Mountainview, CA Sun has introduced two new solutions that combine the Fedora Repository and the Sun Open Archive Framework. Based on open source software and industry-standard hardware, the Sun Open Archive Framework controls costs, providing long-term sustainability and enabling you to future-proof your digital assets.

Learn more:
• Enterprise-Wide Digital Repository and Archive solution
http://www.sun.com/storage/archive/oasolutions.jsp#2

• Research and BioScience Digital Repository and Archive solution
http://www.sun.com/storage/archive/oasolutions.jsp#4

Both offerings leverage the Islandora work done by the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI, http://www.fedora-commons.org/community/examples/islandora/). Islandora links Drupal with Fedora. It provides an easy, powerful way to create custom web sites with an organizations unique content and branding and offers fine control over access to research collections and individual data assets. Adding the Fedora Repository to the solution’s core provides durability to the content with complete separation between data and presentation or transformation of data while also enabling seamless sharing of content with other applications.
The Sun Open Archive Framework’s Preservation Software layer adds robust storage protection (such as data integrity checking, replication and more) and data handling, while Sun Open Storage devices are the most cost effective and easily deployed storage available. See http://www.sun.com/openarchive.

Record-setting performance numbers
To help you determine the best server/storage configurations for your data load, Sun and Fedora  are conducting on-going data ingest and data access performance testing. Preliminary results can be viewed here http://blogs.sun.com/err/entry/archival_and_preservation_open_source

To learn more or to find a Sun reseller partner in your area who can provide these “out of the box” solutions, please contact me directly at: gail.truman@sun.com subject “Sun/Fedora Information Request.” Contributed by Gail Truman, Sun Microsystems, Open Archive Business Development Manager

Ithaca, NY The current release of Fedora Repository is 3.2.1 is a minor upgrade that addresses a security issue discovered in Fedora 3.2.  If you are running Fedora 3.2, please see Upgrading from 3.x. If you are running Fedora 2.x, see Upgrading from 2.x. Full release notes are available here:

http://www.fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/FCR30/Fedora+Repository+3.1+Release+Notes

Although Fedora 3.2.1 is a minor release, we hope that you will find its included features and fixes a major boon to your repository installation. With the help of the Fedora community in identifying defects, contributing patches, and providing valuable input in driving the direction of new development, this release is a reflection of the dedication of many hands.

Included within is the long-awaited, web-based administrative client, initial integration with the emerging Akubra storage-abstraction layer, many useful bug fixes, and the experimental release of a Fedora decoupled from the familiar ‘fedora’ context path.

Take it for a spin, and make sure you keep the feedback coming.

Ithaca, NY  Fedora Commons repository committer meetings are held every Tuesday at 10am EDT (US). Everyone is invited to call in and participate in these meetings.  If you are interested in attending this week’s meeting, or future meetings please visit:

https://fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/FCREPO/Meeting+Notes

Prior to the meeting each week, this page is updated with a link for the agenda/notes along with call-in information.  For today’s meeting, see the 2009-06-23 link at the bottom.

Edinburgh, UK Sponsored by JISC, the “Beyond the Repository Fringe 2009″ event will be hosted by the University of Edinburgh July 30-31 2009 with support from the Digital Curation Centre, the School of Informatics, EDINA, and Information Services, as well as UKOLN and EPrints.

This year the Repository Fringe organisers aim to draw on and showcase a range of inspirational repository developments, including those produced from the JISC Rapid Innovation and Repository and Preservation programmes, plus various ‘barcamps’, ‘hackdays’ and repository challenges.

Designed for an audience of developers, repository managers and practitioners, the programme retains an ‘unconference’ feel to it, and seeks to canvass contribution from a wide range of repository actors for:

•    Live demonstrations of innovative work;
•    “Pecha Kucha” presentations on any subject relating to current, or future repository endeavours i.e. a presenter shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece, for a total time of 6 minutes, 40 seconds;
•    Round Table discussions;
•    Formal presentations or tutorials on related topics;
•    A ‘Code Challenge’ (details to be announced shortly).

Keynote speakers will open and close Beyond the Repository Fringe 2009 and to accompany this event there will be a DCC Associates’ Network meeting (delegates will be able to join the network and participate on the day) and a DISC-UK DataShare workshop on ‘research data requirements and digital repositories’.

The dates of the event coincide with the start of the buzzing Edinburgh Festival season, which includes the Jazz and Blues Festival (31 July – 9 Aug), the Festival Fringe (7 Aug – 31 Aug), the Edinburgh International Festival (14 Aug – 6 Sept), and the Edinburgh Book Festival (15 Aug - 31 Aug), as well as the usual impromptu street theatre, musicians and sideshows.

Register for this free event and sign up for a ‘performance’ of your choice at: http://beyondtherepositoryfringe-emailinvite.eventbrite.com/

University accommodation is available at pre-Festival prices on a first-come, first-served basis. To book please contact the Bed and Breakfast Team on 0131 651 2007 or email them at bed.breakfast@ed.ac.uk. Alternatively visit: http://www.edinburghfirst.com/accommodation/availability.asp

For further enquiries contact: rf09@ed.ac.uk

Providence, RI Issue 3.2 of Digital Humanities Quarterly is now available. An exploration of concepts around what it means to complete a project in the digital humanities as well as an in-depth look at data mining are included in this issue.

Digital Humanities Quarterly (DHQ) is an open-access, peer-reviewed, digital journal covering all aspects of digital media in the humanities that is published by the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO). View the new issue here: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/.

