LoomWare

iPad App for Islandora Repo Now Available

2012-06-01T10:11:18-03:00

Our new iPad application, Telling Island Stories, is now available in the App Store (and yes it does support the retina display). TIS is a front-end to a number of Islandora-based digital collections, with a focus on story and geo-level presentation of digital assets. As a lightweight iPad app it will give you a good example of what can be done with a powerful Islandora-Fedora driven backend. Some highlights of this version:

- provision of "collection" views via Media (images, audio, books, maps), Stories (associated subsets of assets) and Communities (assets sharing a geographic range);
- a map-based view of all assets, including media-specific pins, pin aggregation for larger numbers of items in close proximity (including the ability to turn this feature on and off), search/display via the map;
- flexible display including ability to toggle metadata display on and off by item, filter items by type;
- delivery of high quality retina-display quality books in a page

Items available at launch include photographs from the University of PEI and community groups, herbarium specimins, digital books from the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute, oral histories from the Dutch Thompson collection and maps from UPEI and partner organizations. As content is added to the Islandora system it automatically shows up in the app - no need to download a new app just for new content. A future version will allow the user to submit content to a central repository.

We are especially proud of the collaborative approach to making content from all parts of Prince Edward Island available to the world. If you are visiting PEI this summer you definitely want to download the free TIS app to your iPad!

TIS is a joint development venture between UPEI and DiscoveryGarden, an Islandora services company, along with generous funding from Innovation PEI. If you are interested in adapting the TIS app to your own Fedora/Islandora framework drop me a note.

Islandora 7 Code Sprint Underway

2012-05-29T10:17:39-03:00

I'm a little late in getting this out, but you know how it goes.

The University of PEI and DiscoveryGarden teams are hard at work on a 2-week code sprint to create the initial Islandora/Drupal 7 release. We have been so busy for the last year that this target kept slipping by, so we decided to go with the time-honored sprint+scrum approach - and I'm glad we did! The output of the team after a week and a half is incredible - you can follow their efforts via code updates at Github, or by following team leader Jonathan's Green's blog posts at the Islandora site.

The team is updating 2 test sites (1 ubuntu and one centos) as they code, providing a set of test sites for reviewing the latest developments. Some of the new features recently added include:

a port of the Collection Manager Tool and integration into the new Collection Module (which will make the creation/management across the repo much easier);
a complete port and improvements to the Islandora Solr Search module as well as a merge of the Advanced Search and Extended Search blocks;
many tweaks to the display of images and collections;
template approach to the display of metadata (using Drupal pre-processor and templating functions) to make the job of Drupal themer's much easier;
support for Fedora's Enhanced Content Model Architecture specifically parsing of the DS-COMPOSITE-MODEL to determine what should be added to a collection;
addition of a new Add datastream form.

The team will put their keyboards down this Friday and take stock, but based on what I've seen so far the new release will be awesome :-) More updates to come.

New Islandora Site in Italy

2012-05-29T09:33:16-03:00

I want to start highlighting new Islandora sites as we come across them, so please let me know when you find or create a new site using the Islandora framework.

The BESS (Biblioteca Elettronica Di Scienze) Digital Archive is a new Islandora site in Italy:

Archivio digitale di BessBiblioteca digitale sulle trasformazioni sociali ed economiche del Piemonte e Torino | Digital library on the social and economic transformations of the Piedmont and Turin

The BESS team has also done a great job of documenting their effort on a Dev Page, including a comprehensive PDF guide to their processes. Excellent work and a good indication of what can be done using open source software!

UPEI Senate Approves Open Access Policy

2012-05-29T09:16:15-03:00

After a lengthy but very fruitful process UPEI's Senate approved a new open access policy. Some highlights of the policy:

immediate deposit of scholarly articles (including faculty, grad student and undergraduate works) in the UPEI repository is encouraged (a mandate was not considered a viable option - next time...);
encouragement for scholars to retain copyright, including a reference to the SPARC addendum;
deposit of research data into a UPEI Virtual Research Environment is also encouraged, along with links to the final scholarly work.

IslandScholar.ca is the UPEI open access repository, and it is currently undergoing a major re-architecture with a new launch this summer. The UPEI effort is also a key part of the new Islandora Institutional Repository Solution Pack, which will be released this summer as well.

Michael Geist - Why Universities Should Not Sign the Access Copyright

2012-05-25T10:27:05-03:00

A new post from Michael Geist is added to the positive message from the growing list of universities not signing the AC/AUCC "unModel" License. What more do Canadian universities need to make the only decision that is in the best interests of our institutions and learners?

Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, There is Still Leadership in This World

2012-05-15T21:15:59-03:00

UBC announced today that they ARE NOT signing the Access Copyright agreement. This is a sensible decision and one that speaks to what every university in Canada should do. If you are a Canadian institution that has not yet signed on to the Access Copyright/AUCC "license" pleae forward this to your decison-makers and encourage the same approach. I love the statement encapsulating why:

We believe we are taking the bolder, more principled and sustainable option, which best serves the fundamental and long-term interests of our academic community.

Finally. Leadership that stands up for the fundamental rights and freedoms of learners.

