1.1 User Requirements Model

This deliverable describes the basic set of user requirements for the CPN project. Explaining the process step by step, the document contains all measures undertaken by the consortium to evaluate, assess and define the requirements for a personalised news offer from an enduser perspective as well as from the producers’ side. The document explains in a concise way how the user vision was formulated through a workshop with all user partners. It details the process on how the personas from all three media partners were used to create a set for the project. It elaborates on the user involvement in workshops and interviews with media producers as well as on a large user survey with possible target audiences. Finally, it describes how all this input was brought together to create a complete set of basic specifications for the CPN project. The deliverable concludes with an outlook on how these requirements will now be put to use to create the CPN application.

1.2 User Scenario Definition

The purpose of this deliverable is twofold. By taking a look back, it aims to explain the development process over the last few months, documenting the steps that were undertaken by the user partners in collaboration with the technical partners to advance the development of a CPN service, by detailing user requirements, writing user stories and developing first drafts of a potential user interface. All steps will be described, connected and results shown, including a refined version of the User Scenarios, but also a set of more specific use cases for those scenarios.

Looking into the future, the deliverable also aims at taking all the work and the experience from these first steps into account to draft a first version of a product roadmap - the pilot plan - to cover and detail the elements of all three pilots, from the requirements and ideas to the evaluation. This plan is there to help all consortium members keeping a clear overview of where the focus lies in a particular phase of the project. This pilot plan is set up as a living document and will be further detailed and refined throughout the project lifetime.

1.3 Innovative CPN Components

This deliverable describes the innovative components that can add value to CPN’s technical framework. It explains why, in order to help publishers personalise their content, it is important to go beyond the state of the art and to introduce novel techniques and approaches. It explains how our research, workshops, surveys and meetings with industry experts directed our attention to the following components:

• Newsbots and smart speakers

• External and highly contextualized datasets

• Multi-layered personalisation

The document describes these components in detail and concludes with an outlook on how they could be used in the CPN project.

1.4 Technical requirements (platform and service requirements)

This deliverable aims to gather the output from other WP1 deliverables in terms of vision, user requirements, scenarios and use cases and integrate them with technical requirements in order to have a complete technical work plan able to plan all necessary activities to meet all the objectives pursued by CPN project. 

1.5: Content Licensing and Distribution framework

The role of this deliverable is twofold. It will first introduce the Personal Data Receipts, an end-user tool integrated into the CPN platform with the aim to increase GDPR compliance. Role of this tool is to improve the transparency on what personal data from readers the platform collects, how it uses them and what options are available to readers to manage them. In order to construct a Personal Data Receipt for the CPN platform, the work presented in this deliverable will initially review the user data flow within the CPN platform, with particular emphasis on the data collected and used by the Recommendation system.

The second part of the deliverable will focus on how more collaboration across media publishers and between media publishers and content creators can be generated and new forms of revenue streams produced. The deliverable introduces the proposal of the Distribution Framework, a blockchain-based infrastructure useful to notarize agreements for content distribution and revenue sharing between content creators and a network of publishers, without requiring trust in any central authority. In order to do that we will first define a minimum viable licensing system, defining the terms of use for media contents. This deliverable will review existing licensing models (including Creative Commons) and identify the most suitable ones or their required adaptation in order to fulfil the CPN content distribution requirements.

2.1 CPN Reference Architecture

The main goal of CPN project is to create innovation in the way content creators can structure content production, distribution and in-depth interaction with audiences. 

To do this CPN will realize an innovative Open Virtual Platform. 

The microservice architecture offers a series of benefits well suited for the CPN platform requirements. A process of selection of the most proper model involved a comparison between Service Oriented Architecture and the microservices models. The analysis brought to the choice to implement a reference architecture referring to microservices model for many reasons including the possibility to have an easy and robust development and integration process for the components realized by different partners. Moreover the specific implementation was aimed at obtain the independence between applications, infrastructure, deployment and operation environments; this constitutes an easy environment for the development of solutions exploiting CPN. 

This Reference Architecture document contains the guidelines and the template of the architecture to be used in CPN to develop this Open Virtual Platform. 

