Fedora Commons
 | |
| Developer(s) | DuraSpace |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2003-05-16 |
| Stable release | 3.7.0 / 2013-09-19 |
| Development status | Active |
| Platform | Java |
| Type | digital asset management |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| Website | fedora-commons.org |
Fedora (or Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture) is a digital asset management (DAM) architecture upon which institutional repositories, digital archives, and digital library systems might be built. Fedora is the underlying architecture for a digital repository, and is not a complete management, indexing, discovery, and delivery application. It is a modular architecture built on the principle that interoperability and extensibility are best achieved by the integration of data, interfaces, and mechanisms (i.e., executable programs) as clearly defined modules.
History
Fedora was originally developed by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Virginia Library[1] as an architecture for storing, managing, and accessing digital content in the form of digital objects inspired by the Kahn and Wilensky Framework.[2] Fedora began as a DARPA and NSF-funded research project at Cornell University's Digital Library Research Group in 1997, where the first reference implementation and a CORBA-based technical implementation were built.[3] Since then, several modifications have been made to the architecture, and in late 2005, version 2.1 was released.[4] Fedora defines a set of abstractions for expressing digital objects, asserting relationships among digital objects, and linking "behaviors" (i.e., services) to digital objects.
In 2003 Red Hat, Inc. applied for trademark status for the name "Fedora" to be associated with their Linux operating system project.[5] Cornell and UVA formally disputed the request and, as a final settlement, all parties settled on a co-existence agreement that stated that the Cornell-UVA project could use the name when clearly associated with open source software for digital object repository systems and that Red Hat could use the name when it was clearly associated with open source computer operating systems.[6]
Technology
Fedora provides a general-purpose management layer for digital objects.[7] Object management is based on content models that represent data objects (units of content) or collections of data objects. The objects contain linkages between datastreams (internally managed or external content files), metadata (inline or external), system metadata (including a PID – persistent identifier – that is unique to the repository), and behaviors that are themselves code objects that provide bindings or links to disseminators (software processes that can be used with the datastreams). Content models can be thought of as containers that give a useful shape to information poured into them; if the information fits the container, it can immediately be used in predefined ways.
Fedora supports two types of access services: a management client for ingest, maintenance, and export of objects; or via API hooks for customized web-based access services built on either HTTP or SOAP. A Fedora Repository provides a general-purpose management layer for digital objects, and containers that aggregate mime-typed datastreams (e.g., digital images, XML files, metadata). Out-of-the-box Fedora includes the necessary software tools to ingest, manage, and provide basic delivery of objects with few or no custom disseminators, or can be used as a backend to a more monolithic user interface.
Fedora supports ingest and export of digital objects in a variety of XML formats. This enables interchange between Fedora and other XML-based applications and facilitates archiving tasks.
- Digital Object Model The FEDORA digital object model allows tight management of metadata and digital content, regardless of format. The system is scalable and flexible allowing for FEDORA to associate objects with external or distributed repositories. Objects and behaviour are separated making it possible to change the required behaviours by altering the mechanisms without changing the objects themselves.
- Server architecture is based upon four main Application Programming Interfaces (APIs): manage, access, search and the Open Archival Initiative service (for metadata harvesting).
The Fedora Project is currently supported by the DuraSpace organization.
See also
References
- ↑ Staples, T., Wayland, R., Virginia Dons FEDORA: A Prototype for a Digital Object Repository. D-Lib Magazine. July/August 2000.
- ↑ Kahn, R., Wilensky R., A framework for distributed digital object services, International Journal on Digital Libraries. Volume 6 Issue 2, April 2006. Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg.
- ↑ Payette, S., Lagoze, C., Flexible and Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture (FEDORA). Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries Second European Conference, ECDL’98 Heraklion, Crete, Greece September 21--23, 1998.
- ↑ Staples, T., Wayland, R., Payette, S., The Fedora Project: An Open-source Digital Object Repository Management System. D-Lib Magazine. April 2003.
