(Just in case you haven't already seen it on another list)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2012
Contact: Jonathan Markow <jjmarkow_at_duraspace.org>
Read it online: http://bit.ly/WNtbl2
Fedora—A Repository for the Future
New Fedora Initiative Underway
A group of stakeholders from the Fedora community have come together to
begin the process of planning a three year software development project
that will direct new resources toward a major Fedora overhaul, adding
capabilities that will make Fedora the repository platform of choice for
the future. The group anticipates that improvements will include
features such as greater scalability, data management support, storage
flexibility, and others the community has been requesting. This new
initiative is being called Fedora Futures.
The Coalition of Networked Information 2012 Fall Meeting held in
Washington D.C. Dec. 10-11 was the setting for a session that introduced
the Fedora Futures community initiative. Members of Fedora Futures
announced the project and led a discussion on the future of the Fedora
Repository that included a review of the current state of Fedora, the
proponents and objectives of the Futures initiative, and a review on the
use cases, stakeholders, high level requirements and processes which are
guiding the project. The group is now seeking broader community input
and will be reaching out to current DuraSpace sponsors and others in the
near future. The discussion was standing room only, with 75 interested
attendees packed into the venue. The presentation is available on the
Fedora Futures wiki:
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Fedora+Futures+Home.%e2%80%9a%c3%84%c2%ae%e2%80%9a%c3%84%c2®
The discussion at CNI revolved around one central question, posed by
Mark Leggott, University Librarian at Prince Edward Island and chair of
the Fedora Futures Steering Group: “Given the success and value of
Fedora as an open source, digital repository over the last 12 years, how
can the community marshal an effort to enhance the platform in order to
meet the known and emerging needs and opportunities in the repository
arena?”
“Fedora has a worldwide community of adopters, and has proven itself as
flexible, extensible and durable architecture,” said Tom Cramer, Chief
Technology Strategist at Stanford University. He added, “for the Futures
project, our objectives are to preserve these strengths, while
increasing its performance, scalability and modularity, and reducing its
complexity at the same time.” Another primary objective is to expand the
pool of developers actively committing to the project.
Matthias Razum, head of EScience from FIZ Karlsruhe, presented the use
cases and stakeholder profiles that are guiding the new wave of
development. These include managing research and heterogeneous data more
efficiently; improving administrability of the repository, and
interacting with the linked data and the semantic web. Per Razum, “Our
targeted actors are not just administrators and developers, but also
curators and researchers; the repository of the future has to serve
needs across the whole information lifecycle.”
Eddie Shin of MediaShelf LLC and a longtime Fedora committer, was
introduced as the project’s interim Product Manager. Shin reviewed the
technical and development approach that the project group is
undertaking. “We plan to provide next generation repository while
ensuring a smooth upgrade path for existing institutions. We’ll do this
through a lean development methodology, with rapid development and
continuous release of functionality produced in short iterations.”
The Fedora Futures initiative is being seeded by a coalition of
institutions that are all keenly interested in seeing Fedora adapt to
meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs for a robust repository platform.
Working hand-in-glove with DuraSpace, the founding members of the
initiative are Columbia University, FIZ Karlsruhe, MediaShelf LLC,
Oxford University, the Smithsonian Institute, Stanford University,
University of Prince Edward Island, and the University of Virginia. Each
of these institutions has committed to contributing significant
financial and/or personnel to the redevelopment effort.
Jonathan Markow, Chief Strategy Officer at DuraSpace, extended an
invitation to the entire Fedora community to participate in the effort.
“The Futures group has catalyzed renewed development for Fedora, but for
the effort to achieve its full potential for all stakeholders, we need
to enlist not only Fedora’s current committers, but also all adopters,
sponsors and service providers.” A prospectus is available to those who
would like to get involved as contributors to this effort by contacting
Jonathan Markow <jjmarkow_at_duraspace.org>. University of Virginia,
Discovery Garden and University of Prince Edward Island, Stanford
University, Columbia University, Oxford University’s Bodleian Library,
FIZ Karlsruhe, and MediaShelf have already pledged substantial resources
to the project.
Questions about the technical direction of the project or offers of
development support can be made to Edwin Shin
<Edwin.Shin_at_yourmediashelf.com>
MORE INFORMATION
• A Fedora Futures prospectus is available here:
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Fedora+Futures+Prospectus
• The Fedora Futures wiki:
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Fedora+Futures+Home
• Slides from the Fedora Futures session at the 2012 CNI Fall Member
Meeting: http://www.slideshare.net/Tom-Cramer/fedora-futures-cni-2012
• "Fedora Futures Kicks Off at CNI" blog post:
http://duraspace.org/fedora-futures-kicks-cni
Received on Wed Jan 09 2013 - 11:23:47 EST