Purpose
The Sustainability WG determines the most cost-effective way to deliver ARK services that provide value to the community while keeping the required contribution from the community affordable. It conducts an ongoing conversation in the community about costs and how they will shape the “minimum viable product” and any additional services. This WG is concerned with long-term organizational and financial stability for ARKs and ARK infrastructure, whatever that will end up meaning precisely, and its work will be cognizant of legal and tax frameworks (eg, non-profit organizations).
A short 2-3 sentence description of why the working group has been formed and what it will accomplish for the project.
Objectives
Cost analysis. As a starting point, determine the cost categories and totals involved in keeping the current ARK infrastructure (n2t.net resolver included) running, monitored, patched, replicated, and updated with features that keep it interesting to the community. Determine which costs are essential and which costs could be reduced or eliminated if necessary in order to achieve sustainability.
Revenue strategies. Determine ways to bring in income and/or in-kind resources necessary to sustain the service on an ongoing basis, as well as sufficient buffer to maintain it for a year even if the income stopped. Examples include one or more of subscriptions, fundraising events, contributed staff time, tiered memberships, etc. It will be useful to be able to state how these strategies are expected to avoid the problems experienced in 2018 by DPLA and DPN.
Deliverables
Kickoff: clarify objectives and assign roles for the objectives
Month 2: share draft cost analysis and revenue strategies with the AG for early feedback
Month 6: propose revenue strategy and implementation plan
Months 7-12: seed sustainability with early adopters from within the community
Month 12: updated WG objectives and deliverables for the coming year, with an accordingly updated overall AITO roadmap
Resources
Draft cost categories: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tBGKJXKK0_dGLf_i0PsNpZb1dkCWqEQ5JedCeCqjfco/edit
Notes from the Experts Day at the March 2018 ARK Summit, with discussions of surveys, ARK spec changes, counting ARKs, sustainability, etc: https://wiki.duraspace.org/download/attachments/90979116/ARK_experts_day.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1544062862554&api=v2
A list of existing documents and other resources for reference. Add to this list as content is created by the working group.
Working Group Members
Initial proposed members:
Kate Wittenberg (AG Liaison), Portico
Kurt Ewoldsen (AG Liaison), CDL
Sayeed Choudhury (AG Liaison), Johns Hopkins University
...
List all members, using the wiki @ symbol feature to link their user profile to the document
Meeting Times
List the regular meeting time for the working group, and access information if the working group is open. TBD
Communication Channels
How will the working group communicate? List any Zoom meetings, Slack channels, Google groups etc.