Charlottetown, PEI, Canada In 2008, the Fedora team released Fedora v3 which included many notable changes, although one area where there was not much change was authentication and authorization. There have been many requests from the Fedora user community for a wider range of authentication methods, a simpler approach to security and better management and enforcement of XACML authorization policies. In order to address this critical issue, Fedora Commons and a number of Fedora community members have proposed a project, the Fedora Security Layer (FeSL), to enhance one of the more promising developments in this area and provide it to the Fedora community. Project managers (University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) and Media Shelf) propose funding FeSL by suggesting that members of the Fedora community contribute funds to ensure timely and appropriate development of this aspect of the Fedora system.  The budget for the FeSL project is $50,000.  Each Project Contributor is asked to provide a contribution of $5,000 for a total of 10 Project Contributors who agree to provide a minimum of $5,000.

To date the following organizations have committed $5,000 to the project:

1. University of PEI
2. Standford University
3. University of Virginia
4. University of Hull

Read more about the FeSL project and find out how to participate here: http://bit.ly/yl7Xm

Rome, Italy The IADIS Applied Computing 2009 Conference will be held Nov. 19-21, 2009 in Rome and aims to address the main issues of concern within the applied computing area and related fields. This conference covers essentially technical aspects. The applied computing field is divided into more detailed areas. However innovative contributions that don’t fit into these areas will also be considered since they might be of benefit to conference attendees.

The conference will comprise invited talks and oral presentations. The proceedings of the conference will be published in the form of a book. The best paper authors will be invited to publish extended versions of their papers in specific journals, and in the IADIS International Journal on Computer Science and Information Systems.

Important Dates:
- Submission deadline: 26 June 2009
- Notification to Authors: 24 July 2009
- Final Camera-Ready Submission and Early Registration: Until 4 September 2009
- Late Registration: After 4 September 2009
- Conference: Rome, Italy, 19 to 21 November 2009

More information is available here: http://www.computing-conf.org/.

Washington DC The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is seeking proposals for 2010 SPEC survey topics. For more than 35 years ARL has gathered and disseminated data through the SPEC survey program to assist libraries in the continuous improvement of their management systems. Each year, ARL works with librarians in North America to develop six surveys of the ARL membership on “hot topics” related to research library policies and practices. (Survey authors do not need to work at an ARL member library, but only ARL libraries are surveyed.)

Criteria for selecting a survey topic include its currency and insightfulness, its importance to research libraries, its relevance to ARL’s three strategic directions (Scholarly Communication; Public Policies; and Transforming Library Roles in Research, Teaching, and Learning) or the Association’s programs that promote diversity and assessment, and whether documents that illustrate current policies and practices can be gathered. Examples of current developments of interest to research libraries that could fit the SPEC model include activities to increase discovery and access to “hidden collections,” digital image collections and services, digital preservation, and graduate student outreach, among many others.

To be considered for 2010, proposals must be submitted online by July 24, 2009. Proposals will be reviewed and successful authors will be notified by August 3. Additional information and the link to the online submission form are available at http://www.arl.org/stats/specsurveys/specfaq.shtml.

Ithaca, NY, Boston, MA Join this live web event on Wednesday, June 17 at 9:00 a.m. PT; 12:00 p.m. ET. DSpace and Fedora are two of the largest open source software platforms for managing and providing access to digital content, with a combined global community of more than 700 instances including national libraries, research projects, businesses and universities. What are the natural strengths of each repository platform? What circumstances and requirements would dictate using either one or the other or both?

Join Michele Kimpton, Chief Business Officer and Sandy Payette, Chief Executive Officer of DuraSpace, the newly formed non-profit supporting both the DSpace and Fedora platforms for a 60- minute look at each repository platform that highlights key features and selection criteria. There is no fee to attend this Sun/DSpace/Fedora/SPARC web event . Please register by June 16 at http://www.education-webevents.com/.

Ithaca, NY Thank you everyone for contributing to the wealth of information that is exchanged in the Fedora Commons community. Whether you write an email, post an article to the Wiki, contribute code, register your project, present at a user group meeting, offer a webinar, or contribute articles to the quarterly HatCheck newsletter your participation is appreciated.

Here is an overview of current Fedora Commons Internet “spots” you might want to tune in:

•Fedora Commons community news and notes
http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/hatcheck/
NOTE: You may subscribe to the RSS HatCheck news feed through FeedBurner. Simply enter your email address in the box at the llower right side of the page, and click “subscribe.”

•Notable Fedora Commons organizational announcements
http://www.fedora-commons.org/collections/announce

•Community articles in the Wiki
Short “how-tos”, “faqs”, whitepapers, annotated resource lists contributed by community members
http://www.fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/FCKB/Community+Articles

•Fedora Commons Registry
… A destination and a jumping-off point for collaboration and connection among organizations, projects and institutions using Fedora
https://fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/FCCommReg/Fedora+Commons+Registry

•On Demand “All About Repositories” Web Seminars Feb.-June 2009, co-sponsored by Sun-DSpace-Fedora Commons-SPARC
http://www.education-webevents.com/

•FOLLOW FedoraRepo on twitter
http://twitter.com/FedoraRepo

•FOLLOW Duraspace on twitter
http://twitter.com/duraspace

•Georgia Tech Institutional Repository “SMARTech”
http://smartech.gatech.edu/
OR09 presentations: general sessions, user group meetings and posters will be available here by mid-June. You may currently find some OR09 presentations here: http://conferences.library.gatech.edu/or/or09/schedConf/presentations

PLEASE NOTE: HatCheck will be published on June 25, 2009. If you would like to get the word out about  your project or organization’s news, events and accomplishments please send items to Carol Minton Morris by close of business on June 22, 2009.