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DSK-NETdecentralized social and knowledge networks

HORIZON 2020Topic addressed: FETOPEN-1-2014: FET-Open research projects

SEPTEMBER 2014

Acronym: DSK-NET

ABSTRACTTired of starting the browser(s), clicking one or more social sites bookmarks just to see tons of bloat, scrambling to maintain same relationships, albums and gossip across sites, wondering if what you do or share is seen by the wrong people? We too. Why not all their functionality and more in a single point of access, with direct, real time events, a flexible and full control of what is shared and to whom?This is what the project wants to deliver.DSK-NET is a no-nonsense approach that fixes several issues, starting with resource and relationships redundancy, multiple sites management and limited flexibility, continuing with lack of protection for unsuspecting users, unsecure and inefficient communication and provides an adequate alternative.We underline now some of the major ideas covered in this project.With most of resources now in clouds, it is natural to share clouded resources from this central, "public" location, using newly designed and implemented operating system capabilities. Backup and restore services may come as a bonus. Redundancy, synchronization and integrity issues get a convenient solution.Besides user's resource management, the resource services will provide support for resource sharing, resource searches, discovery, acquisition, utilization and deployment.Relationship services will provide support for relationships initiation, management, default relationships setup, in a manner which will mirror relationships in real life.Event services will help define outgoing and incoming event channels in a flexible manner, covering everything from friends and groups events, up to news feeds.Another issue we want to addressed is user's protection from the assault of toolbars, hijacking search engines, viruses, trojans, spam, bloatware and all the crap the parasites of the internet use to make our lives miserable.This is where the proximity server concept makes its entry. Besides general protection services against the above mentioned assaults, it will provide support for secure communication, public key services, NSA-proofing, VPN services, encryption and decryption services, efficient communication, identity management.It underlines a fundamental idea - the PC transition towards the thin (or fat) client status, mirroring a process that businesses discovered a long time ago.Our project will provide the design and the implementation of these ideas, making an impact both in the internet architecture and in the online life of the average user.

dsk-net project proposal

1 EXCELLENCE

1.1 Targeted breakthrough, Long term vision and Objectives

1.1.1 Targeted breakthroughWe know and get known by communicating. Most of it is done in our days through the internet, which is vastly unstructured and unprotected, with most of our activity channeled through web sites and the unavoidable constraints and limitations of the social (and sometimes, knowledge) networks. We want to get all the relevant events in real time and in a structured manner, directly on our desktop and to share our resources and activities in a direct, secure and controlled manner. No other site to login into, no extra configurations, no other resource copies uploaded.Our project intends to promote a new architecture which takes advantage of the new trends in the information world, providing more efficiency, protection and a flexible environment by eliminating redundancies, providing the support of proximity services and native support from the operating system.

1.1.2 Long term visionThe new architecture streamlines the communication process between the user and the rest of the world, insures the integrity and the optimal deployment of user's resources. It also provides flexibility and control in how relationships are defined and managed. User generated events can make their way into the public/restricted domain, while events generated in user's area of interest make their way in real time As a result, the functionality of several social and professional sites can be achieved through a new set of distributed services, adequate changes in the operating systems and user's involvement in defining his/her own exposure.Resource search, discovery and deployment is facilitated by the implementation of a Resource Name System.By introducing the proximity server concept, the public area gets professional support in several areas, like malware and virus protection, secure communication, authentication and resource integrity services, mirroring a process that businesses adopted a long time ago.

1.1.3 ObjectivesDefine, implement and integrate a new architecture and services that will help remodel the connection between the internet user and the outside world. The end result will be a social and knowledge network that allows the average user to: O1 – Get real time events, directly on your desktop (smartphone, tablet) O2 – Share resources using the tools provided natively by the operating system O3 - Search and discover resources using the resource name system O4 – Get backup and recovery services O5 – Define relationships in a flexible manner, with the ability to customize the content and level of the

exchanges associated with a particular relationship O6 – Secure all communications by design, using the services provided by the proximity servers O7 – Get the protection provided by the gate-keeper services of the proximity servers O8 – Define how you are viewed by the outside world, groups, friends

Integration, deployment and support activities are achieved by fulfilling these objectives: O9 – Communicate and Disseminate – The network and its services will be promoted for the duration of the

project execution and after O10 – Ready for service – The project will have a practical finality and will be open for business before and

after the end of the project

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1.2 Relation to the work programme

Our project addresses multiple characteristics as defined in the Scope. We present the issues addressed by this project in the order specified.

Table 1: Matching between the scope of topic ICT 15 and the DSK-NET scope

FETOPEN characteristic DSK-NET characteristic

Long-term vision: the research proposed must address a new, original or radical long-term vision of technology-enabled possibilities that are far beyond the state of the art and currently not anticipated by technology roadmaps.

