Release candidate for 1.8.1. VIVO 1.8.1-rc1 is available for testing.  See https://github.com/vivo-project/VIVO/releases.  The release notes are available here:  VIVO v1.8.1 Release Notes.  As you will see in the release notes, this is a maintenance release, primarily addressing performance issues and bug fixes.  Please consider downloading and testing this release using your VIVO data. If you test this release, please report your findings to Graham Triggs.  Thanks! 

Performance benchmarking.  Interested in performance benchmarking?  Please plan to join the Implementation Calls this Thursday at 1 PM eastern US time for a discussion of possible benchmarking of future releases of VIVO.  Using standard data sets, standard hardware configurations and standard work mixes, we hope to produce benchmark timings of VIVO performance.  This should help us quantify improvements in VIVO software performance over time, measure the impact of alternate triple stores on performance, and provide assistance to sites looking to improve the performance of their local implementations.  What should be included?  How might benchmarks help your site?  Join the discussion Thursday.

Linked Data Patterns.  Much of what VIVO is doing in modeling and representing data regarding scholarship, employs patterns and techniques that are well-developed across the semantic web and linked data communities.  Issues of ontology design, construction and use of URI, cross-site linking and more are common issues.  A free eBook by Leigh Dodds and Ian Darby, Linked Data Patterns, collects the discussions of these issues from the Linked Data email lists and presents them as a series of recommendations.  See  http://patterns.dataincubator.org/book/.

Ontology issues in JIRA. As recommended by the Asset Inventory Task Force and the ontologists, ontology issues formerly found in the VIVOONT JIRA at Duraspace have been moved to the VIVO JIRA at Duraspace.  The VIVO JIRA now has all issues, with ontology issues tagged as such. See https://jira.duraspace.org/browse/VIVO/ for the VIVO JIRA.

Wiki updates.  It was a good week for the wiki.  How to pages were added, the Development section was remodeled with new headings, old content archived, VIVO Data Management in Technical was also remodeled.  A new page on Identifier Management was added following the discussion on the email lists regarding ORCID and other identifiers.  The 1.8.1 Release notes were added. 1.9 Release Planning was updated.  Thanks to Graham TriggsBenjamin GrossJustin Littman for content and comments.  And thanks to who participated on the email lists.

Go VIVO!

Mike

Mike Conlon
VIVO Project Director