This is the July 2015 edition of the Fedora Newsletter. This newsletter summarizes the most significant activities within the Fedora community over the last month.
Call for Action
Fedora is designed, built, used, and supported by the community. Here are some easy and important ways that you can contribute to the effort:
- A general-purpose Fedora 3 to 4 migration utility [1] has been built. Please download and run it over a copy of your Fedora 3 directories. Then report your results, good or bad, to fedora-community@googlegroups.com .
- Use cases and requirements [2] are being formulated now for the Fedora implementation of Web Access Controls. Please review these and make additions or provide comments on the wiki.
- As always, your development contributions are extremely encouraged. Please sign up for one of the ongoing maintenance code sprints [3] or add a comment to any of these tickets [4] if you are interested in understanding better what exactly is needed.
Software development
Fedora 4.3.0 Release
Fedora 4.3.0 was released on July 24, 2015. This release furthers several major objectives:
- Move Fedora towards a clear set of standards-based services
- Move Fedora towards runtime configurability
- Improve support tooling for upgration from Fedora 3.x to 4.x
- Improve support for participation in the semantic web
- Fix bugs
For a complete list of updates and changes, please see the release notes [5].
New Features
Web Access Control
Based on community interest, use-case collection and requirements clarification continues in preparation for Fedora's Web Access Control implementation. By late July we had held our second [6] and third [7] planning calls for the WebAccessControl authorization delegate [8]. This feature will be designed, developed, and tested by the Fedora community over the next couple months. You can participate as a stakeholder by responding to the recent mailing list thread [9], and you can help with the development effort by signing up on the wiki [10].
API Extension Architecture
In support of extending Fedora's capabilities in a way that can be used across the various F4 client application stacks, the API Extension Architecture [11] initiative has been introduced. The use cases which such an approach may potentially address are:
- Bulk ingest
- Ingest pre-processing
- Content model validation
- Fedora3-style disseminators
- Legacy F3 to F4 URL proxying
- etc
Please join the first community planning call [12], to be held on August 14 at 2pm ET. Call-in details to be announced.
Conferences and events
Upcoming
Hydra Connect
Hydra Connect [13] will be held at the University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis campus, Minneapolis, MN, from 21-24 September. The event (hashtag #HydraConnect) is a chance for Hydra Project participants to gather in one place at one time, with an emphasis on synchronizing efforts, technical development, plans, and community links.
Paris Fedora 4 Workshop and User Group Meeting
A one-day Fedora 4 Workshop and User Group Meeting will be held on Sept. 25, 2015 in Paris, France. The event coincides with the Sixth RDA Plenary Meeting [14] and will take place in the same venue – the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers. The agenda includes a Fedora 4 workshop, Fedora user group presentations from regional Fedora users, and will conclude with a wrap-up discussion. There is no charge for this event, but space is limited so please register in advance [15]. Additional information, including a draft agenda, can be found on the wiki [16].
DC Area Fedora User Group Meeting
The DC Area Fedora User Group, which meets twice annually, will hold its next meeting [17] on October 7-8 at the Univesity of Maryland. The meeting will include both user group presentations and a Fedora 4 workshop. Attendance is free but space is limited, so please register [18] if you would like to attend.
Fedora Camp
The first Fedora Camp will be held November 16-18 at Duke University in North Carolina. This Fedora 4 training event will begin with the basics and build toward more advanced concepts–no prior Fedora 4 experience is required. Participants can expect to come away with a deep dive Fedora 4 learning experience coupled with multiple opportunities for applying hands-on techniques working with experienced trainers and Fedora gurus. A draft curriculum [19] , including presentations slides, is available on the wiki.
Attendance will be capped at 40 participants so please register now [20]!
References
[1] https://github.com/fcrepo4-labs/migration-utils/releases [2] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Design+-+WebAccessControl+Authorization+Delegate [3] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Production+Sprint+Schedule [4] https://jira.duraspace.org/issues/?filter=13121 [5] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Fedora+4.3.0+Release+Notes [6] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2015-07-22+-+WebAccessControl+Authorization+Delegate+Planning+Meeting [7] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2015-07-29+-+WebAccessControl+Authorization+Delegate+Planning+Meeting [8] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Design+-+WebAccessControl+Authorization+Delegate [9] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/fedora-community/EWXLm2bC7Uo [10] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Production+Sprint+Schedule [11] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Design+-+API+Extension+Architecture [12] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2015-08-14+-+Fedora+API+Extensions+Meeting [13] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/hydra/Hydra+Connect+2015 [14] https://rd-alliance.org/plenary-meetings/rda-sixth-plenary-meeting.html [15] http://goo.gl/forms/QO22bP4Cu7 [16] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Paris+Fedora+4+Workshop+and+User+Group+Meeting%3A+25+September+2015 [17] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Washington+D.C.+Area+Fedora+User+Group+Meeting%3A+7-8+October+2015 [18] http://goo.gl/forms/T9GUvnadYl [19] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Proposed+Workshop+Training+Modules+and+Structure [20] http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=5iy95gcab&oeidk=a07eb3mm0lc1c10b3ac
