Winchester, MA  Balancing digital collection development costs with strategies to ensure that digital assets remain openly accessible comes down to evaluating affordable solutions. Sustainability planning leads to weighing the advantages of high-cost proprietary online solutions that can result in long-term data lock-up against freely available open source technology solutions that give institutions control of their digital assets.

DuraSpace open source technology projects–DSpace and Fedora offer users two ways to create open access repositories. DSpace is an out-of-the-box repository application that has made it possible for more than 1,000+ institutions worldwide to make their institutional resources widely available. 

The Fedora open source repository platform is an unqualified success in the digital preservation and repository arena. Since its inception more than 12 years ago the project has seen three major releases, has hundreds of institutional adopters worldwide, and is the centerpiece of countless institutional systems where preservation is a primary function. The principles, best practices and community contributions to ongoing open source software development have made the DSpace and Fedora projects successful.

The following resources are offered to explain the open source development process, provide DSpace and Fedora project background and information and introduce DSpaceDirect as a fast and easy way to launch an open access DSpace repository.

Unpacking the meaning behind "Open Source"

Open Source: What is it? Practices, Processes, Advantages and Risks

RECORDING: http://www.slideshare.net/DuraSpace/open-source-presentation-by-jon...

This recording and slides offered by DuraSpace Chief Strategy Officer Jonathan Markow provide an overview of issues around developing software that is truly "open source". By giving users direct access to the code used to produce software adopters–or third parties with whom they contract–may audit, rebuild, extend, and support open source software without depending on the original authors, or on any specific organization. In most cases open source development results in a dynamic community ecosystem which in turn creates a robust and sustainable solution.

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Open Source Projects in Action

COAR (Coalition of Open Access Repositories) Interview with DuraSpace CEO Michele Kimpton

VIDEO RECORDING: http://www.slideshare.net/DuraSpace/coar-interview-1-2913

Earlier this year COAR executive Director Alicia Lopez Medina conducted a video interview with DuraSpace CEO Michele Kimpton to learn more about DuraSpace plans for open source DSpace and Fedora project development over the next three years. She also asked Kimpton for her views on driving forces behind Open Access repository development and more.

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How to Get an Open Source-Open Access DSpace Repository Up and Running Fast

Getting Started with DSpaceDirect

RECORDING: youtube.com/user/dspacedirectvideos

DSpaceDirect (beta) is a quick and cost effective hosted service from DuraSpace that allows users to store, organize, and manage open source DSpace repository content in the cloud. In this recording Tim Donohue, technical lead for the DSpace project, explains how to use DSpaceDirect to preserve and provide open access to academic faculty and student papers, projects, and research making content searchable by end users and easily managed by content curators. More information: http://dspacedirect.org/.