LoomWare

If There Was Ever Any Doubt...

this latest battle of the IT overlords should dismiss any that remains. The emerging legal details in the Google-Oracle battle over Java highlights why Oracle and open source are like oil and water. The attempt to copyright a language is the fascinating detail in this skirmish. Maybe we should strive to actually speak in Java and see what would happen if we did so freely at the next big Oracle love-in?

NOW AVAILABLE: Fedora GSearch Version 2.4.1 | DuraSpace

NOW AVAILABLE: Fedora GSearch Version 2.4.1 | DuraSpace

The latest GSearch is available and includes some very nice new features: use of Tika for metadata/text extraction; support for Solr/Lucene 3.5 and ability to embed RISearch queries in Solr/Lucene. 

Update: Islandora 11.3.1 | Islandora

I know, this is a month old, but it is the latest Islandora release :-)

Islandora has been updated to version 11.3.1. This minor release addresses a bug in the 11.3.0 release - all users of Islandora 11.3.0 should update to 11.3.1. More details can be found on the Release Notes and Downloads page.

via islandora.ca

New Islandora Release for Q1 2011

The Islandora project announces an RC1 candidate for our Q1 2011 release

The Islandora team has been working hard on the 2011 roadmap, and the new RC1 is just the start. We are actually up to release 11.1.1, which is a bug release for the 1st 2011 release. We will be following suit with a new VM in the next few days, so stay tuned.

via islandora.ca

New DuraCloud Beta Released

Thinking about moving your ILS to the cloud? Wondering how you are going to manage all that research data over the next few decades? You may want to keep your options open and work with an open system like DuraCloud from the good folks at DuraSpace. DuraCloud is open source and yet works with common commercial cloud systems (currently Amazon, AWS and Rackspace) and provides a number of useful features for building an enhanced repository infrastructure.

The Islandora team will be piloting DuraCloud for a number of use cases, including running the entire stack in the cloud, so stay tuned for new developments on that front.

Access 2010 Conference - Don't Miss It!

A quick promo for the upcoming Access 2010 Conference, which is looking to be a typical stimulating Access conference, with lots of time to spend with your Library colleagues.

Conference Site

Fedora Repository 3.4 Released

Fedora Repository 3.4 Documentation - Fedora Repository 3.4 Documentation - DuraSpace Wiki

The latest release of Fedora is now available. Some of the new features:

• DC, RELS-EXT, RELS-INT as Managed Content: The Dublin Core and Relationships datastreams can now be stored as Managed Content, improving performance particularly when these datastreams are large. A migration tool is included to migrate existing inline XML datastreams to managed content datastreams
• REST API relationships methods: New methods in the REST API for adding and manipulating relationships in RELS-EXT and RELS-INT
• Enhanced Content Models: Including the ability to validate objects against their content models, and support for optional datastreams
• Optimistic Locking: The REST API now provides support for optimistic locking to ensure no one else has made a change to an object since you started editing it
• FeSL Authentication: FeSL Authentication can now be used independently of FeSL's experimental authorization mechanism, and is now the default authentication mechanism (although the old mechanism can be specified during installation). FeSL Authorization is still disabled by default.
• FeSL policies as Fedora Objects: XACML policies are now managed in FeSL directly through the Fedora API by manipulating Fedora objects containing a FESLPOLICY datastream
• Logging reconfiguration without restart: Using the new SLF4J and Logback logging framework, logging configuration changes now become effective without having to restart the server
• Akubra low-level storage: Akubra is now considered production-ready and is the default low-level storage module
• REST API improvements and bug fixes: further stabilizing the REST API
• Deprecation of "LITE" APIs: As of this release, the API-A-LITE and API-M-LITE APIs are deprecated, and will be removed in a future release. You are encouraged to migrate any code using these APIs to use the new REST API.

Relais Backtracks on Open Source Commitment

I couldn't find this recent press release on the Relais website, so have pasted in the original e-mail release below. Probably best for me not to comment beyond the lack of surprise that Relais has no open source product, or even a strategy, 2 years after announcing their intentions.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 8, 2010
 
Update on Relais and Open Source
 
In 2008 Relais International announced that we would make parts of our Relais products open source.  This has however remained a low priority for us in light of other commitments to customers; as a result we have not yet made a release under an open source license.  Currently our resources are focussed on the launch of Relais D2D – Discovery to Delivery - we will provide an update on the status of an open source license by the end of 2010 after the implementation of Relais D2D.
 
Relais International remains fully committed to ensuring our products, including Relais D2D, are open.  This affords our customers the maximum flexibility in integrating Relais with systems in their own libraries.  To this end Relais actively supports well known library standards such as NCIP, Z39.50, OpenURL and ISO 10160/1 (ISO ILL).  In addition we offer and continue to develop web services to facilitate interaction between disparate systems – for example the ability to add and query requests. 
 
Relais™ International Inc is based in Ottawa, Canada and has been selling systems to support resource sharing, interlibrary loan and document delivery services since 1996.  Relais International (www.relais-intl.com) assists libraries in implementing intelligent and automated methods to support requesting through to delivery of documents. Relais products range from scanning stations through to fully integrated request management, scanning and delivery software suitable for a single library through to a consortium.
 
For more details contact:
 
Dan Denault                            dan.denault@relais-intl.com
Relais International Inc.
Phone: 888-294-5244 X 229 (in North America)    +1-613-226-5571 X 229

The OLE Project | Mellon foundation awards $2.3 million for OLE development

The OLE Project | Mellon foundation awards $2.3 million for OLE development

Good news - and just under the wire! It would be nice to see this effort integrate with projects like XC, Evergreen and Islandota to build that open library ecosystem that we all need and deserve.

White House Shift to Open Source Draws Mostly Praise -- Application Development Trends

One of the more recent developments in the adoption of open source CMSs. I guess if it is good enough for the Whitehouse it should work for the rest of us?

The White House's recent deployment of the Drupal open source content management system for its Web site has created a stir among industry observers, who speculate that the move may portend a shift toward more government use of open source, social media and emerging semantic Web technologies.