This is the April 2016 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. An easy and important way that you can contribute to the effort is by helping resolve outstanding bugs. If you have an interest in gaining a better understanding of the Fedora code base, or a specific interest in any of these bugs [1], please add a comment to a ticket and we can work together to move your interest forward.

Software development

Standards

Fedora API Specification

The Fedora community is working to establish a clearly defined specification for the core Fedora services. This specification will detail the exact services and interactions required for a server implementation to be verified as "doing Fedora".

The primary benefits of this specification include:

  • Concrete and common understanding of Fedora's role in an institution's infrastructure ecosystem
  • Stable, independently versioned Fedora RESTful API
  • Opportunity for alternate Fedora implementations to support different use cases

Check out the wiki for a full description [2] of the Fedora specification initiative. You are invited to comment on and contribute to the draft specifications [3].

Community-driven Features

API Extension Architecture 

API-X stakeholders met on March 18 [4] to discuss a number of topics, including an updated API-X architecture diagram [5] and a document on API-X patterns [6]. A Vagrant/Docker image [7] to demonstrate API-X proof-of-concept implementations was also discussed.

If you are interested in the API Extension Architecture, please join the discussion on the fedora-community mailing list [8] and attend the next meeting.

Performance and Scalability

Performance and Scalability stakeholders met on March 14 [9] to discuss performance benchmarks [10] and testing the new MySQL and PostgreSQL database options. A few tests have been run but the group identified a need for more community participation to execute and document the breadth of test scenarios.

If you are interested in Performance and Scalability, please join the discussion on the fedora-community mailing list [11] and attend the next meeting [12] on April 18.

Java Client

The 0.1.2 release of the Fedora Java Client was published on March 22 [13]. This release adds three new features to the Java client, notably:

  •  Preemptive authentication
  • Properly closing response streams on failure
  • Added support for configuring the client with system properties

Conferences and events

Upcoming Events

CNI

The annual CNI Spring meeting [14] will take place April 4-5 in San Antonio, TX. The meeting will include several project updates and briefings from members of the Fedora community, including an update on the Avalon Media System [15], and a project from Rutgers University Libraries that uses a Fedora repository to manage oceanographic data sets [16].

Museums and the Web

Museums and the Web [17] will take place April 6-9 in Los Angeles, CA. This year's conference features a presentation by Stefano Cossu (Art Institute of Chicago) and David Wilcox (DuraSpace) on Fedora as the heart of an open source digital asset management system for museums [18]. 

West Coast Fedora Camp

The West Coast Fedora Camp [19], hosted by the Caltech Library, will take place April 11-13 in Pasadena, CA. It is based on the inaugural Fedora Camp [20] that was held at Duke University in November. 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. Registration is now full but please contact Kristi Searle [21] to have your name added to the waiting list and to be informed about future camps!

DC Area Fedora User Group Meeting

The next DC Area Fedora User Group Meeting [22] will take place April 27-28 at the National Library of Medicine and will include presentations, project updates, and discussions from local Fedora users. The second day of the event will be a Hydra/Fedora 4 workshop led by Esmé Cowles and David Wilcox. Attendance is free so please register in advance [23]!

Previous Events

Code4Lib

Code4Lib [24] took place in Philadelphia, PA on March 7-10. The event featured a Fedora 4 workshop [25] led by Andrew Woods, and a Fedora 3 to 4 migration workshop [26] for Hydra users led by Ben Armintor. 

DuraSpace Summit

The sixth annual DuraSpace Summit took place in Washington, DC on March 16-17. Andrew Woods, Fedora Tech Lead, and Robert Cartolano led the Fedora update by asking how the project might invest strong community energy to build a forward-thinking foundation that will ensure a code base that successfully evolves as institutional use increases. A technical focus on specification versus implementation could decrease the code needed to update software, and would potentially invite greater architectural innovation. Rob highlighted steady member growth from 41 in 2013 to 76 in 2015. Deeper engagement with the community (400+ participants in hands-on training and workshops) coupled with ongoing software improvements (five releases in 2015) will help Fedora reach its target of 100 members in 2016. Finally, it was pointed out that the effective Fedora culture of support, encouragement, and engagement is what creates sustainable open source projects - Fedora as well as others. The audience was reminded that the "ask" is for members to enable staff, technology teams, and ultimately our community to participate, get involved in being a part of our community projects' futures.

LDCX

LDCX [27] took place in Stanford, CA on March 21-23. The objective of the gathering is to bring together institutions and developers with shared needs, and assemble around a shared set of solutions and technical components. With technology contributions from peer institutions, shared products for digital cultural heritage offer the critical building blocks for a complete suite of solutions -- from digitization workflow to digital asset management, from preservation to discovery and delivery.

Major topics at LDCX included image interoperability and IIIF, Hydra technical architecture, Fedora 4 and linked data (e.g., PCDM), discovery and exhibits (e.g., Blacklight, Spotlight), DevOps practices, and "Geo" for cultural heritage.

References

[1]  https://jira.duraspace.org/issues/?filter=13122
[2]  https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FEDORAAPI/Fedora+Specification
[3]  https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FEDORAAPI/Specification+Draft
[4]  https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2016-03-18+Fedora+API+Extensions+Meeting
[5]  https://github.com/fcrepo4-labs/fcrepo-api-x/blob/master/doc/png/API-X_highlevel_arch-2.png
[6]  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J8e5PQVDtN1PleIa76UgHWJiXGkYZDHz533yAUCa_lA/edit?usp=sharing
[7]  https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2016-03-18+Fedora+API+Extensions+Meeting?preview=/74515186/74515213/vagrant_docker.png
[8]  https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/fedora-community
[9]  https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2016-03-14+Performance+-+Scale+Meeting
[10] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Performance+and+Scalability+Test+Plans
[11] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/fedora-community
[12] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/2016-04-18+Performance+-+Scale+Meeting
[13] https://groups.google.com/d/msg/fedora-tech/mtFmv90AXPY/ZcBmtkkOAwAJ
[14] https://www.cni.org/events/membership-meetings/upcoming-meeting/spring-2016/schedule-s16
[15] https://www.cni.org/topics/special-collections/avalon-media-system-update-from-collaboration-to-community
[16] https://www.cni.org/topics/e-science/an-ocean-of-data-a-metadata-and-doi-strategy-for-large-dynamic-data-about-the-worlds-oceans
[17] http://mw2016.museumsandtheweb.com/
[18] http://mw2016.museumsandtheweb.com/proposal/a-little-sweat-goes-a-long-way-or-building-a-community-driven-digital-asset-management-system-for-museums/
[19] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Fedora+Camp+California+-+11-13+April+2016
[20] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Fedora+Camp+-+16-18+November+2015
[21] mailto:ksearle@duraspace.org
[22] https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/Events/Washington+D.C.+Area+Fedora+User+Group+Meeting%3A+27-28+April+2016
[23] https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1TAvx6n2GaOSwHPy4SsCE4qZD75aUcz4eooGfpsLxu3g/viewform
[24] http://2016.code4lib.org/
[25] http://2016.code4lib.org/workshops/HandsOn-Fedora-4
[26] http://2016.code4lib.org/workshops/Migrating-Hydrabased-repositories-from-Fedora-3-to-4
[27] http://library.stanford.edu/projects/ldcx/2016-conference
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