A Little Sweat Goes a Long WayOr: Building a Community-Driven Digital Asset Management System for Museums
Stefano Cossu, Director of Application Services – The Art Institute of ChicagoDavid Wilcox, Fedora Product Manager – Duraspace
The Fedora Challenge
Initial Status (2013)CITI: Custom-built Collection Management System (est. 1990)
Several other applications relying on CITI
CITI handles images and other files for collection items
Our requirements:
A dedicated system to preserve, manage and publish digital assets
A place for all collection-related documents
Seamless UX and integration with live CITI data
Handling of complex production workflows
No precedent for museumsNot a “turnkey” solutionCompletely new concepts and technologiesNew version in alpha stage
All bad selling points
A Little Sweat? Not Really.
Approach #1 (And Why It Did Not Work)Fedora does nearly everything
Fedora 4 focuses on a minimal feature set to serve a specific role in a larger architecture
Fork off code base, contribute back later if relevantCreates bloatware and one-off implementations hard to work collaboratively
with
Develop custom service layer, API and front endHave you ever tried that? It is a lot of work!
Approach #2 (A Year Later)Fedora is only a part of the architecture
Clear role separation, aligned with other implementers
Use vanilla Fedora codeBuild additional functionality outside of Fedora using specialized technologies
maintained by someone else
Use a shared project for business layer and front end (Hydra) and customize that to fit our workflows
This takes a great deal of work off of our plate
The PlanDesign and Research: 1 year
Final Design: December 2014
Basic Framework: 1 yearBeta1: December 2015
Production, limited adoption: 6 months1.0: June 2016
Full-scale adoption: 6 months1.1: December 2016
Total: 3 years
Fedora Beyond The Code
Fedora Facts Managed by DuraSpace (not-for-profit)Funded by the communityCollaboratively developed by the communitySupported by 2 full-time staff members (not developers)
Fedora CommittersBen Armintor, Columbia University
Chris Beer, Stanford University
Aaron Coburn, Amherst College
Esmé Cowles, Princeton University
Osman Din, Yale University
Mike Durbin, University of Virginia
Nick Ruest, York University
Adam Soroka, University of Virginia
Jared Whiklo, University of Manitoba
Andrew Woods, DuraSpace
Fedora Leadership GroupJulie Allinson, University of York
Chris Awre, University of Hull
Rob Cartolano, Columbia University
Aaron Choate, University of Texas
Tom Cramer, Stanford University
Stefano Cossu, Art Institute of Chicago
Dan Coughlin, Penn State University
Jon Dunn, Indiana University
Sarah Fredline, University of NSW
Declan Fleming, UCSD
Neil Jefferies, University of Oxford
Tom Murphy, ICPSR
Robin Ruggaber, University of Virginia
Glen Robson, National Library of Wales
Dan Santamaria, Tufts University
Kelcy Shepherd, Amherst College
Steve Marks, University of Toronto
Sandy Payette, Cornell University
Jim Tuttle, Duke University
Keith Webster, Carnegie Mellon
Evviva Weinraub, Northwestern University
Maurice York, University of Michigan
Patrick Yott, Northeastern University
Community-Driven Feature DevelopmentUse cases are gathered from the communityPeople with common interests form groupsGroups gather requirements, implement, and test new features
Hydra + IslandoraPopular frameworks based on FedoraProvide search, discovery, theming, workflows, and moreCollaboration between members of all three communitiesHydra-in-a-Box provides a turn-key solution
Working Together Toward InteroperabilityAdopting common, open standardsIntegrating specialized components using common patternsLeveraging linked data best practices
Fedora For Museums
Lessons Learned While Building LAKEMaybe we are not that special
Some needs can be adapted to the existing framework, not the other way around
Don't write code if we don't have toAnd when we have to, ask around if somebody is doing the same thing
Others don't need to go through thisShare experience and code; create communities; Hydra In A Box as a potential low-
barrier approach to a museum-focused ecosystem
Added Values Learned Underway (Meta-Features)Community
The backbone of healthy software
Ease of integrationYour DAMS is not the Almighty
TransparencyOpen Source, Open Agenda, Open Pockets
An Alternative Way to Produce SoftwareCommunity Source is different than just Open Source
And sometimes a very different approach
Open Source ≠ freeBut open governance means that you know where your money is going
Shift resources' focusLess coding hours, more community engagement and coordination
Thank YouMore info: http://fedorarepository.org http://hydrainabox.projecthydra.org
Ping us:[email protected] [email protected]