[Dspace-general] Call to the DSpace Community

[Tansley, Robert]

Dear all DSpace users and interested parties,

As I'm sure you all know, DSpace was originally created through
investment from HP Labs and MIT.  However, since its transition
to open source development, the DSpace project has grown
hugely, incorporating contributions from a wide group of
individuals and organisations.  This group of individuals and
organisations are listed here:

http://wiki.dspace.org/DspaceContributors

However, there is still much to be done, and there are still
many opportunities for you to add yourself and your
organisation to this distinguished group!

DSpace is used by well over 100 institutions, and these have
many thousands of users; this is an opportunity for your work
to be made visible and useful to a huge audience.


HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

We understand that not everyone has developer resources to
spare, but helping the DSpace community does not necessarily
just mean developing the DSpace code.  You can help out in a
number of ways:

 * Document - provide and review technical docs, help for end
users, and guidance for those trying to implement DSpace at
their organisation

 * Test - download and try out beta releases; provide bug
reports, experiences, feedback

 * Develop - Contribute bug fixes, new features, developer
cycles. Contributing code is far easier than you might think!

 * Prototype - the best way to gain support for an idea is to
build and share prototype code

 * Deploy - Share your experiences in deploying DSpaces in
different organisations and situations, at large and small
scales

 * Support - Become active members on the mailing lists, answer
others' queries and help solve their technical problems

 * Experiment - Take the system for a spin, try it out with
different types of content and scenarios; tell everyone what
you find

 * Donate content and metadata - To test and experiment with
DSpace, free test collections unencumbered by restrictive usage
rights are needed

 * Let us know if there's a way we can ease the process of
contributing to DSpace

 * Don't be shy!  Contributions don't have to be 100% polished
or perfect; no one will think any the less of you.  "Share
early, share often" is a well-known open source mantra.  The
sooner you contribute something, the sooner others can help
with the polishing, and you no longer have to maintain the
customisation against the evolving core DSpace platform, since
it will be part of the platform!

http://wiki.dspace.org/DspaceResources is the definitive guide
to DSpace resources, including Web sites, collaboration tools
and mailing lists.

So please -- join the mailing lists; add your projects,
experiences and comments to the DSpace Wiki, and feel free to
use it as a collaboration tool for your DSpace projects;
contribute bug reports, fixes, and new features.

And above all, when you're planning projects, setting
objectives, and assembling resources, please consider
allocating at least some portion to contribute back to the
DSpace community of which you are a part, and which has given
you so much!  Your work will live on and be visible to a huge
audience.

Robert Tansley

on behalf of HP Labs, MIT Libraries, and the DSpace Committers