[Dspace-general] Week 3: Good Repository Software

[Simon Brown]

On 8 Sep 2008, at 16:46, Graham Triggs wrote:

> Simon Brown wrote:
>> Now, in a way, I can understand why fixing these things hasn't  
>> been  high on anyone's list - my institution has things it would  
>> rather I do  with our system in the same way that anyone else's  
>> does. What I'm less  sure of is why a better architecture (which  
>> would benefit everyone who  works with the codebase and therefore,  
>> indirectly, everyone else who  uses DSpace) hasn't been more of a  
>> priority for the federation.
>
> This isn't intended to be rude, but I think this deserves a response  
> and the only way I can see to do so is simply state the facts.

Not taken as such. It's information that I didn't possess, and as such  
I'm grateful for it. It makes a couple of things a bit clearer.

> That brings us up to two months ago, which is where the work to  
> define the scope and priorities of the funded development has begun.

Has there been any output from this yet? Is the aim that output from  
these processes will be fed back to these mailing lists?

> As you say, without the foundation doing all the above, there are  
> very few people that are in a position to address even part of the  
> architectural problem. But even with the best will in the world,  
> those are the timescales to making it a practical reality.

I guess my concern is that much of this effort will be focused on blue- 
sky "the future of DSpace"-type thinking, rather than the sort which  
aims to fix the real problems people are having with the software  
right now. The future needs to be looked to; the present shouldn't be  
neglected in order to do so. I will be very happy to know that this  
concern is unfounded.

--
Simon Brown <stb28 at cam.ac.uk> - Cambridge University Computing Service
+44 1223 3 34714 - New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH