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Marketing and Promotion of Scientific Activities for Sustainability Purposes

Michael Zentner, Vas Vasiliadis, Alan Chalker, Enis Afgan, Claire Stirm, and Sandra Gesing

July 21, 2021 | PEARC21

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Award Number

ACI-1547611

sciencegateways.org

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Sustainability

  • business model
  • revenue
  • availability
  • community
  • open source
  • best practices
  • ……..

2

The software resulting from a research project remains available and capable of being enjoyed by those who need it for as long as it is relevant to research.

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Sustainability

  • business model
  • revenue
  • availability
  • community
  • open source
  • best practices
  • ……..

3

The software resulting from a research project remains available and capable of being enjoyed by those who need it for as long as it is relevant to research.

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Sustainability

  • business model
  • revenue
  • availability
  • community
  • open source
  • best practices
  • ……..

4

The software resulting from a research project remains available and capable of being enjoyed by those who need it for as long as it is relevant to research.

It needs to be deemed critical

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Sustainability

  • business model
  • revenue
  • availability
  • community
  • open source
  • best practices
  • ……..

5

The software resulting from a research project remains available and capable of being enjoyed by those who need it for as long as it is relevant to research.

It needs to be deemed critical

People need to know about it

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Sustainability

  • business model
  • revenue
  • availability
  • community
  • open source
  • best practices
  • ……..

6

The software resulting from a research project remains available and capable of being enjoyed by those who need it for as long as it is relevant to research.

It needs to be deemed critical

People need to know about it

You need to “market” it

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Role of Marketing in Software Projects

Questions to answer:

  • Why is the marketing/communication effort is important to the project
  • What worked?
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?

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Answered by some large software projects…

...but even on their best day large projects may not be the best marketers…

...so how can what we have learned and what we can provide be� structured to help many more projects with fewer resources?�

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Experiences with Open OnDemand

  • Why is the marketing/communication effort is important to the project
    • Open source sustainability requires a broad, engaged community
    • Federal & commercial sponsors expect publicity
  • What worked?
    • Creation of case studies / videos that are picked up by the media
    • Branded pens, laptop stickers, etc.
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?
    • Community surveys are hard to get respondents to
    • Modern websites are hard to create / maintain�

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Experiences with Galaxy

  • Why is the marketing/communication effort important to the project
    • Showcase capabilities and raise brand awareness in its domain
    • Promoters have a bigger impact: enable users to talk about your product
  • What worked?
    • Attribution and promotion of communities and members (eg, mentorship)
    • Virtual, async training events
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?
    • Virtual conferences pale in comparison to the in-person events
    • GSOC�

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Experiences with Globus

  • Why is the marketing/communication effort is important to the project
    • Broaden awareness
    • Grow adoption
    • Convert free users to subscribers
  • What worked?
    • Direct engagement
    • Professional presence
    • Promotions ...and free stuff!
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?
    • “Marketing” ...it’s funny how words matter
    • Promotions ...and free stuff

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Experiences with HUBzero®

  • Why is the marketing/communication effort is important to the project
    • Offer our “no hassle” hosting solution to the research community.
    • Conveying the scientific impacts being made by projects using HUBzero.
  • What worked?
    • Conference papers containing strong use-cases of successful, multi-year projects �(e.g., nanoHUB, QUBEShub, etc.).
    • Community relationship building via conferences and activities.
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?
    • Running our own conference.
    • Not defining our proven process before hiring a sales position. �

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Experiences with URSSI

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  • Why is the marketing/communication effort is important to the project
    • Building a community and addressing pain points in the research software ecosystem
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?
    • Outreach beyond the “usual suspects” has not worked yet
    • Wide support from administration and faculty is necessary to change academic culture

http://urssi.us/

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Experiences with URSSI

http://urssi.us/

https://plan.urssi.us/index.html

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Experiences with US-RSE

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  • Why is the marketing/communication effort is important to the project
    • Building a national community to support Research Software Engineers and give them the recognition their work and career paths deserve
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?
    • Outreach beyond the “usual suspects” has not worked yet
    • Wide support from administration and faculty is necessary to change academic culture

Membership growth influenced by

  • Enthusiastic members to kick it off
  • Workshops, Monthly Community Calls
    • Jumps in growth often after events �(presentations at conferences, webinars, �own events)

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https://us-rse.org/

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Experiences with US-RSE

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  • Why is the marketing/communication effort is important to the project
    • Building a national community to support Research Software Engineers and give them the recognition their work and career paths deserve
  • What hasn’t worked / lessons learned?
    • Outreach beyond the “usual suspects” has not worked yet
    • Wide support from administration and faculty is necessary to change academic culture

Membership growth influenced by

  • Enthusiastic members to kick it off
  • Workshops, Monthly Community Calls
    • Jumps in growth often after events �(presentations at conferences, webinars, �own events)
  • Website
  • Slack channel
  • Newsletters
  • RSE podcast
  • Working groups
    • DEI working group
      • Speaker series
      • Book club
    • Website
    • Training and Education
  • International community - corporate identity

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https://us-rse.org/

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Ideation Around a Problem

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What sort of shared services could or should this community develop to assist many of its projects toward this goal?�

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