- ↑ Becker, D., Red Hat, researchers in name tiff. CNET News.com. November 6, 2003.
- ↑ Fedora repository project history.
- ↑ Green, R., Awre, C., The REMAP Project: Steps Towards a Repository-enabled Information Environment. Ariadne Magazine. April 30, 2009.
Further reading
- Acs, B., et al., A general approach to data-intensive computing using the Meandre component-based framework. Wands '10 Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Workflow Approaches to New Data-centric Science. June 2010.
- Allinson, J., Feng, Y., Building flexible workflows with Fedora, the University of York approach. Open Repositories 2010 Conference, Duraspace User Group. July 2010.
- Baldiris, S., Avila, C., Rivera, P., Guevara, J., Fabregat, R., Web editing module for tagging metadata of the Fedora Commons repository learning objects under DRD and LOM standards. FIE '11 Proceedings of the 2011 Frontiers in Education Conference. October 2011.
- Bayliss, S., Dow, M., Allinson, J., Using Semantic Web technologies to integrate thesauri with Fedora to support cataloguing, discovery, re-use and interoperability. Open Repositories 2011 Conference. June 2011.
- Bayliss, S., Dow, M., Fedora repositories and Persistent Identifiers - an architectural approach that puts persistent identifiers at the heart of the content model. Open Repositories 2011 Conference. June 2011.
- Bertazzo, M., Di Iorio, A., Preserving and delivering audiovisual content integrating Fedora Commons and MediaMosa. Open Repositories 2011 Conference. June 2011.
- Blekinge, A., Christiansen, K., Enhanced Content Models. Open Repositories 2010 Conference, Duraspace User Group. July 2010.
- Curley, A., The Hydraulics Project: Empowering Communities to Build a Digital Library Utilizing Fedora and an Event-Driven Service-Oriented Messaging Framework. Open Repositories 2011 Conference. June 2011.
- DiLauro, T., Choosing the components of a digital infrastructure. First Monday Journal. May 3, 2004.
- Ferreira, M., Baptista, A., Ramalho, J., A Foundation for Automatic Digital Preservation. Ariadne Magazine. July 30, 2006.
- Gourley, D., Battino Viterbo, P., A sustainable repository infrastructure for digital humanities: the DHO experience. EuroMed'10: Proceedings of the Third international conference on Digital heritage. November 2010.
- Green, R., Awre, C., Waddington, S., The CLIF Project: The Repository as Part of a Content Lifecycle. Ariadne Magazine. March 9, 2012.
- Green, R., The RepoMMan Project: Automating metadata and workflow for Fedora. D-Lib Magazine. September 2005.
- Hamer, G., Custom Rich Client, Multimedia Interfaces for the Web and Mobile for Fedora and Duracloud Using Adobe Open Source Solutions. Open Repositories 2010 Conference, Duraspace User Group. July 2010.
- Kennan, M., Kingsley, D., The state of the nation: A snapshot of Australian institutional repositories. First Monday Journal. February 2, 2009.
- Ludwig, J., Enke, H., Fischer, T., Aschenbrenner, A., Diversity and Interoperability of Repositories in a Grid Curation Environment. Open Repositories 2010 Conference, General Sessions. July 2010.
- Puschmann, C., Reimer, P., DiPP and eLanguage: Two cooperative models for open access. First Monday Journal. October 1, 2007.
- Salo, D., Retooling Libraries for the Data Challenge. Ariadne Magazine. July 30, 2010.
- Soroka, A., The Use Of Message-Driven Workflows On The Service Bus Pattern for Indexing Fedora Repositories. Open Repositories 2011 Conference. June 2011.
- Varanka, M., Varjonen, V., Ryhänen, T., Developing publishing process support system with Fedora and Orbeon Forms - A case study. Open Repositories 2010 Conference, Duraspace User Group. July 2010.
- Webb, F., Paulson, J., Harvest: A Digital Object Search and Discovery System for Distributed Collections with Different File Types and Structures. Open Repositories 2010 Conference, Duraspace User Group. July 2010.