Due to the growing user base of the Collaboratory services, there is now a need to introduce policies around the use of certain resources. In the short term, we will be relying on user cooperation to apply these policies. In time however, we shall be introducing code changes to enforce them.

Public vs Private Collabs

It is important to note the differences between public and private collabs before discussing policy on them.

Public collabs are, by design, viewable by everyone using the Collaboratory. This includes people that do not have an EBRAINS account.

A private collab is only viewable by the people selected by the creator of that collab. It is not accessible by anyone without an EBRAINS account and it is not systematically accessible by everyone with an EBRAINS account.

With the increasing number of public collabs, all users (both with and without EBRAINS accounts) have more difficulty finding the collabs of interest and the additional strain is put on the servers to deliver this content to users without degrading the performance.

Public collabs are not the default type for collabs and should only be used if you have a real use case for them. The intention is that public collabs are to be used to share valuable content because is has an audience, it is findable, accessible, well organized, documented, and up to date.

For other use cases, private collabs should be used.

New policies

Due to the large number of public collabs not meeting the above criteria, we are introducing new policies to encourage the appropriate setting for collabs going forward.

Public collab reviews

Going forward, public collabs may be reviewed. If the reviewers feel that a collab should not be public, the collab creator/admin may be requested to make it private or to motivate the choice of keeping it public.

Public collab quota

EBRAINS may also set a limit on the number of public collabs a user has. Beyond that limit, users may be asked to reduce their number of public collabs or to motivate their use.

File size limits

EBRAINS will also be introducing limits to the file sizes in the Collaboratory.Drive. Files of a maximum size of 1 GB will be allowed on the Drive; files bigger than this will be moved to the Collaboratory.Bucket. We advise users to use the Bucket available in each collab for larger files.

Consequences

EBRAINS may enforce its policies if users do not take corrective actions when requested.

Future implementation of policies

The Collaboratory team will also be making changes to help assist with these new policies.

• During collab creation, private collabs are already selected by default. We will also be adding a popup when users attempt to set a collab to public to verify the intention and remind the user of the policies in place.
• Further down the line, we will be introducing quotas for users, limiting the amount of public collabs they can have as well as their storage space in the Drive.
• We will prevent the upload of files greater than 1 GB to the Drive.

There may be other changes we make to assist with these changes. 

Corrective actions requested

We ask that all users kindly apply the policies spontaneously to ensure the best user experience for the EBRAINS community and the more responsible use of resources.

Public collabs can be made private. From the wiki view of a collab, click on the collab title at the top of the left panel to go to the landing page of the collab. Then click on the “Settings” button at the top right. In the settings page, select the “Private” visibility option and save the change. Your collab is now private.

Before creating a new collab, consider updating an existing collab instead and/or consider removing an older collab if it is no longer relevant. An example to illustrate this issue. User A creates workflow and documents it in a collab. User B is asked to organize 2 workshops to demonstrate the workflow, and so User B creates a collab called “Workshop - Date 1” and at a later date they create another collab called “Workshop - Date 2” for the respective workshops. Other users would typically prefer that users A and B talk to each other and collaborate in producing a single collab instead of three, with separate page hierarchies for the workflow and its 2 workshops. User B can also ask that all attendees of the workshops create private collabs for their hands on exercises, and any result of public interest could be updated in users A and B's collab.

Transferring data from the Drive to the Bucket can be done from a Lab notebook to optimize network bandwidth for large files.