The main idea behind this project is to provide everyone the possibility to define his/her own exposure, as result of what we have to share and also to define how we open ourselves to what the world has to offer. And all of this in a virtual world structured by relationships. Otherwise said, we want the computing environment to mirror our real life.

Breakthrough S&T target: research must target scientifically ambitious and technologically concrete breakthroughs that are arguably crucial steps towards achieving the long-term vision and that are plausibly attainable within the life-time of the proposed project.

The architecture we propose is service based and not site based. Starting with the proximity server, which provides protection, secure communication and communication efficiency and continuing with resource services, complemented by backup and recovery services, relationship services and event services.

Foundational: the breakthroughs that are envisaged must be foundational in the sense that they can establish a basis for a new line of technology not currently anticipated

Some of the concept and ideas promoted by this project can be found, to some extent, in the business environment. Transfering these paradigmes into the public domain is a necessary and welcomed step.

Novelty: the research proposed must find its plausibility in new ideas and concepts, rather than in the application or incremental refinement of existing ones.

Some of the novelties we propose are - share resources and events directly to a world structured by relationships- professional protection by design for the general public- support for resource discovery and deployment

High-risk: the potential of a new technological direction depends on a whole range of factors that cannot be apprehended from a single disciplinary viewpoint. This inherent high-risk has to be countered by a strongly interdisciplinary research approach, where needed expanding well beyond the strictly technological realm.

The mai risk is the complexity of the project, which has to bypass established technologies in order to provide the expected efficiency. The network architecture may prove difficult to implement due to cloud operators reluctance to provide acceess to their infrastructure.The inability to attract enough users/customers to make the network commercialy viable.

Interdisciplinary: the proposed collaborations must be interdisciplinary in the sense that they go beyond current mainstream collaboration configurations in joint science- and technology research, and that they aim to advance different scientific and technological disciplines together and in synergy towards a breakthrough.

Social networks are social and behavioral phenomena, before being communication and relationship infrastructures. They not only influence the economy, but represent a globalization accelerant, as well. The project implementation includes novelties from a variety of areas – distributed storage, identity management, data certification, security by design, statistical analysis, relashionship management, event handling.

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1.3 Novelty, level of ambition and foundational character

1.3.1 NoveltyWe can see the present day social and knowledge networks as evolutionary products, which build on top of existing platforms, paradigms and habits.We rather start from scratch, using a no-nonsense approach. That means:

adapting or changing the operating system when this addresses a fundamental need sharing resources, setting permissions and exposure levels implementing a resource name system, complemented by resource distribution, backup and recovery implementing and managing a relationship system that structures our view of the world implementing and managing event services which provide real time data, in an efficient way introducing and implementing the proximity server concept, which provides protection, secure

communication and authentication services a streamlined identity management system and a simple, efficient classification and reference system

1.3.2 AmbitionWe expect that our social and knowledge model will be converted into the leading social and knowledge network over the next 7 years.

1.3.3 Foundational characterBesides providing optimality and efficiency, our architecture:

will legitimate the use of the proximity server as the gatekeeper for the public at large will encourage the transition of the desktop towards the thin client status will promote a new classification and identification scheme

1.4 Research methods

1.4.1 DSK-NET Architecture

.

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Proximity server

Proximity server

Proximity server

Event services

Relationship services

Resource services

Relationship services


1.4.2 Methods and approachesThe access point to the social and knowledge network is the desktop and its mobile varieties, which manages its gates to the outside world. Easy to open, easy to close, easy to filter, in both directions, towards or from an outside world structured by relationships, distinguishing domains, institutions, areas of interest, groups, persons.Native support from the operating system for resource sharing and permissions management, complemented by a resource management system, which includes resource search and discovery using a resource name system, resource deployment (in clouds), resource backup and recovery.Relationship services are used to structure the communication pipelines.Event services which provide most of the communication content.

1.4.3 Implementation directionsA short list with the main components of the DSK network and their implementation. The implementation details will be specified in the

Operating system changes - will affect the file system, improved communication tools and real time display of events, a uniform treatment of resources no matter the type or the location.

The proximity server - its services will be built on a Linux platform and will include a simplified version of the TLS (SSL) protocol, security profiles of the clients, traffic filtering, encryption and decryption services.

The Resource Name System - will provide naming and directory services, using an extended LDAP specification.

Resource distribution is based on user preference and may be, in general, beyond DSK network's control. When controlled by the DSK network, their location will be decided based on usage and traffic efficiency.

The communication between the Resource System entities will be done through a newly defined Resource Service Protocol.

Relationship services will provide a framework to create, provision, verify and propagate relations. The Event services will capture, store (if necessary) and distribute events generated by the DSK network or

by entities outside the network.

1.4.4 The DSK-NET approach to gender related issuesDSK-NET deals with innovation topics that apply equally to both women and men. We will also continue to encourage women to take leading roles in the development of this project. The project Consortium is pursuing an effective gender policy of equality and non-discrimination. The members of the DSK-NET team are aware of gender related issues and have practical experiences in gender policy.