Starting from the goals and requirements of the CPN project, the document describes the design and implementation choices to obtain a flexible and extensible architecture and the guidelines for implementation, deployment and communication among components. 

Furthermore interoperability rules have been defined for the integration of external components and the creation of new features.

2.2 CPN Open Virtual Platform v1

The CPN project foresees three major releases of the CPN Open Virtual platform that include functionalities aligned with the requirements gathered for the three CPN pilots. Each platform release includes specific functionalities, chosen after a process of evaluation and prioritization of the user requirements. 

Starting from the reference architecture document, delivered as D2.1, the first version of the open virtual platform was implemented and is reported in this document. This version of the platform consists of a series of modules named Technology Bricks and provided by CPN partners in order to satisfy the user requirements expected for the first pilot iteration. 

This document is the CPN Open Virtual Platform accompanying document, all the process of installation, configuration and commissioning of the platform and related technology bricks are described, over the approach and methodology followed to implement the features necessary to satisfy the user requirements.

2.3: CPN Open Virtual Platform v2

The CPN project foresees three major releases of the CPN Open Virtual platform that include functionalities aligned with the requirements gathered for the three CPN pilots. Each platform release includes specific functionalities, chosen after a process of evaluation and prioritization of the user requirements.

The second version of the CPN open virtual platform, delivered as evolution of the first version, will be described on this document. It is the CPN Open Virtual Platform v2 accompanying report which describes all the updates, and improvements of the platform respect on the previous version, described on D2.2 CPN Open Virtual Platform v1.

In particular, the first chapter introduces the scope of the deliverable and the process of implementation and delivery of the CPN platform.

The second chapter describes all the updates and improvements of the platform respect on the previous version, focussing on the platform core components and the list of integrated technology bricks.

The third chapter will focus on the requirements satisfied, as defined in “D3.3 CPN Technology Bricks v2”2, and the list of functionalities implemented. It will describe the results accomplished in terms of requirements satisfied and functionalities provided for the execution of the second pilot.

The fourth chapter describes the sidetracks activities conducted by the technical partners with two of the media partners to demonstrate and validate the efficiency, efficacy and interoperability of the platform. In particular, the recommender system provided by the CPN platform was integrated into two client applications: a mobile app and a smart-TV app.

2.4: CPN Open Virtual Platform v3

The CPN project foresees three major releases of the CPN Open Virtual platform that include functionalities aligned with the requirements gathered for the three CPN pilots. Each platform release includes specific functionalities, selected and implemented after a process of evaluation and prioritization of the user requirements.

The third version of the CPN open virtual platform, delivered as final version, will be described in this document: the CPN Open Virtual Platform v3 accompanying report describes all the updates and improvements of the platform on the previous versions, following the specifications selected during the requirements analysis phase together with the feedback collected during pilot executions.

In particular, the first chapter introduces the scope of the deliverable and the process of implementation and delivery of the CPN platform.

The second chapter describes all the updates and improvements of the platform on the previous version, focussing on the platform core components and the list of integrated technology bricks.

The third chapter will focus on the requirements satisfied, as defined in “D3.4 CPN Technology Bricks v3”, and the list of functionalities implemented. It will describe the results accomplished in terms of requirements coverage and functionalities provided for the execution of the third pilot. In addition, this chapter will report the new functionalities introduced taking into account the feedback collected during pilots executions, project reviews and a final check on the platform functional and non-functional requirements

The fourth chapter describes the integration activities conducted by the technical partners with the external media companies and SMEs. There are mainly two kinds of different integration activities: the first one is focussed on exploiting the CPN platform services outside the consortium and on demonstrating the interoperability and innovativeness of the platform, while the second one allows to include new innovative features to the CPN platforms and demonstrates its flexibility and extensibility.

3.1 Initial Design and APIs of Technology Bricks

This deliverable provides the first view of technology bricks connecting the CPN available technology to the user requirements on the one side and the planned platform prototypes on the other. This provides the first step for the planning of the CPN platform prototypes with the first one expected in the next three months. 

