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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion conf.py
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Expand Up @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
"sphinxcontrib.mermaid",
"sphinx_last_updated_by_git",
]
exclude_patterns = ["_build", "Thumbs.db", ".DS_Store", ".github", ".nox", "README.md"]
exclude_patterns = ["**/_build/**", "Thumbs.db", ".DS_Store", ".github", ".nox", "README.md"]



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Binary file added organization/images/flywheel.png
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2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion organization/index.md
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Expand Up @@ -7,8 +7,8 @@ Organization-wide strategy, policy, and structure.
:caption: Organizational policy
mission
strategy
plan
value-proposition
plan
structure
kpis
```
6 changes: 4 additions & 2 deletions organization/mission.md
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## Our mission

```{epigraph}
2i2c’s mission is to make research and education more **impactful**, **accessible**, and **delightful** by developing, operating, and supporting open infrastructure for interactive computing.
2i2c enables communities to co-create discoveries and learning through shared data, computing, and tools.
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I agree we need to update this mission statement and incorporate the multiple rounds of discussions and feedback we done into a new statement.

In the strategy document, we had come up with

2i2c’s mission is to grow the world’s collective ability to make discoveries and learn from one another by developing, operating, and supporting open infrastructure for interactive computing.

I thought that was good because it described a long-term goal that emphasized 2i2c potential impact as a mission driven organization.

This revised mission statement doesn't carry that same sense of ambition. It feels more of a description of what offer today and not a future state we should be striving towards.

```

By pursuing this mission, we grow the world’s collective ability to make discoveries and learn from one another. By using open infrastructure, we ensure that these benefits are shared globally and cannot be captured by private interests.
By pursuing this mission, we grow the world's collective ability to make discoveries and learn from one another. By using open infrastructure, we ensure that these benefits are shared globally and cannot be captured by private interests.

Sustaining co-creation requires financial sustainability: open source needs capacity, communities need reliable services, and people need sustainable careers.

(organization:values)=
## Our values
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4 changes: 3 additions & 1 deletion organization/plan.md
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# Strategic plan
# Plan to execute our strategy

Our strategic plan connects our [organizational strategy](./strategy.md) with major milestones, actions, and measures to assess our impact.

[Our strategic plan](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HgSqAWeZZjcph3eHuWfv56WYopEHwrtmb-pAL3wMxco/edit?tab=t.kl1s58g59yn7) has the latest draft of our planning efforts. We'll update the team compass when it is more stable.
52 changes: 51 additions & 1 deletion organization/strategy.md
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# Goals and strategy

Our [Goals and strategy document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HgSqAWeZZjcph3eHuWfv56WYopEHwrtmb-pAL3wMxco/edit?tab=t.0) has the latest working draft. We are working to clean this up and will update the team compass when it is more stable.
## The challenge

Communities in research and education face a difficult choice: proprietary services with lock-in risks and accessibility barriers, or managing their own infrastructure and being distracted from their mission. They lack efficient ways to collaborate, share knowledge, and contribute to open source. This creates silos and duplication of effort.

## Our goal

Build a shared platform and service that enables communities to co-create impact through collaborative data science and computing.

Do so in a way that is **impactful** (benefiting the entire ecosystem), **accessible** (serving diverse communities), and **reliable** (sustainable for everyone).

## Our theory for impact

A shared cloud service team with a commitment to open infrastructure and open science will give communities more reliable and impactful access to key data science workflows, without the downside of proprietary technology. **They’ll achieve an outcome similar to hiring an in-house engineer, at a fraction of the cost and risk**.

- With **a deep understanding of open source communities and workflows**, we can develop technology more efficiently and sustainably.
- With a **deep understanding of research and education communities**, we can identify shared needs and make better decisions for what to build.
- By **cultivating a network of communities**, we can facilitate the spread of value across communities and increase the value of the service.
- By serving this network with a **shared infrastructure platform** that **gives communities autonomy and control**, we can efficiently operate and enhance technology across the network without sacrificing their agency.
- By **enabling co-creation with interactive data and computing**, we focus on a core workflow that helps communities collaborate internally, learn from each other, and accomplish their goals more efficiently.
- With a membership model across a network of diverse communities, we can build **recurring revenue streams** that sustain and scale our team's impact without dependence on any single contract.

## Our priorities

1. **Build a shared and standardized technology platform and service.**
- Use the same 80% of technical building blocks across all communities, with customization functionality and guidance for communities to self-serve their own 20%.
- Deliver excellent service with reliable operations, responsive support, and strong customer success.
- De-risk the most common community concerns with shared infrastructure and the cloud.
- Focus on the core data science workflow (learn → create → share), and encourage external specialized tools and services where possible.
2. **Grow reliable and recurring revenue streams via a network of paying communities in research and education.*-
- Drive our revenue with standard recurring services rather than one-off projects.
- Drive revenue with community buyers that have low year-to-year variability in budget (e.g., an institution rather than a single research group).
- Focus on products that make recurring service more valuable for a paying community.
3. **Facilitate co-creation within, between, and alongside communities.**
- **Within communities:** Provide shared data, computing, and tools that enable members to co-create discoveries through interactive workflows.
- **Between communities:** Identify shared needs, coordinate co-funding, and deploy enhancements network-wide to create shared value more efficiently than any community could achieve alone.
- **With open source:** Deploy improvements that benefit all communities while strengthening the open source tools we depend on.
4. **Do it in a healthy and sustainable way with open communities.**
- Take an upstream-first approach: contribute to open source whenever possible, build internal tooling only when truly 2i2c-specific or when no upstream alternative exists.
- Make both directed contributions (improving our service via upstream) and foundational contributions (improving the overall health of upstream communities).
- Be a standard-bearer for an "open organization": lean into reproducibility, transparency, and inviting others to participate in our work.
- Communicate our impact and share credit across our community network and the open source ecosystem.

## Putting strategy into practice

This strategy should guide everyone's actions and decisions.
Here are a few ways we can translate this strategy into impact:

- **Defining quarterly objectives.** Quarterly objectives should represent significant progress towards our strategic priorities. This is our primary mechanism for ensuring our day-to-day work is aligned with our strategy. See [](#quarterly-objectives).
- **Guiding our roadmaps.** Our platform and service roadmaps should lean into the value proposition and strategic priorities. When we decide what to work on next, we should ask ourselves how the work will contribute to these priorities. See [](../product-and-services/overview.md).
- **Informing our decisions.** Every team member should feel empowered to use this strategy as a guide for their own decision-making. When faced with a choice, consider which option best aligns with our goal, our theory for impact, and our priorities.
- **Communicating our work.** This strategy gives us a shared language for talking about our work with each other and with the broader community. When we communicate about our work, we should connect it back to the "why" outlined in this strategy. See [](../marketing/strategy.md).
34 changes: 30 additions & 4 deletions organization/value-proposition.md
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(mission:value-proposition)=
# Value proposition

Our value proposition is split between a few locations - we intend to consolidate and synthesize, but for now look to the documents below:
```{pull-quote}
2i2c co-creates a virtuous cycle: we support communities with managed infrastructure to power their science, and reinvest their resources to strengthen the open source tools we all depend on.
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I think this is intended to be a more condensed and reworked version of the original core value proposition:

