Sigmah projects 3W data into Sahana = an HXL GSoC project ??

[Olivier Sarrat]

Hi everyone,

During last GSoC Mentors Summit, we had a session about how to bring more collaboration between students projects on HFOSS initiatives.
An idea was to add a feature to be able to post into Sahana 3W information from project stored in a Sigmah instance. We thought that might be a first google example of joined GSoC project for HFOSS.
I've checked with Sigmah Steering Cooperative, and they are ok that we put this as one of the idea for GSoC2014. And as discussed then, I'm posting the conclusion of those discussion on this mailing list.

And what's nice is that we have actually a potential Sigmah user who say they may like to have such a feature... So we might have a user to discuss this need into more concrete details.

And what's going on on the side of HXL (Humanitarian eXchange Language) may even make the whole thing more interesting... UNOCHA's HXL got a grant from the Humanitarian Innovation Fund to move forward their initiative. Their project timeframe with this grant is from December 2013 to December 2014. And one of topic they will most probably cover is 3W information.
So the joined GSoC project idea we might have between Sahana and Sigmah could be the implementation of the HXL 3W standard as refined during this year HIF project to provide the communication standard between both our systems.

What do you think about this idea?
If you like it, we could inform the HXL folks on their mailing list about our desire to make an implementation.

Best,

Olivier.

--

Olivier Sarrat
Ingénieur Systèmes d'Information / Information System Engineer

Groupe URD
La Fontaine des Marins
26170 Plaisians
Tel: + 33(0)4 75 28 29 35
Mobile: +33 (0)6.34.31.42.07    -    Skype: osarrat.urd
www.urd.org

Par respect pour l'environnement,

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[Fran Boon]

Hi Olivier,

We already have a preliminary HXL implementation in Sahana Eden.

I'd be very happy to see that enhanced, especially with interop with another application.

I'm happy for some of this to be done under GSoC if we find a suitable student. I could potentially mentor, or maybe Dominic would.

Best Wishes,
Fran.

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[Dominic König]

I'm looking into this anyway, so I'd be happy to contribute to the BluePrint
and mentor a GSoC project in this direction.

Dominic

> > Fund<http://www.humanitarianinnovation.org/projects/large-grants/UNOCHA>t

> > o move forward their initiative. Their project timeframe with this grant
> > is from December 2013 to December 2014. And one of topic they will most
> > probably cover is 3W information.
> > So the joined GSoC project idea we might have between Sahana and Sigmah
> > could be the implementation of the HXL 3W standard as refined during this
> > year HIF project to provide the communication standard between both our
> > systems.
> >
> > What do you think about this idea?
> > If you like it, we could inform the HXL folks on their mailing list about
> > our desire to make an implementation.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Olivier.
> >
> >
> > --
> >

> > *Olivier Sarrat*
> > Ingénieur Systèmes d'Information / *Information System Engineer*

> >
> > Groupe URD
> > La Fontaine des Marins
> > 26170 Plaisians
> > Tel: + 33(0)4 75 28 29 35
> > Mobile: +33 (0)6.34.31.42.07 - Skype: osarrat.urd
> > www.urd.org
> >

> > *Par respect pour l'environnement,*
> >
> > *n'imprimez ce mail qu'en cas d'absolue nécessité*

[Olivier SARRAT]

Thanks Dominic and Fran for your replies !

How would like to proceed?

2014-01-24 Dominic König <dom...@nursix.org>

[Dominic König]

As usual:

We start with a BluePrint:
http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/BluePrint/HXL

(I'll write up an introduction tomorrow).

...and

1) brainstorm potential stakeholders and their user stories (use-cases), then
2) develop the requirements from there

I will do

3) a little research on implementation concepts, and
4) work up a draft architecture, and then
5) come up with a project proposal for GSoC.

Please edit the BluePrint directly, and try to involve stakeholders early on.

Regards,
Dominic

[Dominic König]

Ok,

I added a little contents as "Introduction", and an example to the
"Architecture" section.

It would be good to get some more input on potential stakeholders and use-
cases for an implementation in Eden before we continue with the research.

Thanks+regards,
Dominic

[Olivier SARRAT]

Hi Dominic,

I've sent a request to the potential user who expressed such a need.

As soon as I manage to have a discussion with him about this, I come back here or on the wiki to give a more detailed use case.

Best,

Olivier.

2014-01-30 Dominic König <dom...@nursix.org>:

[Olivier SARRAT]

Hi Dominic,

I've added a first basic user story into this wiki page: http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/BluePrint/HXL#SigmahtoSahana3W4Wdataexportation

Moreover, I've shared the idea of our work on the HXL mailing list :
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/hxlproject/KTKZSK_acMc

I think we won't be able to move too much forward this topic until we get a first workable version of HXL 3W data standard.

But we can already imagine how we would like it to work.

Best !

Olivier.

2014-01-31 Olivier SARRAT <osa...@urd.org>:

[Dominic König]

Hi Olivier,

Thank you - this looks fairly straight forward.

I guess that we wouldn't need HXL to implement this ;) - S3XML would do.

The big difference comes with the HXL Data Cloud and thus the ability to
discover and query data across multiple applications.

So I think that we should probably emphasize the process of "sharing of the
3W/4W data with the general public" (Sigmah) as well as the "discovery and
extraction of the data" (Eden) a little more.

That is because it means that we need the triple store (=HXL Data Cloud) in
the middle, and on the Eden side the ability to perform SPARQL queries.

My first idea on that would be Eden Sync.

Eden Sync is described here:
http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/wiki/UserGuidelines/Admin/Synchronization

What this guide doesn't mention (since it is a user guide) is that the
interface to query/update the remote repository is exchangeable (so-called
repository adapter), i.e. we do not only support Sahana Eden peer
repositories, but can also implement other types of repositories - and both
ways.

I've used the same architecture last year to query CiviCRM for organisation
contact data.

Implementing a SPARQL+HXL adapter for Eden Sync would be a quite obvious
solution for your use-case (and a couple of others at the same time), wouldn't
it?

I'll put that as an architecture proposal into the BluePrint, I think.

Without the triple store in the middle, we'd need an interface on the Sigmah
side plus a data format for the transmission. What does it support now?

Dominic

[Christian Bryant]

This is great news and exciting to read as currently happening events.  Living in the United States, I feel sometimes that there is nothing happening along these lines.  Yes, we have the FSF and similar organizations, but when it comes to HFOSS and initiatives in the United States to fund research, to implement work like Sahana on a large scale, fully funded, and so forth, I can’t help but feel I hear pins dropping.  Kudos.  May we in the States produce more HFOSS advocates and generate more recognition for humanitarian issues through the work we do.

Cheers.

 -          Christian Bryant