The prioritization of the features to implement for the first prototype have been carried out in such a way as to respect the expected timing, but at the same time release meaningful functionalities, that will be improved and extended in the next prototypes. 

The next step is the initiation of an Agile prototyping process which is expected to provide rapid results through two-week Sprint intervals. 

3.2 Technology Bricks V1

This deliverable reports on the work performed in WP3 which addresses the development of the required technology bricks for the CPN Platform. Taking into account the user requirements, as described in deliverable D1.1 “User Requirements Model”, this report presents the components and services implemented for the first prototype of the platform. 

The components & services which are being presented in this deliverable are classified in three main categories (Content, Users, Mapping), based on their functionality as defined by the project’s requirements. For each technology brick, a brief description of its functionality is provided, along with API, test scenarios and installation guidelines. 

The first prototype of the CPN platform includes the following 6 technology bricks, as described in this deliverable: 

3.3 Technology Bricks V2

This deliverable reports on the work performed in WP3, which addresses the development of the required technology bricks for the CPN Platform. Taking into account the user requirements, as described in deliverable D1.1 “User Requirements Model”, this report presents the components and services implemented for the second prototype of the platform.

The components & services which are being presented in this deliverable are classified in three main categories (Content, Users, Mapping), based on their functionality as defined by the project’s requirements. For each technology brick, a brief description of its functionality is provided, along with API, test scenarios and installation guidelines.

The second prototype of the CPN platform includes the following 5 technology bricks, as described in this deliverable.

It has to be noted that the Sentiment Analysis module has been replaced by the «Recommender AB- Testing» module, provided by LIVETECH. Taking into account the users’ requirements and the difficulty to extract data from social networks (due to GDPR), the Consortium decided to put more effort on the development of the Recommender AB-Testing.

3.4 Technology Bricks V3

This deliverable contains the basic description of the technological infrastructure of the third prototype of the CPN platform, which is composed of what we call 'technology bricks'. The components, APIs, and services included in the third version of the platform customization infrastructure and components, and described in this deliverable have been designed and developed according to the user requirements, as described in deliverable D1.1 “User Requirements Model”.

The CPN project foresees three releases of the 'technology bricks' in order to be available for the related pilots. Each release includes specific functionalities, chosen after a process of evaluation and prioritization of the user requirements. Based on the reference architecture document (D2.1) and the second version of the technology bricks deliverable (D3.3), the third version of the technology bricks is the third and the final cycle of three iterations and will offer a series of features in order to test the related bricks in a pilot (third Pilot) environment.

The main goal of this document is to present the technology bricks that are foreseen at this point of the project necessary to satisfy the user requirements expected for the third pilot iteration. For each technology brick, a brief description of its functionality is provided, along with any existing APIs, test scenarios and installation guidelines. In addition to the new technology bricks implemented, this deliverable also describes the updates of the already deployed technology bricks, highlighting new features implemented and how these bricks satisfy the user and technical requirements.

4.1 Initially available datasets and usage guidelines

This deliverable is produced in the context of Task 4.1, which aims to organize a meaningful and productive pilot. It collects, integrates and manages the different data sources.

D4.1 will allow us to use machine learning algorithms and tools while implementing the planned personalisation pilots. These pilots serve as self-contained proof-of-concept field trials. Promising pilots may then be presented to the publishing partners as a basis for efforts related to the ongoing push for personalised content and experiences prevalent in the publishing industry today.

The following data will be made available by the appropriate partners (DW, VRT and DIAS) at the very beginning of the project:

• Data structures of articles and coverage of article metadata

• Summary process diagrams on data collection and relevant management processes

• Content consumer profiles and their relevant contextual data

However, to guarantee a smooth project process, data will have to be collected by each broadcasting or publishing partner. We foresee a large data collection exercise for the following data: content (e.g. news articles), user context (e.g. location, device, time of day) and user behaviour.

The broadcasting and publishing partners in the consortium have varying levels of data collection capabilities. Partners will be improving their data collecting and management competences during the lifetime of the project. Thus, we hope to realize a seamless transfer of data from the live production environments of broadcasters and publishers to the CPN platform.