1.5 Interdisciplinary nature

Social networks are social and behavioral phenomena, before being a communication infrastructure. They not only influence the economy, but represent a globalization accelerant, as well. When it comes to its positioning in the information and communication technology, DSK-NET is a convergence area for several for several new ideas and trends. The emergence of clouds, the ubiquity of security and integrity threats, requiring professional protection.NSA-proofing can be reached by having secure communication from the start go, as the default option.Identity management should not be an issue, identity and the associated relationships can be verified, this may simplify, to a large extent, the authentication process, required by a multitude of applications and contexts.A verified status may provide a shortcut which allows direct access to local and central administration resources.The interdisciplinary character is also visible in the variety of technologies and areas touched and redesigned by our project: – distributed storage, identity management, data certification, security by design, statistical analysis, relashionship management, event handling.

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2 IMPACT

2.1 Expected impacts

• Facebook killer• Twitter killer• A somewhat smarter internet• A somewhat more efficient internet• A more relaxed user

2.1.1 Impacts as set out in the work programmeTable 1: Matching between the impacts set in the Topic description and our envisioned impacts

Impacts specified in the Topic description DSK-NET envisioned impacts

Initiating a radically new line of technology by establishing Proof-of-Principle of a new technological possibility and its new scientific underpinning

We initiate the transition from site based social/knowledge networks to a more flexible, service based approach. Also, the new trends in resource distribution in clouds and secure communication as default are encouraged and legitimated

Kick-starting an emerging innovation eco-system of high-potential actors around a solid baseline of feasibility and potential for a new technological option, ready for early take-up

The main elements which have a pootential high impact are the envisioned identity and classification system, a simplified TLS (SSL) protocol, a relationship verification system, professional protection

2.2 Measures to maximize impact

The communication and dissemination plan, which will be available in the 3rd month of the project, will detail the communication and dissemination strategy. We sketch some of these measures in the sections below.

2.2.1 Dissemination and exploitation of the resultsThe network will be available for alpha testing in the 17th month of the project execution. The platform will go public starting with its beta release in month 25. The final (relative to the project) version will be available starting with month 34 of the project, with a strong commitment towards its continuous evolution and support.It's existence and its capabilities will be made through a variety of communication activities. The project will be an open source project, its interfaces will be well documented. This will encourage its adoption and the involvement of the IT community in its evolution and exploitation.The deployment of the final release of the network is equally a new beginning in network's development, deployment and utilization as a community driven project.

2.2.2 Communication activitiesCommunication activities include: a dedicated web site ( most likely, www.allrin.com ), updated on a regular basis, with forum, wiki, FAQ and HowTo pages associated to the site, social and knowledge media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, allRIn, Linkedin), project posters displayed in selected events, quarterly letters, promotional video, involvement in related focus groups, contributions to standardization bodies activities.Once the beta release of the network goes public, it will continue to be supported by project documentation, tutorials and project's public deliverables.

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A special event will be dedicated to the launching of the final release of the network, with live demonstrations of network's capabilities. The event will be properly advertised and its progress will be broadcasted to a presumably large audience.

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3 IMPLEMENTATION

3.1 Project work plan

3.1.1 The overall structure of the work planDSK-NET has been planned as a highly focused and collaborative project. The plan is structured into eight work packages (WPs) spanning over a period of 36 months. The WPs cover all the important aspects, including product and business development, user experience, and data privacy issues. The first work package, WP1, covers supporting activities and are concerned with technical, quality and risk management, promotional and communication activities.Special attention has been paid to the product development and business development phases. The product development consists of: Phase 1 - Development, integration and initial deployment Phase 2 - Alpha testing, architectural issues settled and core services evaluated Phase 3 - Beta testing and deployment Phase 4 - User feedback processing, evaluation, modifications and tuning Phase 5 - Final deployment, open to the public

From the business development point of view, the project will undergone the following phases: Phase 1 - Market research, migration strategies Phase 2 - Business planning Phase 3 - Market entry strategy, evaluation and validation

3.1.2 Work Packages’ timing and their componentsThe table below shows the timing of the different WPs and their corresponding tasks.

Table 3: The timing of WPs and their tasks

WP/Task

Description Leader % PMs Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12

Year 1 Year 2 Year3

WP1 Management, dissemination, legal issues MP2 13.7% 96

T1.1 Reporting MP2 1.7% 12

T1.2 Scientific and technical management UVT 3.4% 24

T1.3 Data management MP1 3.4% 24

T1.4 Dissemination MP3 3.4% 24

T1.5 Legal issues UPT 1.7% 12

WP2 Specification and platform design UVT 8.6% 60

T2.1 Requirements specification UVT 1.7% 6

T2.2 Architectural design MP2 2.6% 18

T2.3 Resource services design MP1 1.3% 9

T2.4 Relationship services design UVT 1.3% 9

T2.5 Event services design UPT 1.3% 9

T2.6 System integration design MP3 1.3% 9

WP3 Resource services implementation MP1 18.9% 132

T3.1 Resource Name System implementation UVT 5.1% 36

T3.2 Resource distribution UPT 5.1% 36

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T3.3 Cloud based reasources integration MP2 6.9% 48

