[Dspace-general] Retain "DSpace" Name?

[Tansley, Robert]

I take it as a great complement that our software platform has become
synonymous with the service it is used to provide (you don't see many
"Apache HTTPD @ MIT"s); but yes, using "DSpace" can cause confusion, as
it's now used to refer so many things - the software itself, the
community around the software, the group of universities using the
platform, a service provided by an institution, and potentially in the
future a non-profit entity set up to govern DSpace etc. etc.

So it's perfectly consistent and reasonable to call your service
something other than the name of the software platform behind it.  I
think it would be useful to mention that it's the DSpace software behind
the scenes, so users familiar with the system know what to expect.

At a practical level, fortunately, as of DSpace version 1.3, it has
become much, much easier to call your repository something different.
All of the language used in the user interface has been put in one file,
to make it easier to modify and translate.  You just need to change
DSpace to K-Rex in that file, and you should be done.  You may have to
perform this again when you upgrade, since that 'language pack' will
change between versions, but you won't have to touch any code and
hopefully another search/replace will do the trick.  (Managing an
evolving user interface in multiple languages, and multiplying that by
the different customisations that people make is quite tricky).

 Robert TANSLEY / Digital Media Systems Programme / HP Labs
  http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Robert_Tansley/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dspace-general-bounces at mit.edu 
> [mailto:dspace-general-bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of courtois at ksu.edu
> Sent: 19 October 2005 11:09
> To: dspace-general at mit.edu
> Subject: [Dspace-general] Retain "DSpace" Name?
> 
> How have you reconciled the DSpace label with the name of your
> institutional repository?
> 
> Many institutions give a unique name to their DSpace installation, and
> we're considering calling our repository the "K-State Research
> Exchange" (K-REx).  It seems there would be some benefit to 
> users if we
> go through all DSpace files and change every occurence of "DSpace" to
> "K-REx?"  For example, "My DSpace" would become "My K-REx."
> 
> On the other hand, the term "DSpace" is used in so many files 
> and shows
> up on so many different pages, I wonder if it would be better 
> to retain
> the use of "DSpace" and help the user to understand that K-REx is
> "powered by" DSpace.  Also, if we decide to replace every occurence of
> "DSpace" with "K-REx," we're sort of sentenced to redoing all these
> changes each time we install a new DSpace version.
> 
> There seem to be a variety of practices on this issue, so I'm 
> interested
> to hear from folks at uniquely named DSpace installations:  
> DRUM, IDeA,
> KU ScholarWorks, T-Space, SMARTech, MSpace, UR Research, Edinburgh
> Research Archive, to name just a few.
> 
> Thanks for your thoughts,
> 
> Marty
> 
> Martin Courtois
> Information Technology Assistance Center
> 509 Hale Library
> Kansas State University
> Manhattan KS 66502
> Phone: 785 532-4428
> Fax: 785 532-3199
> E-mail: courtois at ksu.edu
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Dspace-general mailing list
> Dspace-general at mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/dspace-general
>