One key decision we made up front is that we would complement, not compete with, the UVM information available on the Accellera site. Specifically, we decided not to provide downloads of documents or libraries available from Accellera, but rather to link to their download area. At least one of our competitors provided its own downloads for Accellera content; this is permissible under the Apache open-source licensing. However, we felt that action effectively devalued the Accellera site, so we linked rather than copied. This lack of overlap made it easier for Accellera first to endorse UVM World and then to assume responsibility for its ongoing operation.
Another important decision we made was not to require registration to access any of the content on the site. Since Accellera's site did not require registration for their UVM content, it seemed appropriate for us to follow their lead. In addition, we had observed with some other community sites that users were wary about their profile data potentially being used for other purposes such as email marketing. Therefore, UVM World requires registration only for posting material, where it is necessary to prevent abuse.
We recreated on UVM World two features that had proven very useful and popular on the now-defunct OVM World site: the user forum and the community contributions area. The UVM forum has been a great way for novices to ask questions of the experts and for experts to display their knowledge and offer suggestions for the evolution of the methodology. The contributions area takes this idea one step further by allowing experts to post documents, code, or utilities of possible interest to the overall UVM community. Several of the enhancements made to the UVM over the last year have been based in part on posted contributions.
I've already mentioned in my previous post some of the other site features in which we made a significant investment, including the extensive list of links to UVM content on other sites. We knew that many key players in the UVM ecosystem had established sites where they wished to display their expertise, so we decided that it really didn't matter whether the content or just a link existed on UVM World. Either way, we wanted any user looking for UVM-related information to find our site a one-stop shop. I strongly believe that we accomplished this goal.
Above all else, we wanted UVM World to be a true, open community site and to be regarded as such by the users. We disclosed on the site that it was funded by Cadence, but we did not brand it as a Cadence property in any way. Several other companies aligned with us in launching and endorsing the site, with more joining in over time. Eventually, every one of our major competitors added its logo to the ecosystem page in recognition of UVM World's value to Accellera and to the user community. You can't get much more open than that!
I have quite a bit of background working within standards organizations, including the IEEE, Accellera, the PCI Special Interest Group, the 1394 Trade Association, and the now-defunct Virtual Socket Interface Alliance (VSIA). But I can honestly say that the experience of helping to create the OVM as a de facto standard and evolve it into the official Accellera UVM release has been my most enjoyable experience in the world of standards. The UVM World site has had a lot to do with this successful effort. With the donation to Accellera, I look forward to even more folks contributing to the site to ensure that it remains the industry's UVM flagship.
Tom A.
The truth is out there...sometimes it's in a blog.