<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">There was a great presentation on shutting down software infrastructure services at the Research Software engineers Conference in the UK: <br></div><div dir="ltr"><a href="https://rse.ac.uk/conf2018/programme/">https://rse.ac.uk/conf2018/programme/</a></div><div dir="ltr"><br>"Be Prepared to Be Unpopular: Tips on Shutting Services Down"<br>Catherine Jones: <a href="https://www.scd.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Catherine-Jones.aspx">https://www.scd.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Catherine-Jones.aspx</a><div><br></div><div>Unfortunately slides not online, but she had some good ones, perhaps drop her a note?</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>James Howison<br></div></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Jan 17, 2019 at 1:24 PM jan <<a href="mailto:dittrich.c.jan@gmail.com">dittrich.c.jan@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Hi Calmille,<br>
<br>
(It seems you work in tech, but since there will be people reading along <br>
who are not doing tech related stuff, I add some footnotes)<br>
<br>
As a software-example:<br>
<br>
The web browser Firefox sunsetted the "old" way of customization for <br>
adding custom functions [1] and replaced it with a system called <br>
WebExtensions. This was done for security reasons, since the old system <br>
was hard to harden against attacks [2] and hard to maintain and relied <br>
on a bricolage-y mode of adding the functions [3].<br>
<br>
This was interesting for several reasons:<br>
<br>
- The existing extension system was rather large, thus stopping it meant <br>
loosing attractiveness for some users; I assume their absolute numbers <br>
are not large, but they tend to be vocal, tech savvy and multipliers who <br>
convince their friends etc.<br>
- It is very hard this in open source projects, since people feel <br>
strongly about "their" software AND because disabling the <br>
"do-as-you-like-mode" of extensions can be framed as "constraining user <br>
freedom", an open source culture anti-value.<br>
- They had a long build up to this, I think going back as far as 2009 <br>
with several ideas and prototypes to replace their extension system. At <br>
some point they settled with their current system [4] and scaffolded a <br>
transition period. Probably one can write a PhD with the 10 year material.<br>
- They actually did it :)<br>
<br>
<br>
Jan<br>
<br>
<br>
[1] Enabling 3rd parties like users to plug in new functionality into <br>
Firefox.<br>
[2] Attacks like going to a webpage and the computer being infected by a <br>
virus ("drive-by") or people reading your previously visited webpages etc.<br>
[3] I am no expert on this, but I think it used be based on changing <br>
existing functionality so any change to existing functions breaks the <br>
extensions, potentially.<br>
[4] Which is very similar to Chrome’s, googles web browser which <br>
currently is the major way of web access, much like Microsoft’s Internet <br>
Explorer was in the late 90s and early 2000s.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 16.01.19 21:32, Camille E. Acey wrote:<br>
> Dear Maintainers,<br>
> <br>
> I'm trying to pull together some guidance on sunsetting/archiving <br>
> projects and thought this group would likely be a fount of information. <br>
> I look forward to checking out your suggestions!<br>
> <br>
> Thanks in advance,<br>
> Camille<br>
> Collective for Liberation, Ecology, and Technology - <a href="https://colet.space" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://colet.space</a><br>
> -- <br>
> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.<br>
> <br>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">James Howison<div><br><div>Associate Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies</div><div>School of Information</div><div>University of Texas at Austin</div><div><a href="http://james.howison.name" target="_blank">http://james.howison.name</a></div></div></div></div>