CollectionSpace for Technology Service Providers and Developers October 22,

Speakers Carl Goodman, Principal Investigator, Museum of the Moving Image Patrick Schmitz, Co-Technical Lead, University of California, Berkeley Dan Sheppard, Co-Technical Lead, University of Cambridge Colin Clark, Co-Technical Lead, University of Toronto Angela Spinazze, Senior Project Advisor, ATSPIN consulting

CollectionSpace is an open-source, web- based software application for the description, management, and dissemination of museum collections information – from artifacts and archival materials to exhibitions and storage.

Project Partners Museum of the Moving Image, New York University of California, Berkeley, Information Services and Technology Division University of Cambridge, Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies University of Toronto, Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, Fluid Project

Funding The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Program in Research in Information Technology Program supports the creation of "enterprise" administrative and infrastructural software by means of distributed, collaborative open-source development projects Collaborations with RIT-funded projects ConservationSpace Ole Project OpenCast Project Bamboo

Project Team The CollectionSpace project team is composed of domain experts, designers, architects, and developers from each partner organization. Development teams work in cycles to issue regular software releases.

Initial Releases 0.2: Released October, Allows user login, creation of intake record, and auto-fill intake and object identification numbers. 0.3: November, Includes ID service with choice of sequential identification; vocabulary service, to provide access to controlled lists; and support for acquisition. 1.0: Release June Eight core procedures and related functionality covered, including: acquisition, cataloging, loans, vocabulary control, media handling, customization, security, and documentation.

Benefits to Service Providers Open Source Case for Business Museums, Technology, and Outsourcing Reliance on outside technology expertise Growing acceptance of hosted applications and SaaS CollectionSpace Collections management core function of museums Cyclical reevaluation of existing collections management systems Funded implementation projects

CollectionSpace Architecture and Deployment Model Patrick Schmitz U.C. Berkeley IST/Data Services Co-Technical Lead, CollectionSpace

UCB and CollectionSpace Dozens of world-class museums and research collections. Range from small to very large Cover a very broad set of domains IST/DS supports many of them Many existing systems aging, brittle Solutions must integrate with the enterprise Solutions must support research, teaching, and public service Team combines enterprise architecture expertise with museums domain experience

Planned Deployment Models 1. Must support individual museums that want to run their own system Single package runs on server or VM/slice 2. Must support hosted, SaaS model Support many museums on single instance Provides more cost-effective solution at scale 3. Customization, extension a top priority!

Services, SOA, and the Project How does our piece fit into the whole? Why SOA Enterprise standard for integration, reuse Scales well to support many instances, SaaS Exposes information as Web Services for re-use, enabling mashups and new applications What SOA is and isnt Note: SOA SOAP. We like ROA/REST Services model common entities, and relations, but are extensible to provide a flexible data model for each collection

Schema Extension Model Schema model for a customized service deployment

Services Technology Stack All open-source software No vendor lock-in, source code available Core layers have broad community Commercial consulting available Base layers built to support ECM Document+Image management and processing tools Currently using Nuxeo (with abstraction layer); could move to Alfresco, or other CMIS-compliant base Our layers provide CollectionSpace-specific services: CMS entities+relations (CollectionObject, Loans, Location, etc.) Authentication/authorization, workflow, multi-tenancy, etc.

C-SpaceServices NuxeoPlatformServices Services Stack

System/Resource Requirements Java-based, so runs on many platforms Tested on VM slices running Fedora Linux distribution Tested on Windows XP Should work on Mac OS, needs more testing Runs on commodity server hardware We test on modest VM slices with 1GB of memory Web-based solution for application No client install, no end-user upgrade hassles Tested across major browsers and OS platforms

CollectionSpace Application Dan Sheppard University of Cambridge, CARET Co-Technical Lead, CollectionSpace

Application Layer Why is it needed? What is it / isnt it? How does it work? Where does it fit?

Configuration

Plugins and Configuration

Plugins and Paths

Plugins

Application Layer Why is it needed? What is it / isnt it? How does it work? Where does it fit?

CollectionSpace User Interface Colin Clark University of Toronto, Fluid Project Co-Technical Lead, CollectionSpace

CollectionSpace UX Goals A holistic product Designed by museums, not technologists Easy to use, but not simplistic Accommodates your workflow & collection Accessible to a wide variety of user needs

How Were Making it Easy

Highly Configurable Museum collections are diverse CollectionSpace is built to be customized Add new fields Change labels Take things away Skin it for your environment Schema-lessness: no assumptions about data model baked into the user interface

Out of the Box Experience

Customized Museum Experience

A Web-Oriented Architecture No exotic technologies: just the Web HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Familiar and extensible Clean, simple URLs + useful data feeds Built using Fluids Infusion application framework jQuery RESTful APIs and JSON

Flexible and Accessible Highly skinnable, even for users Can accommodate diverse user needs Works great with the keyboard Supports assistive technologies Accessible, but still rich and dynamic!

Q+A Angela Spinazze, Moderator

Getting Involved We want to: Learn more about what you can bring to the table Match your skills with deployments that will require them Establish a network of preferred providers Build a sustainable community of users and service providers

Contact Information Carl Goodman: the team: Visit the website: Browse the wiki: wiki.collectionspace.org