Technical
2012
Move servers to virtual machine (VM) infrastructure - The three arXiv server machines are nearing end-of-life and Cornell central IT is aggressively moving to virtual machine (VM) infrastructure. We are thus working to transition the from the current servers to virtual servers managed by IT@Cornell by the end of 2013. As part of this transition we will formalize the update and maintenance process for these machines, and remove access by non-CUL or IT@Cornell staff.
Admin and moderation system improvements - The arXiv admins and moderators face an ever increasing workload and have had to work-around a number of bugs and awkwardness in the arXiv interfaces. We are focusing development effort July-September 2012 on working through the backlog of issues to improve admin and moderator efficiency. Tasks include: better layout of admin queues; improved linking between admin UI screens; fix locks on user changes at different stages of submission; improving messages/help for users to reduce number of questions they ask; more consistent handling of non-ASCII characters. After September 2012 work on such fixes will continue at a slower pace to deal with pressing issues.
2013
Invenio for display and access - It was decided in 2010 to move the display and access functionality of arXiv to the Invenio platform developed at CERN. The primary goal of this move it to reduce the maintenance burden of in-house code and share the effort of developing new features with other organizations using this open-source software. The move to Invenio will facilitate improved collaboration with our partners at NASA ADS and INSPIRE. Work to data (Aug 2012) on this move has progressed slowly because of unforeseen difficulties and staffing shortage. We are currently re-planning this work with the intention of redirecting a significant fraction of the development team's effort to Invenio in Fall 2012. The goal is to deploy this system in 2013 and at that time enable horizontal scaling of the arXiv web user-interface to cope with our ever-increasing traffic.
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Review arXiv policy documentation and user support guides - arXiv has a substantial amount of policy documentation, which has grown organically over the years. Its organization and presentation needs review and updating. User help pages need an even more thorough review. Many of the user help pages are out-of-date or entirely obsolete. These materials need substantial reorganization and clean up.
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Governance
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Create SAB bylaws - David Ruddy will discuss the draft bylaws with the SAB during their September meeting to seek input. SAB will also assess the idea of appointing a scientific leader — a part-time position to provide intellectual leadership from the perspective of the scientific community.
Create MAB bylaws - By early October'12, we will complete and announce the MAB bylaws, which describe the composition and operation of the group.
Form the first MAB - We identified a small election committee (sub-group of the interim MAB) to assist us in organizing and running an election to elect members for the first MAB. We will invite nominations from the member organizations,SAB, and the Simons Foundation.Form the first MAB - Make MAB appointments in January'13
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Continue with the membership drive - We are very encouraged with the 5-year pledges\ received so far. We want to increase the number of arXiv member institutions to create a large and international network of supporters. Another goal is to be able to reduce the institutional membership fees in the future (current annual institutional fees are in the $1,500-$3,000 range).
Develop reserve fund policies - The purpose of the arXiv reserve fund is to support unexpected expenses to ensure a sound business model. Currently, arXiv has a reserve fund of approximately $125,000 accumulated during the last two years due to unexpected staff vacancies and other savings, such as transition to virtual servers. The 2013-2017 budget projections includes a contingency line ($50,000-$100,000 per year); however, the Cumulative Operating Contingency balance does not factor in the potential expenditures that will be charged against this account in support of unforeseen expenses. We will discuss the desirability of establishing a minimum and maximum contingency fund levels. The financial projections assume that the membership fees will increase at an average rate of 2 % per year. Ideally, membership fees should decrease as the number of participating institutions increases. This is one of the reasons we would like to identify an ideal contingency amount so that we will know when to stop accumulating and start reducing membership fees. We need to develop policies about how contingency funds will be used and how the account will be structured (e.g., funds needed for closing the business versus development funds - also a part of the reserve funds to create an endowment & the interest can be use the interest for reducing membership fees).
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Continue the dialogue with publishers/societies - In celebration of the arXiv's 20th anniversary, on September 23, 2011 Cornell University Library (CUL) hosted a meeting at Cornell with the representatives from several publishers and societies that are interested in Cornell's sustainability planning efforts. The meeting report provides a synopsis of the discussion and recommends next steps for continuing this dialogue. We will resume this investigation and discuss the feasibility and desirability of establishing a research and innovation collaboration in support of arXiv. This effort is envisioned to entail a separate funding stream (created by participating publishers and societies) from the operational budget, which includes resources for the routine and core services currently provided by the arXiv team (including essential updates).
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