[LTER-imc-ddms] Types of Projects & Products

[John H. Porter]

Inigo,
   My purpose was to put down on the printed page some of the ideas that
had come up during discussions of how the DDMS might generate the needed
results.  Your earlier email regarding centralization made me think that
it would be useful to explain that just because the Project Manager or
other staff were there, we did not anticipate or desire that they should
do all the work themselves.   The document doesn't try to say how often
any given mechanism should be used.... just that it is there.....  This
is a companion to the other working group document which focuses on the
Project Manager....

    You are right that ways of moving money around are complex and pose
a challenge. In the draft document, when I was thinking of "salary" I
was meaning salary from their home institution - provided under a
subcontract (yes, the double overhead problem), whereas honoraria were
on top of salary (for those IM's whose institutions allow them to
undertake outside consulting). However, the details of this go beyond
the purpose of the document, which was to sketch out some possible ways
of making the "distributed" in DDMS have real meaning.  I'd expect that
negotiation of the terms (e.g., some universities give "breaks" on
subcontract overhead if they are negotiated when the proposal goes in)
and that dealing with the fiscal options will be a big part of the
Project Manager's job.   But the goal wasn't to really flesh those out
here....

Hope that helps!

 -JP

On 7/5/2015 12:00 PM, Inigo San Gil wrote:
> John,
>
> Thanks for sharing.
>
> Question - what purpose serves this classification of mechanisms for
> IM-related products ?
> I.e, would it help with compensation mechanism?  provide a framework
> for future projects? or the prioritization?
>
> I ask because I do not quite find context for this document that would
> explain beyond how is presented in this email  (I quote:
>
> NIS modules might be produced under a distributed system)
>
> Without knowing what is this framework for, it is harder to provide
> some basic feedback.
>
> I also notice that there are products that may cross over these
> disconnected categories.  I am unable to see a connecting thread for
> these 'product mechanisms' categories, that would account for the lack
> of orthogonality (fit products in several categories)
>
> But since you mention compensation, this touches an important blocker
> for cooperation in a distributed network.
>
> One of the 'historical' barriers for contribution has been the
> compensation. We have heard that 'IMs primary responsability (and
> time) is the LTER site'.  This fact was brought as a barrier for
> collaboration. It seems that IMs could not sell to their PIs that the
> network product benefit to the site was not a good argument to release
> their time.  Perhaps this could be changed if addressed properly in
> this model.
>
> But compensation adds an extra obstacle which would be actually quite
> helpful to clarify and solve.
>
> *  funds are moved from one institution to the other, the double
> overheads kill the budget.  this should be avoided as much as we can,
> will erode the reduced ability to be productive, specially with the
> budgetary prospects.
>
> *  funds awarded to the collaborating IM mechanisms:
>  - When we say "salary", how do you award the salary without creating
> a conflict with the primary paying institution?  as an extra
> compensation?
>  - Honoraries may make it easier to "compensate", although I am not
> sure about the overheads.
>  - Per diems - this seems to me a great way to compensate an IM.
> Instead of a meager per diem, produce a generous per-diem, which may
> not be subject to double overhead, may solve the 'salary' concept and
> may be easy to handle from the personal taxation point of view (this
> is a phenomenal barrier too).
>  - A competition prize (overheard this a while ago as a mechanism).
>
>
> cheers, inigo
>
> On 7/5/15 9:12 AM, John H. Porter wrote:
>> Gastil and Kristin,
>>        I've put a brief draft document describing the mechanisms by
>> which
>> NIS modules might be produced under a distributed system. Please take a
>> look and set me straight where I went wrong.... or add in all the
>> important things I forgot.
>>
>>        Given the short time frame, I've CC'd the whole DDMS group
>> just in
>> case they want to pitch in as well.
>>
>>        It is in our shared Google Docs folder under Project Management
>> and Task as "Types of Projects & Products" or via the link:
>> https://drive.google.com/open?id=1o3aqtxxHVcqJeQqRIZ6TWJ6OqLf3piHPNAmhoVU_SA8
>>
>>
>>        I will also go through the task spreadsheet in the "services
>> bucket" and note any disagreements with Gastil's categorization.....
>>
>>   -JP
>>
>
>

-- 
John Porter
Dept. of Environmental Sciences
University of Virginia
291 McCormick Road
PO Box 400123
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4123