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Tues. March 13, morning sessions
James Hilton kick-off
- It is not a crisis or cliff pushing this meeting agenda. It's an opportunity to come together and "Move the needle" towards a future that meets all of our needs.
- We are at a pivital moment that hangs on (digital) preservation.
- A 2011 Nobel Prize was awarded for those who noticed that the universe is expanding faster and faster; it is not static. In the far future galaxies that we now see will rush away so fast that we won't be visible anymore. The blackness will infer that nothing else ever existed in the universe except that matter which is immediately in front of and surrounding humans in that distant future. It is our responsibility to ensure that evidence of stars, galaxies and solar systems inform the far future.
- We have an emerging digital preservation stack (see JH slides).
- Where do all these parts and pieces fit together other than around the 20K price tag for support of each?
- No guarantee that any of these layers feed into the rest of the stack (bleed between the layers); institutions may utilize parts and pieces of the stack:
- Access repositories
- Preservation repositories
- DPN backbone
- Code (that includes DSpace and Fedora)
- What do I get for my 20K annual fee?
- It is an investment in collective/shared capabilities; it's more like thinking about FTEs because that's where you get "capability"
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Institutions and foundations invested heavily in DSpace and Fedora and it was good. Millions of dollars were spent. Institutions and foundations said they were done. "You must be self-sustaining". There was no spigot with millions of dollars coming out of it. How do we make the organization self-sustaining was a DuraSpace board question. How to sustain community open source projects is a community issue. Revenue was diversified over a number of years with the sponsorship program and grants along with service revenue. This is the moment to take up the question sustainability for open source projects.
Michele and Jonathan Myths and Debunks (see slides)
- "Our Mission is not about software; we are committed to our digital future." MK
- We are here today because we need to work with you and creating sustainable, new investment strategies to reinvigorate DSpace and Fedora developmen
- Fedora needs about a half million dollars per year to move forward toward rapid, cohesive development
- "Each of you owns the Fedora and DSpace code to the degree in which you participate and utilize the open source software. You all own Fedora and DSpace." JJM
- How does VIVO fit in? (Dean Krafft)
- VIVO has moved from being a grant-supported project into developing a model for sustainability.
- Large grant from NIH
- More than 100 institutions piloting VIVO software
- Signed on as a DuraSpace incubated project because:
- Wanted independent biz administration
- Wanted help with infrastructure (wiki, code repository)
- Looking for a model for sponsorship and project support
- There will be a tech coordinator/lead who will be hired through DuraSpace
- "VIVO fits into the DuraSpace mission because research institutions like Cornell need to know WHAT the university scholarly output is (that should be preserved)--that's the content that VIVO pulls together." DK
Discussion
What are the interrelationships among our efforts?
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- There is a difference between stewardship and ownership
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- . The DuraSpace board and
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- organization are charged with the fiduciary
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- responsibility of keeping the org going; communities have to "own" the projects
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- "Dude, you own the software."
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How is governance going to come out of this somewhat new perspective (for this group)?
- Is some of the ambition of the meeting about moving projects into the services column?
- Not necessarily. We have done the low-hanging fruit service (DSpaceDirect). We are not in a crisis and are not abandoning DSpace or Fedora--have enough $ for immediate future. Clarifying roles of community and DuraSpace
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- Less about sustainability and more about momentum
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- We cannot continue to
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- fill the gap in development costs
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- Fedora is a piece of code; "FedoraCloud
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- " would be a service
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- VIVO sponsorship level is higher than DSpace or Fedora
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- levels; expectations
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- are that the founding sponsors will set the strategic direction for VIVO; looking into a service offering that will help with VIVO sustainability
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- Products not projects??
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- Projects are not backed up with sales of
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- a product.
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- This is how people know how they are doing and what they are doing.
- How many people believed some or all of these myths (early slide) before this presentation
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- (mixed show of hands)? If people leave understanding this slide
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- the meeting will be a success. This meeting is really about the future of Fedora and DSpace.
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- How can we engage the other 93% of repository users (free riders) in new ways?? Can it be done either financially or with
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- contributions in kind?
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- Have to find ways for folks outside of ARL to contribute, perhaps non-code, testing, usability perhaps.
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- Many institutions are not able to contribute at the 2-FTE level
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- Lifecycle for a stack of software is 5-10 years. This is a different timing issue that general preservation policy and scholarship has already gone digital. "We are in humanities in the digital age.
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Tyler Walters (get see slides)
VT participation $122,904 total = 1.4 FTE
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