DuraSpace at Public Access to Federally-Supported Research and Development Data and Publications Meetings | DuraSpace

"DuraSpace staff members Jonathan Markow and Carol Minton Morris participated in two planning meetings focused on sharing information related to Public Access to Federally-Supported Research and Development Data and Publications. The meetings were held at the National Academies in Washington, DC May 14-17, 2013 to address issues related to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memorandum requiring that the results of federally funded research be made openly accessible. The meetings were sponsored by a group of cooperating agencies and the National Research Council (NRC) Division on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (DBASSE). In the public comment period DuraSpace was introduced as an independent not-for-profit organization committed to our shared digital future in collaboration with academic, research, cultural, government and technology communities. It was emphasized that our open source repository projects help knowledge communities ensure that current and future generations will have access to our digital heritage while hosted services enable organizations to archive and preserve content with minimal maintenance. It was made clear that DuraSpace supports the OSTP initiative to promote open access to, dissemination and long-term stewardship of publicly funded research. DuraSpace strongly recommended that technology solutions deployed for this initiative be based on open source software applications, which have advantages relevant to the OSTP directive. 'For one thing, licensing expenses are non-existent compared to the often steep costs of commercially licensed software.  Open source software comes with freely available source code, as well, and is supported by active and engaged communities of practice.  Government agencies and departments deploying open source applications like DSpace and Fedora are able to join a global community of developers to add or change features to meet specific requirements. Changes may be contributed back to the community so that others can take advantage of them and help maintain them.  Or, they may simply use the software without any obligation to write program code themselves.  Finally, open source software is most often based on open standards, which facilitate interoperability with other applications that adhere to standards. Most importantly, users of open source software may invest in its use without any fear that changes to proprietary code will someday stop an application from functioning or, even worse, become obsolete and simply disappear from the marketplace, stranding users without a growth path.  It seems to us that this kind of assurance is critical when one is considering the preservation of our nation’s research data and publications.' You may access archive videos of the webcast, written statements, PowerPoint presentations of the formal speakers and rapporteur and a transcript of the verbal comments made at the meeting here ..."