Megan ForbesProject Manager & Functional LeadMuseum of the Moving Image

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, Research and

Content Technologies, Information Services and Technology

University of Cambridge, Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies

Early Adopters Museum of the Moving Image

Statens Museum for Kunst

University of California, Berkeley Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology

University and Jepson Herbaria

History of Art Visual Resources Collection

Walker Art Center

Planning phase: Balboa Park Online Collaborative

Significant Releases

CollectionSpace Release 1.0: Eight core procedures and related functionality covered, including:

acquisition, cataloging, loans, vocabulary control, media handling, customization, security, and documentation.

CollectionSpace Release 1.8 Added support for media handling, hierarchical vocabularies, delete,

import, export, and groups. Significant changes under the hood include improvements to performance, increased support for localization, simplification of configuration, and upgrade of the core platform to use PostgreSQL.

CollectionSpace Release 2.0 An expansion of the system's support for core collections management

functionality to improve the functionality of all of the above; plus, list management, advanced search, reporting, templates, and batch processing.

Functionality Overview

Acquisition

Cataloging

Loans In and Out

Location

Movement

Media handling

Reporting

Import

Export

Advanced search

Core collections management system activities:

Working with Records

Functionality Continued Vocabulary and authority control Advanced search User management Roles and permissions

Procedure-level Vocabulary-level Admin-level

Multi-tenant capable (key to CSpace-as-a-Service) User centered design

Advanced Search

User Management

Roles and Permissions

Term List Management

Vocabularies and Authorities Follow standard set out in ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005

, Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies

Types: Static term lists Dynamic term lists Controlled vocabularies (hierarchical) Authorities (combinations of controlled vocabs)

Currently support person, organization, and storage location, expanding to include place, concept, and work

Development Process

The CollectionSpace project team is composed of domain experts, designers, architects, and developers from each partner organization, and is structured around four main work areas:

Development Process Begins with the big picture Schema, user stories, and workflows (i, ii) are

created Designs are developed Scope is narrowed down based on what can be

accomplished during one development sprint Tasks for each layer are created Development (usually 2-3 weeks per release) QA – full or partial depending on release goals Release

Development Challenges Many moving parts Easy to have unrealistic expectations, both within

the project team and among early adopters Geography and isolation of roles/responsibilities

can lead to developer communication lag CSpace architecture occasionally requires

asynchronous development which can extend development times

Communication

Wiki

IRC

Video conferencing

Skype

Email lists

Jira (issue tracker)

Google calendar

Face-to-face

ALL OPEN!

Time and distance require a smörgåsbord of solutions:

Communication

Twice-weekly meetings with everyone so that all teams members know what’s going on

Define workflow and process and stick to it Which questions go to which list?

Who is responsible for follow-up?

Everyone must learn all tools, must participate, and contribute

Openness is key

Documentation is difficult, a drag for developers, and essential for deployers. Plan to spend time doing it on a regular basis to lessen the burden

Schedule communications and documentation sprints:

CollectionSpace Phase III began January 2012 Phase III will focus on the development of

CollectionSpace as a sustainable enterprise, with key activities:

Develop a business model and strategic plan Develop and deploy CollectionSpace as a

hosted service in two trial environments Complete initial core software development

cycle

What’s Next

Administration and Management Legal establishment and support Management of software intellectual property issues Maintenance of a repository of core software code and re-

usable components Financial management Administrative support Conference logistics Communications

CollectionSpace Organization

Software Stewardship and Governance Coordination of support for community-led design of new

features and functions Coordination of CollectionSpace hosting and service providers Coordination of quality assurance and distribution activities Maintenance of a repository of core software code and re-

usable components Guidance and processes for community code contributions Management and administration of a marketplace for tools and

other modules that will operate in the CollectionSpace framework

Management of relationships with other open source initiatives and support networks that have synergy with CollectionSpace

CollectionSpace Organization

Software Hosting and other External Services Managing and/or contracting with cloud-based computing

providers for storage, computation, and preservation services

Support to museum professionals who use CollectionSpace Technical and implementation support to organizations

using CollectionSpace as a stand-alone application or a hosted service

Software development services to end-users for enhancements to/refinements of existing functionality

Software engineering services, as required, for new feature development

CollectionSpace Organization

Key requirements: Schema extension model Domain-specific extensions Architecture that supports multiple tenants Software-as-a-service trials

CollectionSpace-as-a-Service

Schema Extension Model

Common Entity Schema(common semantics)

Domain-specific extensions(common across many institutions)

Deployment-specific extensions(specific to one deployment or workflow)

Domain-Specific ExtensionsPerforming artsWalker Art Center

Digital media Museum of the Moving Image

Fine ArtStatens Museum for Kunst

Herbaria University & Jepson Herbaria

Anthropology Hearst Museum of Anthropology

Visual resources History of Art Visual Resources

Collection

Common Entity Schema(common semantics)

Domain-specific extensions(common across many institutions)

Deployment-specific extensions(specific to one deployment or workflow)

Extensions in progress

Multi-Tenancy

CollectionSpaceServer

IdentityProvider Tenant 1

IdentityProvider Tenant 2

authenticate

DocumentRepositoryTenant 1

DocumentRepositoryTenant 1

Domain (default)

Workspaces

CollectionObjects

Locations

Domain (default)

Workspaces

CollectionObjects

Locations

Nuxeo Nuxeo is an open-source enterprise content

management system (ECM) Enterprise content management systems are

used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content – in this case, collections management data

Nuxeo provides the model for our schema-based data, version support, search and indexing, a rules engine, and some default security (Auth and AuthZ)

Cspace does not require Nuxeo – an abstraction layer is built in that would allow us to swap in another ECM if recommended/required

Nuxeo Pros

Open-source Provides good support both from Nuxeo user community

and via fee-for-service at their .com arm Allows us to support much more complex schema than

other ECMs, a requirement with museum data Many services already exist that we can work from

rather than building from scratch Does the heavy lifting for our multi-tenancy framework,

one tech option behind CSpace-as-a-Service Provides a framework that includes other tools such as a

digital asset management system that may be of use to our community

Nuxeo Pros

Based in Europe They have recognized the importance of CollectionSpace

and became a supporter of the project in 2011 Very good communications between developers at

Nuxeo and CollectionSpace Cons

Have dependencies on their development schedule

SaaS Trials

CollectionSpaceOrganization

Walker Art Center

Museum of the Moving Image

Balboa Park Online Collaborative

University of California, Berkeley

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of

Anthropology

University and Jepson Herbaria

History of Art Visual Resources Collection

cloudstorage

Start small and focus on deliverables Commit sufficient resources to user interface

design and development Commit sufficient resources to quality assurance Don’t underestimate administrative burden Manage expectations with early adopters Ensure that technical support for early adopters is

identified as a role/responsibility for all team members

Lessons Learned

Commitment to user-centered design Emphasis on configurability Focus on sustainable architecture and

components Open and transparent processes Emphasis on standards Documentation, documentation, documentation

Lessons Learned

Megan ForbesCollection Manager, Museum of the Moving ImageProject Manager, CollectionSpacemforbes@movingimage.uswww.collectionspace.org718-777-6834

Slides and links available on the Cspace project wiki, just go to wiki.collectionspace.org and click on “events” in the left menu bar.

Questions?