T3.4 Backup and recovery implementation MP1 1.7% 12

WP4 Relationship services implementation UVT 12.9% 90

T4.1 Profiles management MP2 3.4% 24

T4.2 Relationships management UVT 6.0% 42

T4.3 Relationship verification mechanisms UPT 3.4% 24

WP5 Event services implementation UPT 12.9% 90

T5.1 Core mechanisms implementation UPT 6.1% 36

T5.2 User and group generated events UVT 4.3% 30

T5.3 Global events MP1 3.4% 24

WP6 Proximity server implementation MP2 10.0% 70

T6.1 Users management UPT 2.3% 16

T6.2 Security services implementation UVT 2.6% 18

T6.3 Resource management MP1 2.6% 18

T6.4 Traffic management MP2 2.6% 18

WP7 Operating system changes MP3 12.9% 90

T7.1 Linux changes implementation MP3 8.6% 60

T7.2 Windows changes adaptors UPT 4.3% 30

WP8 System integration and prototyping MP1 10.3% 72

T8.1 Alpha prototype MP1 2.6% 18

T8.2 Beta prototype MP1 2.6% 18

T8.3 Final implementation MP1 5.1% 36

3.1.3 Detailed work description broken down into work packagesTable3.1a: Work package descriptions

Work package number 01 Start Date or Starting Event M01

Work package title Management, dissemination, legal issuesParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant 24 24 24 12 12

ObjectivesThe main objective of this WP is to make sure that the job gets done in a timely, efficient manner and that project's result find their way into the mainstream. It will address execution changes and manage risks.

Description of work - WP Lead: MP2T1.1 Reporting (Lead: MP2) Starts M12. Ends M36. Deliverables: D1.2, D1.3T1.2 Scientific and technical management (Lead: UVT) Starts M1. Ends M36.T1.3 Data management (Lead: MP1) Starts M1. Ends M36.T1.4 Dissemination and communication activities (Lead: MP3) Starts M1. Ends M36.

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Deliverables (brief description and month of delivery)D1.1 Project information and control procedures (M2)D1.2 Periodic project reports (M12, M24, M36)D1.3 Final report (M36)D1.4 Data management plan (M4)D1.5 Dissemination and communication plan (M3)


Work package title Requirements specification and platform designParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant: 12 24 12 6 6

Objective - To provide the main requirements and design elements of the social and knowledge network.

Description of work - WP Lead: UVTT2.1 Requirements specification - (Lead: UVT) Starts M1. Ends M5. Deliverables: D2.1T2.2 Architectural design - (Lead: MP2) Starts M3. Ends M9. Deliverables: D2.2T2.3 Resource services design - (Lead: MP1) Starts M3. Ends M6. T2.4 Relationship services design - (Lead: UVT) Starts M3. Ends M6. T2.5 Event services design - (Lead: UPT) Starts M3. Ends M6. T2.6 System integration design - (Lead: MP3) Starts M5. Ends M7.

Deliverables (brief description and month of delivery)D2.1 Requirements specification document (M05)D2.2 Architecture design document (M09)


Work package title Resource services implementationParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant: 48 24 24 24 12

Objective - To implement, test and deploy the resource services components.

Description of work - WP Lead: MP1T3.1 Resource Name System implementation - (Lead: UVT) - Starts M8. Ends M21.T3.2 Resource distribution - (Lead: UPT) Starts M22. Ends M33.T3.3 Cloud based resources integration - (Lead: MP2) Starts M9. Ends M33. T3.4 Backup and recovery implementation - (Lead: MP1) Starts M10. Ends M21. Deliverable: D3.1

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Deliverable - D3.1 Backup and recovery manual (M21)


Work package title Relationship services implementationParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant: 6 60 6 9 9

Objective - To implement, integrate, test and deploy the relationship services components.

Description of work - WP Lead: UVTT4.1 Profiles management - (Lead: MP2) - Starts M10. Ends M21. T4.2 Relationships management - (Lead: UVT) - Starts M16. Ends M27. T4.3 Relationship verification mechanisms - (Lead: UPT) - Starts M22. Ends M33.

Deliverables - None: The results will be included in the alpha, beta and final release of DSK network.


Work package title Event services implementationParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant: 6 9 6 60 9

Objectives - To implement, integrate, test and deploy the event services components.

Description of work - WP Lead: UPTT5.1 Core mechanisms implementation - (Lead: UPT) - Starts M10. Ends M30. T5.2 User and group generated events - (Lead: UVT) - Starts M10. Ends M24. T5.3 Global events - (Lead: MP1) - Starts M19. Ends M33.

