<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hello DSpace Community,<BR><BR>As you have just heard from MacKenzie Smith, I have joined the MIT Library to fill the role of DSpace Systems Manager and Lead Developer for DSpace@MIT. The nature of this email is to introduce myself to the community and give you an opportunity to learn about my background.<BR><BR>For the last 6 years I've worked as a senior software developer on the <A href="http://www.thedata.org">Virtual Data Center</A> project at the <A href="http://www.hmdc.jharvard.edu">Harvard MIT Data Center</A> (Now a part of the <A href="http://www.iq.harvard.edu/index.html">Institute for Quantitative Social Science</A>). In this role I worked with directors, software developers and system administrators of HMDC to architect and develop the Virtual Data Center, a turn-key web application not too dissimilar to DSpace in concept and technology, and yet significantly different in design, architecture and subject domain.<BR><BR>The VDC is a Social Science digital library solution providing subsetting and statistical analysis capabilities on datasets. It is a technologically heterogeneous web application based on the following tools (Apache Tomcat, Struts, PostGresql, Cheshire, the R statistical engine, Perl, Apache HTTPD, OpenLDAP, CNRI Handle Services and OAI Client/Gateways). While there is significant overlap in base technology, the design of the VDC is quite different to that of DSpace. One of my current interests outside of my work at MIT is a comparison of these digital library implementations to seek out avenues for collaboration and interoperability, specifically in the area of storage and sharing of statistical datasets in DSpace. The core metadata standard used by the VDC is the (Data Documentation Initiative) In this regard I continue be involved as a member of the <A href="http://www.ddi-alliance.org">DDI Alliance</A> and seek to work with this standards group to mature the DDI standard to be a useful addition to other metadata standards such as METS, Dublin Core and RDF.<BR><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">My first priority at MIT will be on the DSpace@MIT experience; working with production staff, researchers and librarians to tailor DSpace to meet their needs. Followed close behind this, I will be contributing to DSpace as an active community member; becoming involved with administrative, technical and development issues around DSpace. I have strong interests in seeing the DSpace Federation become scalable and self sustaining and view myself as an advocate in support of the formation of an institutionally neutral DSpace Federation.</DIV><DIV><BR>I look forward to becoming more familiar with all the developers and contributors within the DSpace community. Please feel free to drop me an email anytime. <BR><BR>Cheers,<BR>Mark<DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Mark Robert Diggory<DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</DIV><DIV>DSpace Systems Manager</DIV><DIV>Digital Library Research Group / Systems and Technology Services</DIV><DIV>Massachusetts Institute of Technology</DIV><DIV>web: <A href="http://www.mit.edu/people/mdiggory">http://www.mit.edu/people/mdiggory</A></DIV><DIV>email: <A href="mailto:mdiggory@mit.edu">mdiggory@mit.edu</A></DIV><DIV>office: (617)253-1096</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>