FAQ for upcoming proposals to better integrate DSpace & Fedora technologies

Candidate Questions

What is the proposed end result of this integration?

The end result would be a family of packages that you would install together for the full DSpace experience. One of these packages would offer a Fedora-based storage layer. So, when you install DSpace, there would be an option to use Fedora as its storage layer. Essentially, DSpace will still retain very similar interfaces and workflows, but it will now have "Fedora Inside".

Will it still look like DSpace & be called DSpace?

Yes. We are committed to maintaining the DSpace out-of-the-box experience. This may be an evolved version of DSpace (with new or slightly changed features), but it will still provide the same out-of-the-box institutional repository software.

What are the perceived benefits? Why do this integration?

We feel this tighter integration between the two platforms provides the following benefits:

• Less redundancy between DSpace & Fedora code and development.
• Ability to combine development work/projects – a larger pool of developers working on common technologies
• DSpace will also be able to take advantage of features offered by Fedora (which are not currently in DSpace). An example is the file versioning feature of Fedora, which DSpace could utilize to allow for item versioning.