ASAPbio will request funding for 5 years. Full or partial funding
may be available on the longer term, but bidders should describe
sustainable business models that would be compatible with their
organization(s) and with the principles of the Central Service. These
might include submission fees or fee-for-service arrangements. In our
view, unfavorable business models include those where the provider of
the service may have a conflict of interest in providing support for
preprints as a public good. The Sustainability Plan is provisional and
does not commit the bidder(s), ASAPbio, or the Governance Body to
execute the plan provided in this RFA.
The Commons, as designed and executed by COS, will be a free,
open-source service. The initial creation and scaling of the service
will require the most capital investment. We expect that this period of
support will be funded by grants and philanthropic contributions. There
is opportunity for significant savings from economies of scale with
COS’s advanced, layered, and composable infrastructure. Nevertheless,
public goods infrastructure must confront the reality of sustainability.
COS is developing a community-based funding and governance model that
will foster a sustainable public goods infrastructure. This model
applies to The Commons and all of the other use cases of the shared
infrastructure:
- Transparent accounting of the costs to build and maintain all public
goods services
- A distributed financial responsibility model in which each community’s
responsibility is identified as the proportion of its use of the
services using layered accounting of costs
- When not violating donor privacy, transparent accounting of
contributions to financial and operational sustainability by
communities and stakeholders
- Simple pricing and transparent accounting of funding shortfalls can
facilitate stakeholder-wide problem-solving for the value of
maintaining the public goods infrastructure. Like other public goods,
ongoing investment reflects the community’s valuation of the services.
- Community-based governance to define strategic direction, maintain the
services, and ensure sustainability of those services providing value
meeting or exceeding their costs.
A successful financial responsibility model must address the free rider
problem and organizational constraints on willingness and ability to
contribute. Developing, testing, and refining this concept will be an
iterative activity, and will follow from lessons learned by similar
efforts (e.g., arXiv). The RFA suggests that a sustainability plan
should be in effect after the five-year funding period. We expect to
initiate the transition to a distributed funding model immediately with
understanding that full testing and adoption is a multi-year effort.
Progress on the model and actual evidence for sustainability will be a
primary activity for COS and the technical partners, the Governing
Board, and for the funding community supporting The Commons.
COS operates by key principles for advancing public goods. These principles are part of the COS’s
strategic plan and are relevant for sustainability. Public goods infrastructure cannot be entrusted to a single organization. COS’s sustainability framework embraces community governance:
- COS prioritizes reuse or connection to existing open tools and
resources.
- All COS-maintained tools and services are open-source and publicly
available.
- COS maintains terms of service, privacy, and security standards that
are user-centered.
- COS ensures that data accumulated through its services will remain
accessible and avoid user lock-in.
- COS operates as a community-based organization with inclusive
representation.
- COS tools and services should be maintained by an inclusive community
of stakeholders.
- COS members are dedicated to serving the mission over serving the
interests of the organization.
Lastly, as a provider of public goods, COS does not need to survive as
an organization for the services to survive for the community. All
products have open, liberal licenses. If COS disappears, other groups
can operate services that are still providing value for the community.
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