DSpace Federation update

1
DSpace Federation update

• Julie Walker
• Senior Business Strategist,
• MIT Libraries

Peter Morgan Project Director,
DSpace_at_Cambridge Cambridge University Library
2
Outline of talk

• Overview of the DSpace Federation
• Governance issues
• The Governance Advisory Board
• Board proposals

3
What is the DSpace Federation?

• all users of DSpace
• no formal membership
• no subscription
• worldwide
• 137 registered production systems
• pilot/planned systems
• 6 service providers
• 400,000 items (50 in 3 repositories)

4
Distribution of installations

• North America 44
• US 36, Canada 8
• Europe 33
• UK 11, rest of Europe 22
• Asia 15
• India 7, East Asia/Australia 8
• Other 8
• Americas 6, Africa 2

5
Communication

• DSpace Federation website
• www.dspace.org
• wiki
• wiki.dspace.org
• lists
• dspace-general, dspace-tech, dspace-devel
• meetings
• Boston, Bangalore, Cambridge, Sydney, Bergen

6
Software development

• dspace-tech, dspace-devel
• 7 committers
• c.60 contributing code developers
• v.1.3 in current use
• v.1.4 alpha - testathon in March 2006
• v.2 architecture under discussion

7
Governance

• successful Open Source software evolves through 3
  phases
• initial software release
• community take-up and expansion
• development of governance structure
• DSpace now entering phase 3

8
Open Source governance challenges

• sustainable development requires a
  shared/consensual approach to manage
• rights responsibilities
• licensing other legal policies
• relationships to other organizations
• development/maintenance of relevant standards
• community management and support
• balance between stability and innovation

9
DSpace characteristics

• end-user application
• features/functions determined by domain experts,
  not programmers
• involvement of founding sponsors (MIT HP)
• users mainly HE institutions
• institutional users mainly library-based
• general commitment to Open Access

10
DSpace problems?

• need to shift from over-reliance on MIT HP
  towards shared community focus
• lack of formal decision-making processes
• lack of coherent technical/functional direction
  ( feature creep, forks)
• overload on 7 committers
• new relationships difficult to explore (who
  "speaks" for DSpace community?)
• ad hoc community support
• legal headaches

11
Governance Advisory Board

• Advisory Board's formation agreed at DSUG,
  Cambridge, July 2005
• funded from Cambridge-MIT Institute grant
• AB members volunteers invitees
• AB met 30-31 March 2006 in Cambridge, Mass.

12
Governance Advisory Board members

• Chair Chris Rusbridge (Director, Digital
  Curation Centre, UK)
• MIT representative Ann Wolpert (Director, MIT
  Libraries)
• HP representative Nick Wainwright (Research
  Director, Digital Media System Department, HP
  Labs)
• Outside experts
• Dr. Clifford Lynch (Executive Director, Coalition
  for Networked Information)
• Dr. Siobhan O'Mahony (Assistant Professor of
  Business Admin, Harvard Business School)
• Commercial service providers
• Dr. Matthew Cockerill (Publisher, Biomed Central)
• Peter Walgemoed (Director, Carelliance BV,
  Netherlands)

• DSpace adopters
• Dr. Adrian Burton (Project Leader, Australian
  Partnership for Sustainable Repositories)
• Susan Gibbons (Assistant Dean for Public Services
  Collection Development, Univ of Rochester)
• Geneva Henry (Executive Director, Digital Library
  Initiative, Rice University)
• Dr. James Hilton (Associate Provost for Academic,
  Information Instructional Technology Affairs,
  Univ of Michigan)
• Carole Moore (University Chief Librarian, Univ of
  Toronto)
• Dr. A.R.D. Prasad (Associate Professor,
  Documentation and Research Training Centre,
  Indian Statistical Institute)

13
Advisory Board terms of reference

• The charge of the DSpace Governance Advisory
  Board is to recommend
• a mission for DSpace, that defines its target
  user base/membership and aspirations for
  advancement of the platform
• a governance structure and associated staffing
  models and funding strategies, including
• a set of central services to the DSpace
  community, and
• a destination or a legal owner for its
  intellectual property

14
Advisory Board process

• initial report on the issues
• (see link from wiki.dspace.org/DspaceGovernance)
• evaluation criteria
• evaluation process
• outcomes

15
Evaluation criteria

• Balanced Scorecard
• value to stakeholders
• internal business processes
• innovation and development
• financial stability

16
Evaluation process

• identified the needs of key stakeholders
• defined what makes DSpace and its community
  "unique"
• researched existing models and projects
• identified potential options
• applied evaluation criteria
• agreed on outcomes

17
Governance options
Status quo
Start a new non-profit structure
Join an existing non-profit structure
Apache via Incubator, Sakai or other open source
project
Governance Options
Library or higher education organization
Reside within a university
Collective of open source projects
Start a new or join an existing for-profit
structure
Others?
18
Outcomes

• The Governance Advisory Board
• drafted a statement of mission
• made a decision to form an independent foundation
  
• initiated a planning process to accomplish that
  end
• formed an interim steering committee
• addressed the need for a technical working group
  and initiated a road map and white paper process
  to support that effort

19
What happens next?

• Interim steering group develops plans
• white paper on formation of non-profit
• further meetings of interim steering group
• Technology working group formed
• Updates to Federation via wiki - see
• wiki.dspace.org/DspaceGovernance

20

• Scott Fitzgerald
• "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the
  ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the
  same time and still retain the ability to
  function."

21
Acknowledgement contact details
We acknowledge the use of material provided
by MacKenzie Smith (MIT Libraries) Contact
details

• Julie Walker
• Senior Business Strategist,
• MIT Libraries
• ltjhwalker_at_mit.edugt

Peter Morgan Project Director,
DSpace_at_Cambridge Cambridge University
Library ltpbm2_at_cam.ac.ukgt