This is the October 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 is an easy and important way that you can contribute to the effort:
- Add a comment to any of these tickets [1] if you are interested in inching into Fedora development.
Software development
Community-driven Features
Web Access Control
Web Access Control [2], an interoperable, linked data approach to authorization, is currently being implemented in Fedora by a group of community stakeholders. The design page [3] outlines the currently supported use cases, and a second code sprint is already underway to support additional use cases (listed under Sprint 2 - Phase 1). Associated documentation [4] and common scenarios [5] that can be used to demonstrate the current functionality are available, and a call to validate the output of the current sprint will go out to the community shortly.
API Extension Architecture
API Extension stakeholders have held numerous meetings over the last few months, and have collected 30 use cases [6] related to the API Extension Architecture. The group has agreed on a methodology for evaluating use cases, and has begun to review them in order to distill a set of requirements.
If you are interested in the API Extension Architecture, please join the discussion on the fedora-community mailing list [7] and attend the next meeting (TBD [8]).
Asynchronous Storage
Stakeholders from several institutions held a meeting [9] to discuss implementing support for asynchronous storage media (e.g. Amazon Glacier, Hierarchical Storage Management systems). The initial actions from the meeting include reviewing and liking/commenting on existing use cases [10] and developing a template for further use case contributions.
If you are interested in support for asynchronous storage media, please review the use cases and plan to attend the next meeting (TBD).
Performance and Scalability
Improved performance and scalability is one of the primary goals [11] of Fedora 4 development, and a number of tests [12] have already been performed. However, as software development proceeds, it is necessary to continuously test performance and scalability to establish benchmarks and validate use cases. To this end, a group of stakeholders has gathered to review and validate past test results, document additional use cases, and establish new benchmarks [13].
The stakeholders met on October 26 [14] and November 9 [15]. If you are interested in participating, please attend the next meeting (TBD [16]).
Community Initiatives
Hydra/Islandora Interoperability
Interoperability between Hydra and Islandora (in the context of Fedora 4) is a high priority for community members across the three projects. The Portland Common Data Model is driving this interoperability at the data modelling level, and most recently, a day-long event was held at Islandora Camp Connecticut to discuss how to develop common services. Examples included derivative generation (e.g. image thumbnails, video access copies), OCR text extraction, technical metadata extraction, and batch importing. More information is available on the Islandora website [17].
Conferences and events
Past Events
DC Area Fedora Users Group Meeting and Fedora 4 workshop
The DC Area Fedora User Group, which meets twice annually, held its Fall meeting [18] on October 7-8 at the University of Maryland. The meeting included both user group presentations and a Fedora 4 workshop. Presentation and workshop slides can be found on the wiki [19].
eResearch Australasia
David Wilcox traveled to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia to attend the annual eResearch Australasia conference on October 19-23. Highlights included the first meeting of the new Australasian Fedora Users Group [20], a presentation on supporting research data with Fedora 4 [21], and a day-long Fedora 4 workshop [22] co-presented with Arif Shaon from the University of New South Wales.
Islandora Camp Connecticut
On October 20-23, Islandora Camp went to Hartford, Connecticut, where 36 Islandorians came together to share what they are doing with Islandora and learn more about the project. The event included discussions on adopting LDP and PCDM in Islandora, along with a day devoted to Islandora and Hydra interoperability. Notes and presentation slides are available on the Islandora website [23].
Mid-West Fedora Users Group Meeting
The first Mid-West Fedora Users Group meeting was held on October 22-23 in Chicago, IL at the Art Institute of Chicago. Fourteen regional Fedora users attended, presented project updates, and engaged in discussions on new Fedora developments. Andrew Woods delivered a Fedora 4 workshop on the second day of the meeting. Presentation and workshop slides are available on the wiki [24].
DLF Forum
Members of the Fedora Leadership Group, along with the Product Manager, attended the annual DLF Forum in Vancouver, BC, on October 26-28. David Wilcox delivered a well-received Fedora 4 workshop [25] to 35 conference attendees, as well as a more general Fedora 4 Update [26] to a larger crowd during the event.
iPRES
Andrew Woods, the Fedora Technical Lead, delivered a one-day Fedora 4 workshop at iPRES [27] on November 2 in Chapel Hill, NC. The workshop was sold-out with 40 attendees, confirming the continued interest in Fedora 4 workshops from community members around the world.
Upcoming Events
Fedora Camp
The first Fedora Camp, a three-day, intensive Fedora 4 training workshop, will be held on November 16-18 at Duke University in Durham, NC. Training 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. An agenda, along with details on the event, can be found on the wiki [28]. More Fedora Camps are planned for 2016 and beyond so stay tuned for announcements!
Mid-Atlantic Fedora Users Group Meeting
The first meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Fedora Users Group will take place November 30 - December 1 at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, PA. The meeting will feature presentations and project updates from regional Fedora users, along with Fedora 4 workshop materials delivered by David Wilcox. More information, along with an agenda, can be found on the meeting website [29].
References
[1] https://jira.duraspace.org/issues/?filter=13121 [2] http://www.w3.org/wiki/WebAccessControl [3] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Design+-+WebAccessControl+Authorization+Delegate [4] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FEDORA4x/WebAC+Authorization+Delegate [5] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FEDORA4x/WebAC+Authorization+Delegate#WebACAuthorizationDelegate-ExampleScenarios [6] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Use+Cases+-+API+Extension+Architecture [7] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/fedora-community [8] http://doodle.com/poll/p2fsq3hut25etpth [9] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2015-10-28+-+Asynchronous+Storage+Meeting [10] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Use+Cases+-+Asynchronous+and+Pluggable+Storage [11] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Fedora+Four+Prospectus [12] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FEDORA44/Performance+Testing [13] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Performance+and+Scalability [14] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2015-10-26+Performance+-+Scale+Meeting [15] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2015-11-09+Performance+-+Scale+Meeting [16] http://doodle.com/poll/nvq72qmmxpn2rtc4 [17] http://islandora.ca/content/looking-back-icampct [18] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Washington+D.C.+Area+Fedora+User+Group+Meeting%3A+7-8+October+2015 [19] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Washington+D.C.+Area+Fedora+User+Group+Meeting%3A+7-8+October+2015 [20] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/anz-fedora-users [21] https://speakerdeck.com/dwilcox/fedora-4-for-research-data-1 [22] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/eResearch+Australasia+Fedora+4+Training+Workshop+-+23+Oct+2015 [23] http://islandora.ca/content/looking-back-icampct [24] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Midwest+Fedora+User+Group+Meeting%3A+22-23+October+2015 [25] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/DLF+Forum+Fedora+4+Training+Workshop+-+27+Oct+2015 [26] https://speakerdeck.com/dwilcox/fedora-4-update-1 [27] http://ipres2015.org/ [28] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Fedora+Camp+-+16-18+November+2015 [29] http://midatlanticfedorausers.org/
