2014-07-15 Meeting Notes DPIG

• Avalon is an open source product: Hydra head, Ruby on Rails on top of Fedora, with Blacklight search/SOLR index, Matterhorn, Red5 streaming server
  • http://avalon.lib.utexas.edu (take a peek at UT Libs demo running in Amazon cloud - not available on wifi - yet)
• MODS metadata only
• controlled vocabulary, has to done on command line
• Access control via EID and groups
• Derivatives created automatically
• Permalinks, embed code
• Can integrate with Canvas
• Simple, clean UI (inline player not fancy)
• Can put stuff in a drop box that enables batch upload (including metadata) and starts workflow process
• Supports Amazon streaming server, but not yet Wowza (What UT Libraries uses) - we may be able to contribute development resources to address this
• Center for Teaching and Learning on campus is very interested in possibility of integrating with Canvas LMS
• Library is willing to host Avalon, if we get some staff support (maybe from CTL?)
• Could charge back for storage costs, which are very low in Amazon
• No provision for transcripts or rich media; just audio and video files
• UT Digital Assets task force just starting up
  • may end up discussing Avalon
  • Adobe Experience Manager is also on the table ($1M/yr, which could pay for a lot of developers!)
  • will need use cases at some point
  • goal to compile recommendations by October 2014
• Future opportunities to synthesize Drupal/Fedora/Islandora expertise on campus:
  • We could be a part of the next gen development of Fedora, have been invited to help with Avalon
  • May be Islandora packages down teh line that would work with Avalon to provide rich media/transcripts
  • Big Islandora drawback is that Drupal nodes do not equal Fedora objects; new release of both will improve this.

• working group has been meeting regularly, fairly thorough exploration of Archivematica & microservices
• Now looking closely at AtoM - a happy accidental discovery while looking at Archivematica (Ladd thinks AtoM may be of more interest)
  • Briscoe archives staff experimented with AtoM, notes at 2014-07-07 Meeting Notes AtoM Evaluation
  • AtoM demo by Briscoe archivists - target date 7/31
  • Technical feasibility discussion - target date 8/7
• complete evals and make recommendations for both systems by end of August
• discussion about developer bandwidth and how we can take advantage of and contribute to the open source landscape
  • we can't afford it, so grant funding is necessary (hoping to get 2 developers for HRDI this way)
  • discussion of collective/collaborative model

Speaking of tool testing, what's the latest on ArchiveSpace? Ransom Center is interested in keeping tabs on eval efforts

• Jennifer reported that UT Libs testing is tabled until next year b/c of testing challenges (documentation restricted to paying members)
• ideas for workarounds:
  • Ransom Center staff member with close ties to ArchiveSpace rep could try to get documentation
  • iSchool class this summer may have access to documentation
  • working conference connections to get at documentation

Melanie encouraged group members to start thinking about ideas for group goals for the 2014-2015 year, and asked folks how they felt about continuing the standing monthly meeting format and the practicality of breakout groups. Comments included:

• Idea to make a case to admin for a developer pool - coordinating communication efforts to promote a centralized solution like that
• Working groups are handy for tool testing (tactical)
• Group brings together lots of diverse knowledge that can inform more strategic actions
• Group encouraged to add ideas for specific explorations to wiki

70K records ready to migrate from Liberal Arts DASE to UT Libraries cataloging tool (Phase 1); front end migration will be Phase 2

Ladd broke down the project challenges:

• using this project to learn Islandora
• project more complicated than expected: metadata cleanup, volume of files
• actually running through all the steps as a human manually entering data
• still finding issues in data and code
• taking ~twice as long as originally anticipated (1 year instead of 6 mos)
• mapping functionality in old system to new has been fairly easy
• new features like pulldown menus with controlled vocabs will help keep data cleaner going forward

• new HRC director last year - overhaul of org, with strategic plan (physical plant, staffing model, etc.) about halfway through
• Liz in charge of digital access and infrastructure, funding TBD
• coordinating digital initiatives working group w/ Amy Armstrong - working on open access policy for public domain materials (YAY!)
• overseeing REVEAL project: Reading and Viewing English and American Literature:
  • entire collections of public domain materials (smaller, 8boxes or less, item level description) online via CONTENTdm, w/  finding aids
  • call for proposals opening up to scholarly community for engaging with materials, stipends
  • current digitization rate ~1500 pages/mo.

DPN update:

• working on architecture (for a year thus far)
• hiring service manager and technical manager
• 60 members thus far paying 20K each
• draft business model developed - revenue exceeds expenses on paper - deeper evaluation of model beginning
• members get 5TB of space free at first - pricing model in development
• integration testing b/t nodes underway, transferring bags, ramping up scale through fall 2014, will move to representative content for testing, with plans to go live in 2015

Discussion about differences b/t TDL and DPN storage options : differences in charges and in dependencies - TDL means relying solely on specified repository (Amazon or Duracloud), while DPN means your content is replicated in repos around the country. It comes down to how long a view you need to take for your content.

Discussion of TDL and DPN membership models - there are differences; is there a relationship b/t the models? Clarification is needed on actual membership eligibility for each