Deliverables - None: The results will be included in the alpha, beta and final release of DSK network.


Work package title Proximity server implementationParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant: 8 12 36 6 6

Objectives - To implement, test and deploy core services of the proximity server.

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Description of work - WP Lead: MP2. Deliverable: D6.1T6.1 Users management - (Lead: UVT) - Starts M10. Ends M21. T6.2 Security services implementation - (Lead: UVT)- Starts M22. Ends M33.T6.3 Resource management - (Lead: MP1) - Starts M10. Ends M21. T6.4 Traffic management - (Lead: MP2) - Starts M22. Ends M33.

Deliverable D6.1 Proximity server administration manual (M33)


Work package title Operating system changesParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant: 6 9 6 9 60

Objectives - To implement, test and integrate Operating System changes.

Description of work - WP Lead: MP3T7.1 Linux changes implementation - Starts M1. Ends M30. Deliverables: D1.1T7.2 Windows changes adaptors - Starts M1. Ends M30. Deliverables: D1.1

Deliverables (?) need something


Work package title System integration and prototypingParticipant number 1 2 3 4 5Short name of participant MP1 UVT MP2 UPT MP3Person-months per participant: 18 18 12 18 6

Objective - To integrate the elements of the network - modified OS, user and management interfaces, services and hardware infrastructure into a functional social and knowledge network.

Description of work - WP Lead: MP1T8.1 Integration and deployment of the alpha release of the network - (Lead: MP1) - Starts M08. Ends M17.T8.2 Integration and deployment of the beta release of the network - (Lead: MP1) - Starts M16. Ends M25.T8.3 Integration and deployment of the final release of the network - (Lead: MP1) - Starts M23. Ends M34.

Deliverables D8.1: Alpha release of the DSK-NET network (M17)D8.2: Beta release of the DSK-NET network (M25)D8.3: Final release of the DSK-NET network (M34)

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3.1.4 List of work packagesTable 3.1b

WP No. Work Package Title

Lead Participant

No

Lead Participant Short Name

Person-Months

Start Month

End Month

01 Project management, dissemination and legal issues

3 MP2 96 1 36

02 Requirements and architectural design 2 UVT 60 1 903 Resource services implementation 1 MP1 132 4 3304 Relationship services implementation 3 MP2 90 1 3305 Event services implementation 4 UPT 90 1 3306 Proximity server implementation 3 MP2 70 7 3307 Operating system changes 5 MP3 90 7 3008 System integration and prototyping 1 MP1 72 13 36

700

3.1.5 List of DeliverablesTable 3.1c

Del. No.

Deliverable name WP No.

LeadPart.

Type Dissemination level

Delivery date

D1.1 Project information and control procedures 1 MP2 R CO M02D1.2 Periodic project reports 1 MP2 DEC PU M12, M24D1.3 Final report 1 MP2 R PU M36D1.4 Data management plan 1 MP1 DEM PU M03D1.5 Dissemination and communication plan 1 MP3 R CO M06D2.1 Requirements specification document 2 UVT R CO M05D2.2 Architecture design document 2 MP2 R CO M09D3.1 Backup and recovery manual 3 MP1 R PU M21D6.1 Proximity server administration manual 6 MP2 R PU M33D8.1 Alpha release of the DSK-NET network 8 MP1 R PU M17D8.2 Beta release of the DSK-NET network 8 MP1 R PU M25D8.3 Final release of the DSK-NET network 8 MP1 R PU M34

3.2 Management and risk assessment

3.2.1 Management structureDSK-NET is an European project which may have a considerable social, technological and business impact. Therefore, special attention will be given to project management. All partners have already participated in EC programmes and have extensive experience with collaborative research projects.The management structure will consist of:

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The General Assembly (GA) is the ultimate project authority and will consist of one representative from each project partner and will supervise project execution, dissemination and the relationship with the EC

The Technical Board Data Management Board The Project Coordinator The Project Manager The Integration Coordinator The Communication Coordinator The Business Manager

Each work package (WP) will have a WP leader (WL) and each task will have a Task leader (TL). WLs and TLs will be nominated by the leading partner of the corresponding Work Package.

3.2.2 Milestones listTable 3.2a2: List of milestones

Milestone number

Milestone name Related WP

Estimated date

Means of verification

Product development milestonesPD1 Platform requirements and

architecture definedWP2 M09 The requirements and architecture

deliverables validated and acceptedPD2 Alpha release of the DSK

networkWP8 M18 Network with basic functionality and raw

implementation of advanced services should be deployed in testing environment

PD3 Beta release of the DSK network

WP8 M25 Network with core functionality and basic implementation of advanced services deployed in the public domain

PD4 Final release of the DSK network

WP8 M33 Network with full functionality deployed in the public domain

Business development milestonesBD1 Business models explored WP8 M12 Possible business models must be studied

and identified for the networkBD2 Business planes created WP8 M24 Detailed business plans must be created for

the networkBD3 Market entry strategy

prepared WP8 M36 Market entry strategy must be prepared and

ready for the transfer of results to business environment.