4.2 Cycle 1 piloting report

This deliverable provides an overview of the different steps taken towards and during pilot 1. Pilot 1 focused on the web-recommender system and consisted of 4 specific user research actions: 1) a zero measurement survey, 2) the testing of the recommender system, 3) a post measurement survey and 4) focus groups and interviews to gather in-depth end-user feedback on the recommender. All research actions were executed in the three pilot countries: Belgium, Germany and Cyprus. The results for the three pilot countries are described in this deliverable.

4.3: Cycle 2 Piloting Report

This deliverable provides an overview of the different steps that have been undertaken to improve, test and validate the CPN concept, platform and mobile application after the completion of Pilot 1. The activities include Pilot 2, which was conducted by all three media partners, as well as supplementing evaluation, prototyping and research activities. This deliverable is the successor of D4.2.

4.4: Cycle 3 Piloting Report

This deliverable provides an overview of the different steps that have been undertaken to improve, test and validate the CPN concept, platform and mobile application after the completion of Pilot 2. The activities include Pilot 3, which was conducted by all three media partners, as well as supplementing a professional evaluation of the producer’s dashboard.

5.1 Communication and Dissemination Plan

The Communication and Dissemination Plan contains the specific strategies and tools that will be used within CPN for all communication and dissemination activities. It describes the communication and dissemination practices and agreements within the CPN consortium, including format and planning. Furthermore, this plan includes the methods and key performance indicators to evaluate the communication and dissemination actions.

5.2: First dissemination and exploitation strategy

This deliverable provides an overview of the communication and dissemination actions that took place in the first year of the CPN project. The first part comprises a communication and dissemination overview, an update on the foreseen communication KPI’s and a discussion of the activities that have been undertaken to achieve these. The second part includes the market analysis, describing the market for news personalisation products and providing a set of recommendations as input for the use cases, pilots and the exploitation and innovation transfer activities in T.5.2. We explain the market from a macro level perspective by performing an initial market analysis of the current and expected future market for personalised news products, focusing on market actors that include a high-level market analysis. The third and final part of the deliverable presents the initial exploitation pathways and exploitation strategy for CPN.

5.3: Second report on dissemination and exploitation

This deliverable is a follow-up deliverable for D5.1 and D5.2. D5.1 described a detailed communication and evaluation plan for the CPN project. D5.2 provided an overview of the communication and dissemination actions that took place in the first year of the CPN project. This deliverable describes the communication and dissemination actions that took place in the second year of the CPN project, and contains an initial plan for sustainable exploitation of CPN results.

D5.3 will consist of two documents: one document compromises the communication and dissemination overview (public accessibility), and the other document the exploitation strategy (confidential).

5.4: Final report on dissemination

This deliverable is the final report on dissemination and communication activities from the CPN project following-up on deliverables D5.1, D5.2. and D5.3. It describes the communication and dissemination actions that took place in the final stage of the CPN project from October 2019 to April 2020, together with the communication linked to the pilot 3 activities.

The communication and dissemination activities within CPN had multiple aims: providing information about CPN goals and progress towards a broader community, the presentation of CPN activities during different events to different target audiences (e.g. industry, academics), and the engagement of relevant stakeholders (e.g. media companies, SME’s). This final deliverable provides an overview of these final communication and dissemination efforts and highlights their outcome.

The exploitation activities and results of the business clinics are reported in D5.5 (confidential).

6.2 Data Management Plan

The Data Management Plan explains how the different datasets of the CPN project are stored and shared with third parties.

The datasets are assembled and constructed in order to fulfill the project goals. The main datasets are the Article dataset, the User dataset, the User Behaviour dataset and the User Profile dataset. Possibly, datasets for NLP and social media will be added.

After pseudonymisation and aggregation of localisation data, the datasets will be made publicly available through an open repository. The thus shared datasets will comply to the GDPR and to the FAIR principles. Complying to these, makes the datasets both safe and ethically correct.

Efforts are underway to implement data management principles throughout all partners.

The DMP is a living document, which means that updated versions will be created as part of the progress being made in the project. This version reflects the status based on the information currently available in the project.