Elite Universities' Online Play (Again)

2012-05-02T17:13:07-03:00

The Coursera effort described in this article is an interesting new twist in the ongoing effort to "redefine" the delivery of university education. There has been a lot of buzz about Stanford's recent massively open online courses efforts, especially since they address the opportunity to deliver to tens of thousands of students at the same time. Surely this is an indication of the evolution of technology in the last decade, but I suspect also a little of the innovation that comes from a desire to see more revenue from courses offered in uncertain fiscal times. It all sounds interesting until you get to the "Can I get credit?" question that will get asked, and the discussion at the end of the article that essentially admits that credit would likely only come with an element of on-campus learning too. Still an awesome idea to make such compelling and diverse course offereings available for anyone to take - isn't this what universities are ultimately about?

If There Was Ever Any Doubt...

2012-04-17T08:09:35-03:00

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?

Not a Bad Idea, If Not For...

2012-04-16T14:24:14-03:00

This recent announcement from the federal government seems like a long time coming and one I personally am mostly in favour of, if only the government wasn't also decimating other services for the "those with less", including Internet access. Would this not have made so much more sense together with an announcement about the INCREASE in funding for CAP, instead of the one killing the CAP program? If I was a pessimist (and I'm not) I would think this was another brick in the wall around a much less open and democratic government. But hey, this is Canada! Isn't it?

Subject: Notification of Deficit Reduction Action Plan Implications for PWGSC's Depository Services Program / Avis concernant les répercussions du Plan d'action pour la réduction du déficit sur le Programme des services de dépôt de TPSGC

Sent: Apr 13, 2012 2:02 PM

FYI / A titre d'information ...

La version française suit la version anglaise.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Further to the 2012 Budget, tabled on March 29, 2012, this is to advise you of a decision that affects the business relationship between Public Works and Government Services Canada Publishing and Depository Services Program, and your organization.

As part of the Deficit Reduction Action Plan, the decision has been made to completely transition all publications published by the Publishing Program and publications provided by departments to the Depository Services Program from traditional print to exclusively electronic publications. This aligns with the Government of Canada's greening government initiatives. This also aligns directly with Canadians' increasing access to electronic information and use of e-publications. Recent statistics from publications.gc.ca show a significant increase in the number of unique visitors to the site which was close to 2.2 Million and the number of downloads close to 10 Million annually. The resulting demand for paper publications has greatly declined. This decline is expected to continue as the trend towards the use of the Internet to access publications increases. By fully transitioning to free web-based publications we will eliminate the costs associated with producing, printing, distributing and warehousing hard copies.

In 2014, Publishing and Depository Services will no longer be producing, printing, or warehousing hard copies of publications. However the Depository Services Program will continue to provide access to Government of Canada publications through publications.gc.ca. Other services under the Publishing and Depository Services Program remain as they are.

Please be assured of our utmost co-operation in limiting the impact of this decision on your operations and in continuing to offer a high-quality service.

Thank you for your understanding and continued co-operation.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to communicate with us at: publications@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Monsieur, Madame,

À la suite du budget de 2012 présenté le 29 mars 2012, ceci est pour vous informer d'une décision qui influe sur la relation d'affaires entre Éditions et Services de dépôt de Travaux publics et Services gouvernementaux Canada et votre organisation.

Dans le cadre du Plan d'action pour la réduction du déficit, la décision a été prise que toutes les publications publiées par le Programme des éditions du GC, et des publications que fournissent les ministères au Programme des services de dépôt, passeront de l'impression traditionnelle vers la publication électronique seulement, et ce dans deux ans. Cette mesure cadre avec les initiatives d'écologisation du gouvernement du Canada. Cette mesure cadre également avec la population canadienne qui a de plus en plus un accès direct à l'information et qui utilise les publications électroniques. Des statistiques récentes de publications.gc.ca montrent une augmentation importante du nombre de visiteurs uniques sur le site qui était près de 2,2 millions et du nombre de téléchargements de près de 10 millions par année. La demande pour les publications sur papier a ainsi fortement diminuée. Cette baisse devrait se poursuivre tant que la tendance vers l'utilisation de l'Internet pour acc!

é der aux publications continue d'augmenter. En procédant à une transition complète vers une publication gratuite sur le Web, cela nous permettra d'éliminer les coûts associés à la production, l'impression, la distribution et l'entreposage des copies papier.

En 2014,les Services d'éditions et de dépôt ne feront plus la production, l'impression ou l'entreposage de copies papier des publications. Toutefois, le Programme des services de dépôt continuera de fournir l'accès aux publications du gouvernement du Canada par le biais du site publications.gc.ca. Les autres services offerts par les Éditions et Services de dépôt demeurent les mêmes.

Vous pouvez compter sur notre entière collaboration en vue de réduire les répercussions de cette décision sur vos opérations et continuer d'offrir un service de grande qualité.Je vous remercie de votre compréhension et votre collaboration continue.

Si vous avez des questions, n'hésitez pas à communiquer avec nous à :publications@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.

Man With the Google Glasses

2012-04-15T11:02:57-03:00

Ross Douthat's NYT column struck a chord this weekend while I was trying out some new iPad apps. My strongest thought was that the Google Glasses reflect the impeding death of the iPhone, with such a compelling interface and integration with personal space - then I remembered how much I hate wearing glasses. Ross's article also raises some interesting points, summed up with:

In this kind of world, the Man in the Google Glasses might feel like a king of infinite space. But he’d actually be inhabiting a comfortable, full-service cage.