3.2.3 Risk managementThe risk management process consists of a comprehensive risk assessment and action plan that is periodically reviewed by PC. Risk processes will include: risk planning – occurs as part of the project and negotiation phase and identifies the risks risk identification – discovering risks before they turn to be a problem risk analysis – evaluating the risk attributes, priorities risk response – decision of should be done or not with risk risk monitoring – keeping track of the risks and evaluating the effectiveness

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The risks that were identified at the proposal time are presented in the following Table 3.

Table 3b: Critical risks for implementation

Description of risk WPs involved

Proposed risk-mitigation measures

Wrong initial planning, over scheduling of activities

WP1 Quarterly progress reports will be used to track progress and to evaluate the suitability of the project scheduling; if necessary, effort or time-line schedule changes will be proposed and implemented.

Unfeasible architecture WP2 Unavoidable in a new, high risk project, but this can be corrected. The goal is not the architecture, but a functional platform.

Task completion delays WP2-8 It may very well happen, available resources will be redistributed to minimize the impact and make sure the key milestones are achieved.

Lack of communication and coordination among tasks and partners

WP2-8 Apart from the planned project meetings, many virtual meetings are envisioned to encourage communication among partners; the use of mailing lists and document repository tools allow for issues tracking.

Uneven allocation of resources

WP2-8 Continuous progress control and measurement; central coordination and verification of effort and progress.

Partner withdrawal WP2-8 This can be addressed by task/WP reallocation towards the more flexible partners.

3.3 Consortium as a whole

The Consortium combines The members of the Consortium are:1. Mystery Partner 1 (MP1) - HP Europe?2. Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara (UVT) 3. Mystery Partner 2 (MP2) - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology?4. Universitatea Politehnica din Timisoara (UPT)5. Mystery Partner 3 (MP3) - Technical University of Dresden?

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3.4 Resources to be committed

DSK-NET is a 36 months project with a total estimated effort of 700 PMs. The management activities (WP1) account for 96 PMs (24 PMs for the Project coordinator and 24 PMs for the scientific coordinator), which is 13.7 % of the total effort (PMs). The remaining 87.3% of the total estimated effort is distributed among WPs and partners as show in table below.

Table 3.4a: Summary of staff effort

Work Package No

Part. No

Participant short name

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total person-month per participant

1 MP1 24 12 48 6 6 8 6 18 128

2 UVT 24 24 24 60 9 12 9 18 180

3 MP2 24 12 24 6 6 36 6 12 128

4 UPT 12 6 24 9 60 6 9 18 144

5 MP3 12 6 12 9 9 6 60 6 120

Total Person-Months 96 60 132 90 90 70 90 72 700

The total project budget is 5.400.000 € from which 4.900.000 € is requested as a grant from the EC

Table 4b: Other direct costs

1/MP1 Cost (€) Justification

Travel

Equipment

Total

2/UVT Cost (€) Justification

Travel

Total

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4 MEMBERS OF THE CONSORTIUM

4.1 Participants (applicants)

4.1.1 MP1Description

4.1.2 UVT: Universitatea de Vest din Timisoara, RomaniaDescription West University of Timisoara (UVT) was founded in 1944 as a classic university meant to be representative for the west part of Romania, with more than 15,000 students now. The Department of Computer Science (DoCS) was initiated in 1971. An Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Computing Laboratory is functioning within the Center of Research in Computer Science. The main topics of research are: Distributed and Parallel Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and Computational Mathematics (http://research.info.uvt.ro). The team manages also the largest supercomputing center of Romania (http://hpc.uvt.ro). The research team experience is highlighted by the participation in more than sixty national and international research projects in the last 20 years, projects granted by Romanian/Austrian/French Governments, European Commission (FP5/6/7, CIP, COST, Phare, Tempus), ESA and World Bank.

Main tasks In the frame of DSK-NET project, the team will apply its proven experience in Cloud computing, as well as the recent experience in CIP projects related to open data and e-Government. Leveraging the knowledge and expertise gained during the implementation of the mOSAIC PaaS, UVT team will extend the core data-related services provided by Mydex and Waag partners with additional services and tools required by application cases will support app developers in accessing them (WP5). UVT will lead WP5 and will be the main contributor to T5.1 Selection and integration of existing solutions and technologies and T5.3 Platform deployment and maintenance. It will contribute significantly to WP3 on the platform design especially to ensure scalability and interoperability. UVT will have an important role in publication of the project’s results (WP2).

