The discussion opened with Lieven describing how the 2015-18 strategic plan was developed. It was compiled by a steering group, drawing upon use cases collected by DCAT. The result provided a plan comprised of three foci:, Community, Sustainability, and Technology. The technology goals were created by a working group. The plan was adopted after the Open Repositories 2015 conference by the DSpace Steering and Leadership Groups. In his review of the plan, he noted that DSpace 7 is on track to achieve five of the seven high priority Technology goals. He measured good progress on the Community and Sustainability goals, noting that the goal to “Fill the Product Manager role for the DSpace project” has not yet been achieved.
Shifting the discussion to the development of a future DSpace roadmap, the following thoughts were offered:
Should we review, summarize, and document the accomplishments as well as uncompleted work relative to the plan? Identifying gaps between stated goals and current state could help to assess prioritize actions in developing a new plan.
There may be two parts to this planning work: retrospective (for assessment, marketing and promotion value) and prospective (for developing priorities and goals for the future). It was also noted that the methodology for developing the next plan may be very different from what was used previously; we need to be open to changes in governance, resources, technology, etc.
Pascal suggested that a review of technology goals might occur after general release of DSpace 7.
Mic suggested that a possible role of the marketing group could be the review and summary of the 2015-18 strategic plan.
With regards to the continuing quest to establish support for a DSpace Product Manager through achievement of a critical monetary goal, Erin noted that she will soon have a first draft at next year’s budget, which will help define the funding target to achieve this goal. In the meantime, an LG member suggested that the Steering Committee take on the role of the Product Manager, while the organization builds up a reserve to finance the establishment of the position.
Decided: After all discussion, it was determined that the LG will create two working groups to further an overall planning effort: 1) Community and Sustainability; and 2) Technology. Salwa will set up email groups, and put out a call for participants to each. Proxies for working group participation is okay, as long as connection is maintained to the LG member. We will try to establish these groups by end of CY2018.
2) DSpace 7 Alpha release in December 2018
Tim summarized the current status of DSpace 7 development relative to initial aims for an alpha release in December 2018:
We have considerably less than two months remaining in this timeframe, and as of one point in October, there was estimated to be 1300 hours of work needed to be done. While Atmire and 4Science have been generously supplying about 90-95% of the code towards this release, there remains a known gap to get to the alpha release.
One of the major areas of work is the development of configurable entities; capacity to get this feature ready within this timeframe is questionable.
Overall, Tim concluded that it is impossible to release a full-feature DSpace 7 in CY2018. In proceeding with a partial release in CY2018, there would be gaps in API functions.
This prompts the question of whether to do a partial release in December 2018 or delay with the goal of a more complete feature set for general release in the 1st quarter of 2019.
Are there known dependencies in the community on the existing timeline? In Portugal, there is timely work planned for the integration of CRIS-IR repositories. For this work, configurable entities is critical. There is need to begin developing features on top of DSpace 7, and avoid developing on DSpace 5 only to have to duplicate efforts on the new release. Also, what are the known dependencies related to OpenAIRE participation?
Should we consider having a preview release? Having a preview is a good way to engage and mobilize the community. However, the preview release process will draw away from general release development time and capacity (Tim’s time: 2-3 days for release activities). Lieven speculated that a full beta release in March may be realistic, pending resource availability.
What are we prioritizing for the general release? What do we need out of beta release and what are the resources needed to get there?
3) Outreach/Communication
LG approved the creation of a WG to provide outreach guidance and strategy to the main group that Carol leads (i.e., the DSpace 7 UI Outreach Group). There may be opportunity for the two WGs to work together to develop "guidance and strategy" that the SG can help shepherd.
ACTION ITEMS
DSpace Roadmap and Strategic Plan: Looking the 2015-2018 strategic plan, the LG will create two WGs (can include proxy members) to look into the Technology Goal and the "Sustainability and Community" Goals respectively to explore where we are and that the future roadmap should be. Salwa will send out an email to the LG with a call for membership.
DSpace 7 (alpha/beta release): A small group from the LG and the SG should meet next week to come up with a plan to define the needs of the release, involvement, resources and time commitment and more. Salwa will send out an email to LG and SG for those who want to be involved, we will have to meet next week for 1.5 hours.
Outreach Marketing Group -- Salwa will let the SG know (through the SG chair Jyrki) that the LG approves the creation of a WG to provide outreach guidance and strategy to the main group that Carol leads. Maybe the two WGs should work together to develop "guidance and strategy" that the SG can help shepherd.
DSpace NA User Group Meeting -- Unfortunately, we have not had any offers yet. Salwa will work with Carol to send out a reminder on Nov 12, but if we don't get any offers by Nov 16, Salwa will inform the LG and then we can request Kristi Parks (TDL) to continue with the hosting with the statement for EDI.
represents who will be taking notes for a given meeting. It rotates after each meeting to the next person in the attendee list.