US Ignite Next Generation Applications Hub Design Workshop

Mozilla Foundation, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

US Ignite was launched in 2012 to foster the development of next-generation apps for public benefit. In the next 5 years, US Ignite efforts are targeting the development of 60 next-generation applications, 200 community testbeds, and a forum for collaboration between industry, academia, and gigabit communities. Because US Ignite services a broad range of stakeholders in next-generation app development, the activities of the partnership are not always clearly visible. US Ignite, and the overall goals of the partnership, are better served by transparent, shared communications infrastructure. This project addresses part of this need by convening a platform design workshop to solicit feedback, ideas, and expertise from key stakeholders and drive the development of a new web-based platform for the development of next generation applications. The platform will serve as a hub for research and best practices in software-defined networking, symmetric gigabit networks, local cloud computing and other advanced networking applications. It will include an index of a variety of advanced networking application projects and demonstrate how these networks can be used. Additionally, by providing opportunities for engagement and collaboration across diverse groups that do not naturally interact, the platform provides possibilities for the discovery of new ideas and potentially transformative applications. During this workshop the participants will: identify and define key priorities of leadership and stakeholders; agree on core user demographics and needs; define the site design (look and feel) and requirements (functionality); identify existing content that can be leveraged to bootstrap the site; and agree to development roadmap and schedule. The goal of the workshop is to prepare fully the development team to operationalize this platform and build a sustainable next-generation apps development community. The workshop will result in a roadmap and core group to produce a platform that will increase participation in the next-generation apps community. It will provide a consolidated gateway to people, software, and documentation. It will enable the small team at US Ignite to scale up this ecosystem and reach a broader audience. It will also decrease the development time from idea to usable application and propel applications out of the lab and into [the] community.