Relevant expertise that will be used to execute the tasksUVT expertise spans from cloud, grid, and web services to cluster and HPC computing, as well as evolutionary computing, semantics, expert and multi-agent systems. The on-going research projects at DoCS are focused on parallel, distributed, grid and cloud computing, workflow management, software services, and multi-agent systems: FP7-RegPot HOST - leading, FP7-ICT SCAPE on Cloud and digital preservation, FP7-eInfra EGI-Inspire on Grid and (national) AMICAS on Cloud. The team involved in this proposal is also working in the R&D activities of the spin-off research association – Institute e-Austria Timisoara – participating in several EC funded projects, like FP7-ICT MODAClouds, SPECS and mOSAIC, which developed a PaaS designed for code portability on top of IaaS. Starting with 2012 team’s experience has been enhanced by the participation in two CIP-ICT projects: SEED on raising citizens’ awareness about e-Government services through cloud-enabled application and Share-PSI 2.0, a European network for the exchange of experience and ideas around implementing open data policies in the public sector.

Key personsF Dana Petcu, PhD is a professor at Computer Science Department of UVT, CEO of its research spin-off (IeAT), President of Scientific Council of UVT, and scientific manager of the supercomputing center. Her interest in distributed and parallel computing is reflected in more than 50 papers in last 5 years about Cloud, Grid, Cluster or HPC computing. She was involved in the last 10 years in more than 15 projects related to distributed/parallel computing and funded by EC (FP 6/7, CIP, COST, SF, from which 3 by EC-Connect E2 unit), as in more than 25 from other research funding agencies, as coordinator (2/FP7: SPRERS, HOST; 14 from other agencies), scientific coordinator (1/FP7: mOSAIC), collaboration director (1/FP7: MODAClouds) or local team leader, as well as in various EU research policy forums (e.g. e-Infrastructure Policy Forum, FP7/H2020 ICT Committee). She is also

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chief editor of the open-access journal Scalable Computing, SCPE; once internationally awarded as women in science. M Daniel Pop, PhD is a senior researcher at Department of Computer Science. His research interests covers HPC and distributed computing technologies, machine learning and knowledge discovery and representation and open data initiatives. He also has a broad experience in IT industry (+15 years), where he has been working in various positions for large IT&C corporations. He also participated in several FP6/FP7 funded projects, most recent ones being SEED (CIP, on-going), SCAPE (FP7, on-going), Share-PSI (CIP, on-going) and HOST (FP7, on-going).

Publications D. Petcu, G. Macariu, S. Panica, C. Craciun, ‘Portable Cloud Applications - from Theory to Practice’, Future

Generation Computer Systems 29 (6), 2013, 1417-1430, doi: 10.1016/j.future.2012.01.009 D. Petcu, S. Panica, C. Craciun, M. Neagul, C. Sandru, ‘Cloud resource orchestration within an open-source

component-based platform as a service’. Concurrency and Computation. Practice and Experience, 2013, doi:10.1002/cpe.3175

D. Petcu, ‘Consuming Resources and Services from Multiple Clouds’. Journal of Grid Computing, 2014, doi: 10.1007/s10723-013-9290-3

D. Pop, C. Bogdanescu 'Ontology-based recommender for distributed machine learning environment', Proc. of ACSys Workshop, 2013

D. Pop, V. Moumtzi, J. Farinos 'The good, the bad and the beauty of advertisment for public sector services', Proc. of. ECEG, 2014 (to appear)

Projects/activities SEED: Speeding Every European Digital. EC CIP –ICT-PSP, 6.126.004 €, Romanian part 231.445 €. 1 Jan

2012 – 30 June 2014, http://www.seed-project.eu MODAClouds: Model-Driven Approach for design and execution of applications on multiple Clouds. EC DG

Connect E2, FP7-ICT, 8.997.729 €, Romanian part 464.976 €. Collaboration, Communication and Dissemination responsible, Workpackage and Task leader. 1 Oct 2012 – 30 Sept 2015, http://modaclouds.eu

mOSAIC: Open-Source API and Platform for Multiple Clouds. EC DG Connect E2, FP7-ICT, 3.705.784 €, Romanian part 485.000 €. Scientific, Workpackage and Task leader. 1st Sept 2010 – 28th Feb 2013. http://www.mosaic-cloud.eu

SPECS: Secure Provisioning of Cloud Services based on SLA Management, EC DG Connect H4, FP7-ICT, 3.320.286 €, Romanian part 290.400 €. Workpackage and Task leader. 1 Nov 2013 – 28 Apr 2016. http://specs-project.eu

Others relevant projects for this proposal and leaded by the UVT team: FP7-ICT (www.sprers.eu), 0.46 M€/UVT, support action related to software services (EC-Connect E2 unit), and FP7-RegPot HOST (host.hpc.uvt.ro) for HPC services in Cloud, 2.4 M€/UVT.

InfrastructureThe team manages the largest supercomputing center of the Romanian academic community (http://hpc.uvt.ro) composed of one IBM Blue Gene/P super computer, an IBM Cluster (InfraGrid) with 400 cores and an NVidia Tesla M2070-based GPU cluster.