2i2c supports a network of communities with interactive computing hubs to power their science, and invests in the open source tools that help our communities create and share knowledge.

But I think it loses two important ideas in the reworking:

  1. The value of 2i2c network of communities
  2. The reason communities invest in open source is to create and share knowledge.

It also replaces 'interactive computing hubs' (a front stage product that we build our services around) with 'managed infrastructure' (a much more vague concept that emphasizes back stage support).

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My suggestion is to return the to the original statement:

2i2c supports a network of communities with interactive computing hubs to power their science, and invests in the open source tools that help our communities create and share knowledge.

and let the following figure and caption bring in the 'co-creation' and 'virtuous cycle' ideas.

```

- [Document: Working draft of an updated value proposition](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HgSqAWeZZjcph3eHuWfv56WYopEHwrtmb-pAL3wMxco/edit?tab=t.sh4prjwzsgxr)
- [Deck: value proposition brainstorm in 2024Q2](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kjxPAS7ZptK1OLPiAWmi7WjS5EaDHQtg3E_Gig8ldzE/edit?usp=sharing).
- [Deck: Fundraising pitch deck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d3GDTfI9WtNzCzKFV4oUO8dWhuPdsCaTEJrytTHwejw/edit?usp=sharing)
% Source: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Pqp4nmLW3EfPDsYjsHgA2R0e6AIxcFkmzgkHE0Zubqs/edit?slide=id.g38426b4bd47_0_122#slide=id.g38426b4bd47_0_122
```{figure} images/flywheel.png
2i2c's virtuous cycle of co-creation: we provide communities access to shared data, computing, and tools to co-create discoveries, which generates resources to support open source communities, which leads to technology enhancements that benefit everyone and that we can deploy to our community network. This continuous co-creation between science communities and open source communities sustains and grows the impact of open infrastructure.
```

## Our value to stakeholders

### For research & education communities

**For hub users:** One-click access to pre-configured environments with scalable resources. Focus on your research and teaching, not infrastructure.

**For hub administrators:** Self-service customization, user management, and monitoring. Control your configuration with expert guidance when needed.

**For community leaders:** Expert cloud partnership with transparent costs and the Right to Replicate (no vendor lock-in). Access shared investments and a network of peer communities that amplify your impact.

### For the open science ecosystem

**Strengthen open-source toolchains** by connecting scientific needs directly to software development.

**Break down silos** by spreading innovation and best practices across institutional and disciplinary boundaries.

**Prove community-driven infrastructure works** as a powerful alternative to proprietary platforms.

## References

- [Deck: value proposition brainstorm in 2024Q2](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kjxPAS7ZptK1OLPiAWmi7WjS5EaDHQtg3E_Gig8ldzE/edit?usp=sharing).
- [Deck: Fundraising pitch deck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1d3GDTfI9WtNzCzKFV4oUO8dWhuPdsCaTEJrytTHwejw/edit?usp=sharing)
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