[Pasig-discuss] SWORDV3 Project - Stakeholder Call

[Arthur Pasquinelli]

SWORDV3 Project - Stakeholder Call

The SWORD protocol was created in 2007 to allow simple 
machine-to-machine deposit of papers into repositories. Approximately 
five years later, SWORDV2 added the ability to update previously 
transferred objects along with more use-case specific extensions to AtomPub.

The SWORDV3 project has been funded by Jisc with two key aims for the 
next generation of the SWORD Protocol:

To bring SWORD up-to-date with the developments in the repository sphere 
in the last 5 years, with alignment to new protocols such as 
OAI-ResourceSync and new use-cases such as data publishing and complex 
objects.

To establish community and governance mechanisms for the standard and 
supporting code libraries to ensure ongoing maintenance and evolution. 
This will include a technical validation process to allow third party 
libraries to be hosted under the SWORD brand.

The project was formally announced at PASIG 2017 in Oxford and the RDA 
10th Plenary in Montreal in the last two weeks. We are looking for 
expressions of interest in becoming involved as stakeholders in the 
project: to make suggestions, review activities and meet as required 
over the coming months. In particular, we are interested in making 
contact with people who may wish to develop SWORD V3 libraries for their 
preferred platforms or languages since we aim to provide some support 
for such activities during the project. Please contact one of the 
project team (ideally by mid-October) if you are interested in 
participating, and indicate if you are interested in the technical or 
community aspects of the project (or both!).

The key members of the project team are:

Dom Fripp - Jisc (Funder) - Project Manager, SWORD user through the Jisc 
Research Data Shared Service
Richard Jones - Cottage Labs Ltd - Technical Lead, SWORD contributor and 
implementer
Neil Jefferies - Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford - Community 
Lead, SWORD user through Data2paper project (and internally within the 
Bodleian Library)

On the technical side, we are creating a document that brings together 
the change requests and new use cases that have collected since the 
release of SWORDV2, culled from the github site, message posts and 
preliminary discussions with some stakeholders earlier this year. This 
has also suggested a way forward that breaks with SWORD’s AtomPub roots 
in order to provide a more up-to-date and flexible protocol. We will 
circulate this to stakeholders soon.

On the community side, we will circulate a similar document outlining 
possible models for developing the SWORD community in the future. This 
is a much more open set of choices since the SWORD user-base has 
expanded considerably since its first conception, and we are open to 
further suggestions! The final arrangements must be aligned with 
community wishes in order to be an effective sustainable solution.


Neil Jefferies (neil.jefferies[at]bodleian.ox.ac.uk)
Dom Fripp (dom.fripp[at]jisc.ac.uk)
Richard Jones (richard[at]cottagelabs.com)