Mark, Jason and all - Thank you for your feedback.
I understand and agree with the need to use terms consistently -- and certainly see from a developer's perspective that calling things "addon modules" has a very specific meaning that you all have been careful to define and set standards for. In the case of the new registry, I will have "customizations" substituted for "addons" to attempt to avoid confusion in the community. I would argue, though, that we need to come up with a term that is easily interpreted by those outside the DSpace community or those very new to the community as a better substitute for "addons" than "customizations" (which seems to be a bit generic and intimidating for an non-developer). We have had a lot feedback that non-developers want to know what other functionality/features can be added to DSpace. And, it is natural to think that if you go to a software website you will see what options are available. This was why last year the DSpace Global Outreach Cmte (with feedback from some committers) developed the Addons/Extensions page on dspace.org (http://www.dspace.org/add-ons-and-extensions/addons/). I completely agree that the list is imperfect -- because the items are not true "addon modules" as the developers have defined them. The list is even more imperfect now since the release of 1.6, as several of the items listed are now included in the standard download of DSpace. Imperfect as this list is, it does provide some idea of which specific features there is considerable work completed on -- certainly enough that someone else could re-use -- to those trying to figure out if DSpace is something that will meet / could meet their needs. I propose that we work on the definition of all terms you list below (and any others) as a community on the wiki. I suggest this effort begin with the developers, as they have the best sense of what the terminology means across most software application. As a workspace to start the process I have created an wiki page (http://fedora-commons.org/confluence/display/DSPACE/Terminology). I invite anyone to visit the page and add their thoughts. Following some agreement on terms we can re-vamp the dspace.org Addon/Extensions page, perhaps moving it back to the wiki to ease input and maintenance. Let me know if you have other suggestions to help move this issue forward. Valorie Hollister Director of Community Development, DSpace Project DuraSpace [email protected] On May 8, 2010, at 5:02 PM, Jason Fowler wrote: > I concur with everything Mark said. The interface is great! However, I also > found those designations confusing. > > Also, is there any way that dissertations and theses could be added somewhere > besides the addons section? I would love to be able to know where all of the > DSpace ETD collections were. > > Thanks, > Jason Fowler, CA, MSLS > Archives and Special Collections Librarian > The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary > Vice President, ALABI > [email protected] > ________________________________________ > From: Mark Diggory [[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 4:46 PM > To: Valorie Hollister > Cc: [email protected]; [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Dspace-tech] New and Improved DSpace Registry > > Valorie, > > Congratulations on the new interface. > > I like the layout and the search interface. However, I have a minor > semantic clarification, I would recommend changing "Addons Extensions > Integrations" to just "Customizations". Many of the features listed > in the "Addon" category appear to be local customizations to DSpace > done as a local case and not full fledged reusable "Addons" or > "Modules" that can be easily added to DSpace. I also recommend that > the community really needs to properly clarify what is meant by > "Addon", "Extension", "Integration", "Plugin", "Module", "Patch" and > other terms. In the developers group we now already have a very > strict definition of what an "Addon Module" is. We need this > clarification when describing to users what the DSpace developer > community officially considers the endorsed manner in which to package > and distribute customizations to DSpace. Addon Modules should be > Maven Artifact Modules, packaged and distributed via Maven > repositories such as the Maven central repository in a manner such > that they can be included into your build process as dependencies with > simply a few lines of configuration. > > It would probably be good if there were a separate classification for > "Addon Modules" that is different from other Customizations. > > http://wiki.dspace.org/Modules > > Having a well defined terminology will assure that we all understand > what is being described when we are conversing with one another about > how we have changed DSpace. > > Cheers, > Mark > > -- > Mark R. Diggory > Head of U.S. Operations - @mire > > http://www.atmire.com - Institutional Repository Solutions > http://www.togather.eu - Before getting together, get t...@ther > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > DSpace-tech mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
