the CKAN ecosystem. Over the course of the project, we have looked at a few frameworks and practices that can be adapted to our particular context, including the aforementioned CHAOSS metrics and the great work being done by CSCCE around community participation.

For the Phase I work, the best starting point would be the POSE Phase I project site. In particular, the summary of the ecosystem interviews captures needs and experiences surfaced through interviews with 45+ people across various ecosystem roles. There is also Sensemaking Workshop recap, which summarizes the subsequent workshops, which focused on adoption, onboarding, and strengthening the community. Those are probably the most useful resources for the questions you’re interested in.

Thanks again for your interest, and for raising these questions. One of the things we’re hoping this Forum can do is make it easier for people to engage with this work as it develops, rather than only hearing about it after the fact. I appreciate the opportunity to do a little catch-up here.

[mueez]

Thank you for the detailed response @Jamaica, glad that there’s open research regarding the project.

I’m also wondering if the indicators of ecosystem health are shared openly somewhere? I’d be interested in seeing a mapping between each indicator and specific projects/members/organizations/etc. that impact the ecosystem health. This could be helpful in identifying avenues where community members can contribute to part of the ecosystem health for example even by starting with at least a discussion post on this forum for a particular indicator and its mapped value or directly to those projects.

Some other parts from your response I find interesting include:

• The summary and various linked documents (albeit a bit difficult to realize they are links as they’re not underlined) of user feedback in the sensemaking workshop recap. I could imagine some of these ideas could spark beneficial discussions here on the forum. For implementation of some of these ideas they could leverage existing projects from community members or they could potentially be built with focused members/teams and relevant user feedback to build long-term maintainable solutions.
• There are other projects funded through the POSE program that could be explored for inspiration. They may focus on different domains but the general objective of open-source ecosystems should be there.

Looking forward to learning more about the POSE project’s open progress and other members’ reflections.