Hydra from 35,000ft Chris Awre Hydra Europe Symposium London School of Economics, 23 rd April 2015.
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Transcript of Hydra from 35,000ft Chris Awre Hydra Europe Symposium London School of Economics, 23 rd April 2015.
Hydra from 35,000ft
• How did Hydra come into being?
• Why have we developed Hydra?
• What can Hydra provide?
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 2
How did Hydra come into being?
• Three institutions: Hull, Virginia, Stanford
– All users of Fedora – http://fedora-commons.org
• Fedora can be complex as it is so flexible
– Lots of effort in getting solutions up and running
• All interested in how a standard solution could be created that enabled full use of Fedora’s flexibility…
• …yet could be adapted to meet local, individual needs?
• It all started at Open Repositories 2008, in Southampton
– (the benefit of speaking at conferences)
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 3
Fundamental Assumption #1
No single system can provide the full range of repository-based solutions for a given institution’s needs,
…yet sustainable solutions require a common repository infrastructure.
No single institution can resource the development of a full range of solutions on its own,
…yet each needs the flexibility to tailor solutions to local demands and workflows.
Fundamental Assumption #2
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 4
Hydra
• A collaborative project
• Develop an open source toolkit that enables powerful use of Fedora’s capabilities through lightweight tools
• Unfunded (in itself – supported by partner institutions)
– Activity based on identification of a common need
• Aim to work towards a reusable framework for multipurpose, multifunction, multi-institutional repository-enabled solutions
• Hydra ‘heads’
– Single body of content, many points of access into it
• Timeframe – Initially 2008-11 (but now indefinite)TextHydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 5
Fedora and end-user interfaces
Storage (e.g., SAN, Cloud)
Fedora
Interface
Need an end-user interface
Fedora is the digital repository system, holdingthe content in a highly structured way
The content is stored either locally or in theCloud (currently a slice of the SAN)
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 6
Fedora and Hydra
Storage (e.g., SAN, Cloud)
Fedora
Hydra Hydra provides user interfaces and workflowsover the repositoryConcept of multiple Hydra ‘heads’ over singlebody of content
Fedora is the digital repository system, holdingthe content in a highly structured way
The content is stored either locally or in theCloud (currently a slice of the SAN)
Hydra
Hydra Hydra
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 7
Why Hydra?
• Why have a digital repository?
– We need to manage digital content
• Fedora has always encouraged the structured management of digital content
– How are files/objects organised?– How do they need to be described?– How do they relate to each other?
• Hydra provides the tools to exploit this and create real digital libraries
– Hydra is driven by the needs of the content
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 8
Fundamental Assumption #1
No single system can provide the full range of repository-based solutions for a given institution’s needs,
…yet sustainable solutions require a common repository infrastructure.
No single institution can resource the development of a full range of solutions on its own,
…yet each needs the flexibility to tailor solutions to local demands and workflows.
Fundamental Assumption #2
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 9
Repository as application …Multiple silos?ETDs
(Theses)
Books, Article
s
Images
Audio-Visual
Research Data
Maps & GIS
Docu-ments
ETD IRImage
DBDAM ? Geospa
-tial Inf.
Records
Mgmt.
Management
Access Preservation?
Tailored? Sustainable?
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 11
Repository as infrastructureETDs
(Theses)
Books, Article
s
Images
Audio-Visual
Research Data
Maps & GIS
Docu-ments
Digital Repository
Scalable, Robust, Shared Management
and Preservation Services
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 12
One Body, Many Heads…ETDs
(Theses)
Books, Article
s
Images
Audio-Visual
Research Data
Maps & GIS
Docu-ments
hydraScalable, Robust,
Shared Management and Preservation
Services
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 13
Fundamental Assumption #1
No single system can provide the full range of repository-based solutions for a given institution’s needs,
…yet sustainable solutions require a common repository infrastructure.
No single institution can resource the development of a full range of solutions on its own,
…yet each needs the flexibility to tailor solutions to local demands and workflows.
Fundamental Assumption #2
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 14
Collaboration
• We all want the best solution for our own organisations
• We like to share experiences and ideas
– For example, through coming to events like this one
• What makes us decide that working with others may be beneficial?
• For Hydra
– Common need– No identifiable solution elsewhere– Opportunity to be innovative and create new solutions– Collaboration makes open source work
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 15
Barriers to collaboration
Inertia
• Waiting for the perfect tool, funding call or “the answer”
• “It’s complicated”, or the challenge is too large
• Ownership of content needs sorting out
Cost and capacity
• Limited capacity/skills within an individual organisation
• Doing “something” means stop doing something else
Running out of steam
• Collaborations get so far…
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 16
Network benefits
Economic benefit- Scaling up delivery
Technical benefit- Concentrated development
Practical benefit- Delivering morevalue locally
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 17
Collaboration at the network level
• Models currently exist
– SDLC hosting of IRs for Scottish Universities– White Rose– EPrints Services / BMC Open / Digital Commons
• Hydra community
– Mutual interest and commitment to creating common solutions that fit local needs
• Focus on repository software service sharing
– Can other repository services be shared or developed collaboratively?
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 18
What can Hydra provide?
• Technology
– A set of open source tools that enable the building of local repository infrastructure• Build your own
• Build on the work of others
• Community
– A collaboration of partners (now 28) who are investing in ongoing development of the Hydra platform
• A range of repository solutions
– Covering many material types and ways of presenting digital content
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 19
Hydra technical implementation
• Fedora
– All Hydra partners are Fedora users
• Solr
– Very powerful indexing tool, as used by…
• Blacklight
– Prior development at Virginia (and now Stanford/JHU) for OPAC
– Adaptable to repository content
• Ruby
– Agile development / excellent MVC / good testing tools
• Ruby gems
– ActiveFedora, Opinionated Metadata, Solrizer and othersHydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 20
Hydra partnership
• From the beginning key aims have been and are:– to enable others to join the partnership as and when they
wished (Now up to 28 partners)– to establish a framework for sustaining a Hydra community
as much as any technical outputs that emerge• Establishing a semi-legal basis for contribution and partnership
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”
(African proverb)
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 22
Hydra Partners
• Three continents
• Multiple types of organisation
• Multiple types of repository
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 23
Eight strategic priorities
1. Solution bundles
2. Turnkey applications
3. Vendor ecosystem
4. Training
5. Documentation
6. Code sharing
7. Community ties
8. Grow the User base
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 24
Reflections (from Hull)
• Only could have provided local solution through collaboration
• Hydra can’t do everything, but provides capability and confidence we can adapt and implement solutions to meet needs, now and in the future
– Our digital curation journey is ongoing, and we know where we are going
• Relationship between Hydra and Fedora is vital
– Community support required for each and across them
• Success has come through good software design and patterns as much as from ability to address digital curation use cases
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 25
To conclude
Technology + community = sustainability
Hydra Europe Symposium | 23-24 April 2015 | 26
Access
Digitalrepository
Preservation
Management and maintenance