2017-11-01 DSpace Steering Group Meeting

Overview of CRIS system from 4Science and any Q&A on the subject (Susanna)

Susanna gave an overview of DSpace-CRISS. Slides are here.

Susanna is the Head of Operations at 4Science since 2016. In 2009 developed an extended version of DSpace working with David Palmer to develop DSpace-CRIS. It has a flexible data models that links all research entities at a university. Links departments, projects, data sets publications, university, patents, grants etc. for the researcher. There are commercial platforms that do CRIS/RIMS (PURE and Converis by Clarivate (previously of Thomson Reuters, Elements by Symplectic).  Current version is 5.8 and 6.2 Next version will be on Angular with DSpace 7.  It is able to aggregate the publications by the researcher and its bibliometrics. Interoperable, open standards and works with research data (dataverse and CKAN).

Worth noting that DuraSpace has signed an MOU with euroCRIS, through efforts Michele is leading. Building awareness in US about CRIS would be useful and sharing the information with partners in Europe and solutions from DuraSpace like DSpace and VIVO. With Bepress’ acquisition by Elsevier, this would also help contribute to the open community and provide a stronger collaboration without duplicating developer time. This will give DuraSpace an opportunity to move into the research domain.  

Currently CRIS only works with DSpace JSPUI.

Continue this discussion at the next meeting -- where and how we want to proceed with CRIS esp. As the SC didnt want to expand the scope of DSpace 7 developments. The CRIS WG is  looking at a technical level on how development on CRIS can align with DSpace 7 and will make proposals to the SC.At a strategic level we need to be sure that we’re OK with looking at this model whether a plugin mode of making dspace more CRIS-like or an external thing whether this remains as an external entity that 4science maintains like right now.

It would also be helpful to see who else has CRIS like systems and why is it important and how is it useful. Like in the UK there are universities using CRIS like systems PURE etc.

Extending the scope of the repository also means having a better chance of what is your ecosystem and expose your data to the larger world.

Technical group explore the technical model and make its proposal to us

Action Item: SC explore what other places have a CRIS like system and where would be like to go and once we have proposals from the technical group we can merge those together. Have a general conversation about strategies, but what makes sense at a strategic level for us with DSpace 7 and CRIS -- get a general strategy without the technical proposal.

Agenda
#2

Update on membership drive (Valorie)

As of Nov 1, $234K of the targeted $250K (only had $10K worth of goal for DSpace). All renewals have been contacted. Oct 31, active campaign ends. Still left with $15K. A number of new members came in at Bronze and one in Silver. 57 members in total contributing to DSpace. Michele is working on European memberships, so that might a future prospect. No lost members, a couple downgrades though.

Could we ask Consortiums to increase their membership levels as they have several libraries that partake in the consortium.

Agenda
#3

Prospect Sheet review and plan to move forward in contacting prospects (Everyone)

Can/Should SC committee members make personalized asks to certain universities? Add to notes who from the SC is reaching out to to the universities. DuraSpace can send us the value proposition text, but at this point in the drive it’s about the personalized contact and engaging with them and getting them to invest in the software. It’s all about the personal connection at this point. If SC gets feedback on why someone couldn't participate this year or something else, please share with Deb and Valorie. The $250K goal is with the assumption of having Tim split, not having him 100%.

Action Items -- DuraSpace/Valorie sends some text from Stuart Lewis with a simplified value proposition. And add it to this sheet so we’ll have email language.

Agenda
#4

Closing updates and Q/A (everyone)

Dec meeting --

1. Bring up membership drive to see if members from leadership committee can make a personal plea?

2. Bring up CRIS work. Update them and discuss it.

3. Focus thru the end of the year -- decision on CRIS implementation. And Deb will present final numbers to the board in Jan.

Tim: DSpace 7 -- not as far along as we’d like it to be, Search and submission interface are in-progress. Working on rest API design and building out the UI. We don’t have a fill application yet. Unsure of how fast we can move with the current active contributors., And need more developers on the Angular side of things.

Bring it up to LC meeting -- bring in more institutions. Currently only 4science and @mire are the only contributors and need more people involved to move this more rapidly. A lot of inactive committers, things have slowed down considerably. We’re in a lull in terms of resources. Maybe start a committer of the month award as an incentive. Making a certificate for committer of the month if that could incentivize folks. DSpace 7 anyone can commit code -- ask for access and they’ll give access to give code. DSpace 6 and REST API is where we’re hurting for committers. Still quite tied to our two big RSPs.

Action Item -- How do we incentivize from committers? Start an email thread.

Maybe another webinar on what DSpace 7 is and give a general overview. That might activate more committers.  Maybe a monthly update through videos as more stuff gets built and there is more to show.

Might be useful to share the staff allocation on DSpace project -- that might be the main value add. It would be useful to know this $250K makes it possible to have Deb for X% of time, and Tim for Y% of time and common good costs -- infrastructure, community etc. Use this data for value membership proposition.

Action Item: Letting people know where their dollars go.

Debra can provide this information. Show a short version of that for SC and LC meeting in Dec.