4.1.4 UPTDescription


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5 ETHICS AND SECURITY

5.1 Ethics

The work performed under the DSK-NET project, to develop and test the DSK-NET platform, involves the participation of human participants and the use of personal information. As the core of this research is user-centered, user behavior will be monitored and analyzed and assessed. To ensure that the solutions proposed within DSK-NET are legally and ethically acceptable privacy and data protection research will be undertaken within the duration of the project.The main legal and ethical concerns arising from this project will relate to the processing of personal data. The consortium seeks to keep the processing of these personal data to a minimum of what is necessary to develop the DSK-NET end-product. There will be no physical interventions on the study participants and no invasive techniques will be used. The consortium aims to ensure that the applicable national legal and ethical requirements will be complied with from the very beginning of the project onwards. Where needed, national data protection authorities and ethical advisory boards will be contacted to assist the consortium in taking the most privacy-friendly decisions according to the national laws and ethical standards of the concerned Member State.To ensure compliance with existing legal and ethical provisions, the consortium will follow a dual approach: legal compliance and ethical coordination.

5.1.1 Legal complianceA full understanding of the legal implications of involving the collection and processing of personal data in the project, all consortium partners aim to ensure that the legal provisions on the processing of personal data will be respected during the entire course of the project. As a result, all personal data will be captured and processed according to the applicable and foreseen data protection provisions (Directive 95/46/EC and proposed Regulation; Directive 2002/58/EC, etc.).The application of the legal framework is twofold. On the one hand, the functioning of the envisaged end-product must be legally compliant and privacy enhancing, from within the DSK-NET platform-design. This means that the choices of the consortium will be inspired by privacy and data protection requirements from the early stages in the project. However, the DSK-NET solution will not only visually embrace privacy in its system design. On the other hand, legal compliance is also required for the formal development of the DSK-NET solution. This means that also on the road to the end-product privacy principles will shape the decisions of the consortium. In all stages of the project the privacy of the end-users will be considered to meet the principles of the proposed data protection legal framework. DSK-NET aims to meet the requirements resulting from the proposed Data Protection Regulation, which formally introduces the concept of privacy-by-design in the European Union. Privacy-by-design is already widely used today by data protection policy makers, but when it comes to its implementation in practice as part of engineering process of software and systems, its meaning often remains vague and confusing. By a close collaboration between technical and legal partners, the DSK-NET consortium, will provide a privacy-by-design solution for the DSK-NET platform in the four application scenario’s.Other legal issues addressed, besides the theory and implementation of privacy-by-design, are the meaning of ‘informed consent’, the principles of ‘purpose limitation’ and ‘compatible use’ in the context of big data. While keeping data processing limited to what is strictly necessary to reach the purpose of the processing, and by respecting the principles of data minimization and proportionality, the DSK-NET consortium will seek to develop a platform which will enable users to exercise their data subject rights while using online services without their privacy being reduced. To understand the existing theories of applicable privacy and data protection regulation, the interpretations, recommendations and opinions of privacy-authorities will be considered, including the opinions of the Article 29 Working Party, ENISA, EDPS and the national data protection authorities.

5.1.2 Ethical coordinationThe consortium is fully aware of the cultural and legal diversity of its envisaged end-users and its members. In addition, the consortium is aware of the many ethical pitfalls rising during the course of its research. To overcome

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potential ethical concerns, the consortium aims to adopt a common understanding of the ethical principles underlying the work performed in the project.To this end, the consortium will respect the ethical standards laid down in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in the opinions of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies and in other authoritative sources in this field. As such, the consortium will ensure to uphold scientific standards, to comply with applicable legislation and to avoid social and personal harm.As described here above, the user of personal data will be the main legal and ethical concern of the project. To ensure an adequate ethical methodology, the consortium will ensure that personal data is only processed when necessary for the purpose of the project, and when the benefits expected from the outcome of the research outweigh the potential negative impact on the individuals at stake. This position will throughout the project oversee the adoption and implementation of an ethical code of practice, contact national advisory boards when desirable or necessary and provide advice to maintain a fair and lawful processing of personal data.

5.2 Security

The DSK-NET project will involve some activities and results raising security issues as well as 'EU-classified information' as background and results.The DSK-NET Consortium will use the Model Grant Agreement prepared by the European Commission. The security issues are mainly related to the handling of private individual information. The Consortium has provided a list of deliverables (in Section 3.1 of the proposal) which are classified as »CO« (confidential). Due to these: According to Article 37.1 before disclosing results of activities raising security issues to a third party (including

affiliated entities), a beneficiary must inform the coordinator — which must request written approval from the Commission/Agency;

According to Article 37. activities related to ‘classified deliverables’ must comply with the ‘security requirements’ until they are declassified;

Action tasks related to classified deliverables may not be subcontracted without prior explicit written approval from the Commission;

The beneficiaries must inform the coordinator — which must immediately inform the Commission — of any changes in the security context and — if necessary —request for Annex 1 to be amended (see Article 55).

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