[Pasig-discuss] NEWS RELEASE: VIVO v1.8 is Now Available

[Carol Minton Morris]

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

May 5, 2015

Read it online: http://bit.ly/1FNdIML
Contact: Mike Conlon <mconlon at duraspace.org>

*VIVO v1.8 is Now Available*

The VIVO team has announced that VIVO v1.8 is now available with key
features and improvements. The VIVO Project <http://vivoweb.org/> is an
open source, open ontology, open process platform for hosting information
about the interests, activities and accomplishments of faculty and students
providing an integrated view of the scholarly work of an organization.

   - *DOWNLOAD VIVO* v1.8 at http://vivoweb.org/download.
   - *MORE INFORMATION* about the features described below is available in
   the VIVO 1.8 Release Notes
   <https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/VIVO/VIVO+v1.8+Release+Notes>.

*More modular architecture*
The VIVO application is now partitioned into a main body and seven modules
focusing on specific application-related functions including content
persistence, application configuation, the search engine, the search
indexer, reasoning functions related to the ontologies in VIVO, the system
to store files such as uploaded images, and the tool to process uploaded
images.  The modules provide well-defined interfaces, encouraging
alternative implementations from the VIVO community.

*Performance improvements*
The time required for a full re-inferencing of VIVO's content has been
dramatically reduced and rebuilding the search index is also faster in
v1.8, due largely to reduced memory usage. VIVO v1.8 also starts up in
about half the time required by VIVO v1.7.

*Interactive management of "faux" properties*
VIVO v1.6 introduced the idea of faux properties, which provide improved
specialization of property labeling and display on profile pages without
adding new OWL properties to the VIVO-ISF.  VIVO v1.8 includes new pages
for viewing and managing faux properties interactively.

*Individuals represented by VCards*
VIVO v1.8 supports the practice of representing otherwise unidentified
co-authors and other people external to the host institution using VCard
information, rather than as FOAF persons with VIVO pages in their own right
until further information about their identity is known. In this way, the
data model is not overwhelmed by co-authors, co-investigators, and other
persons who are incidental to the institution.

*Triple store flexibility*
VIVO can be configured to use several different types of triple stores, but
as of this release has only been extensively tested in production
environments with Jena SDB, which remains the default configuration.  VIVO
has an interface to a generic triple store that supports standard SPARQL
query and update protocols, such as Jena TDB running either within the
application or through an Apache Fuseki SPARQL endpoint.  VIVO also has
recently been confirmed to run on Virtuoso via a SPARQL endpoint, but again
has not been extensively tested with that triplestore.

*Added schema.org <http://schema.org/> markup*
The HTML markup in profile pages now includes "microdata" tags that are
recognized by most popular search engines. These tags allow the search
engine to easily extract structured data from VIVO, improving the
appearance of search results.

*A new customization guide*
The VIVO documentation now includes a guide entitled Changing the
appearance of VIVO. Much of this information was already available in the
VIVO wiki. It has  been curated, updated, and augmented with new
customization techniques. This guide is available in the VIVO wiki, as a
tree of 22 wiki pages. It is also included in the VIVO distribution, as a
118-page PDF document.

*A new search index builder*
The search indexer code has been re-written and re-designed, to make it
more efficient, more maintainable, and more configurable. Most changes to
the search index configuration can now be accomplished by changes to a
runtime file.

*Additional improvements*
In addition to numerous bug fixes, changes were made to reduce duplication
of CSS and JavaScript files, to improve display features and performance,
to make VIVO compatible with Java 1.8, and to improve protection against
cross-site scripting attacks and click-jacking.

*GitHub committers who contributed to this release:*
Nate Prewitt (University of Colorado)
Graham Triggs, Alex Viggio (Symplectic)
Ted Lawless (Brown University)
Patrick McElwee (Duke University)
Brian Lowe (Ontocale)
Jim Blake, Huda Khan, Tim Worrall, Jon Corson-Rikert, Holly Mistlebauer
(Cornell University)


*Learn more at the VIVO Conference*
There’s still time to take advantage of reduced early bird registration for
the upcoming VIVO Conference that will be held in Boston, MA August 12-14,
2015. The program is designed to help you harness the full potential of
research networking, discovery, and open research.

   - Workshops program available here
   <https://www.etouches.com/ehome/vivo2015/286217/>
   - Register here <https://www.etouches.com/ehome/vivo2015/register/>

*About VIVO*
VIVO (http://vivoweb.org) is an open source, open ontology, open process
platform for hosting information about the interests, activities and
accomplishments of scholars. VIVO supports open development and integration
of science and scholarship through simple, standard semantic web!
technologies. VIVO was originally funded by Cornell University and the
National Institutes of Health (U24 RR029822) and is currently a
community-supported incubator project under the DuraSpace umbrella.

*How does DuraSpace help?*
The DuraSpace (http://duraspace.org) organization is an independent
501(c)(3) not-for-profit providing leadership and innovation for open
technologies that promote durable, persistent access and discovery of
digital data. Our values are expressed in our organizational byline,
"Committed to our digital future."

DuraSpace works collaboratively with organizations that use VIVO to advance
the design, development and sustainability of the project. As a non-profit,
DuraSpace provides technical leadership, sustainability planning,
fundraising, community development, marketing and communications,
collaborations and strategic partnerships, and administration.
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