May 12-14, 2022, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Citation
VIVO Leadership Group. 2021. A VIVO Community Update: Reflections on the Last Year and Where We Are Headed. CRIS2022. Dubrovnik, Croatia. May 12-14, 2022.
Abstract
2021 and the pandemic was a challenge for the VIVO community as much as anyone else. Pandemic-related challenges for our members resulted have affected our community. The pandemic also limited our ability to get together at community events like the annual VIVO Conference.
Even in the face of these challenges, the community has had a very good year. New versions of the VIVO software have been released, new members have been recruited to join our community, and outstanding online user group meetings (i.e. North America, Germany, and Spanish-language groups) and the annual VIVO conference have been held. There have also been improvements in the governance of the community with the election of Leadership group officers, new task forces/interest groups forming, and better coordination with Lyrasis. Finally, the community is working on two new important initiatives. We are currently exploring developing better collaborations with EuroCris and enhancing the interoperability between VIVO and other open-source research information systems like DSpace so that these systems can form an interoperable ecosystem supporting universities, open science initiatives and the development of an open knowledge graph of research serving society.
In this talk, the Chair of the VIVO Leadership Group, Dr. Bruce Herbert (Texas A&M University, USA), will review the state of the VIVO community, highlighting our successes for the past year and the exciting initiatives we have started for the EuroCRIS community.
Extended Abstract
What is VIVO?
VIVO is member-supported, open-source software and an ontology for representing scholarship. VIVO supports recording, editing, searching, browsing, and visualizing scholarly activity. VIVO encourages showcasing the scholarly record, research discovery, expert finding, network analysis, and assessment of research impact. VIVO is easily extended to support additional domains of scholarly activity.
When installed and populated with researcher interests, activities, and accomplishments by an institution, VIVO enables the discovery of research and scholarship across disciplines at that institution and beyond. VIVO supports browsing and a search function which returns faceted results for rapid retrieval of desired information. Content in a VIVO installation may be maintained manually, brought into VIVO in automated ways from local systems of record, such as HR, grants, course, and faculty activity databases, or from database providers such as publication aggregators and funding agencies.
The VIVO community is support through the Lyrasis community programs. Lyrasis is a non-for-profit organization which is a leader in open technologies, hosting, data-migration, content licensing, and community supported software programs for libraries, archives, museums, and research organizations worldwide. The organization catalyzes and enables equitable access to the world’s knowledge and cultural heritage. LYRASIS brings together several critical open-source technologies (including DSpace and VIVO) all under one roof, giving members and users shared infrastructure, enhanced development of the software and a strong backbone for sustainability.
The governance of the VIVO open-source community is guided by VIVO's governance groups, who determine strategy and roadmap using open, collaborative, consensus-based processes. These groups include the VIVO Leadership Group; VIVO interest groups, task forces and user groups; and VIVO developers and committers. VIVO's governance groups coordinate with LYRASIS to facilitate project communications, finances, service provider program, and membership drive.
Current VIVO Initiatives
The VIVO community is currently focused on several important initiatives. New versions of the VIVO software are currently being developed and will be released in the near future, new members are being recruited to join our community, and outstanding online user group meetings (i.e. North America, Germany, and Spanish-language groups) and the annual VIVO conference are planned. We continue to identify improvements in the governance of the community with the election of Leadership group officers, new task forces/interest groups forming, and better coordination with Lyrasis. Finally, the community is working on two new important projects. We are currently exploring developing better collaborations with EuroCris with specific focus on the interoperation and convergence of the CERIF and VIVO-ISF data models and enhancing the interoperability between VIVO and other open-source research information systems like DSpace so that these systems can form an interoperable ecosystem supporting universities, open science initiatives and the development of an open knowledge graph of research serving society.
In this talk, Bruce Herbert, Chair and representative of the VIVO Leadership Group, will review the state of the VIVO community, highlighting our successes for the past year and the exciting initiatives we have started for the EuroCRIS community.
