NOW AVAILABLE: Production-Ready Fedora 3.0 Fits With the Web

July 30, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sandy Payette, Executive Director Fedora 
Commons, spayette@fedora-commons.org
Dan Davis, Chief Software Architect, ddavis@fedora-commons.org,
Fedora Commons, 607 255-2773

NOW AVAILABLE: Production-Ready Fedora 3.0 Fits With the Web

Ithaca, NY  Today Fedora Commons released version 
3.0 of the popular Fedora software that completes 
all general release features. Dan Davis, Chief 
Software Architect, Fedora Commons, explained, 
"We are pleased to offer a Fedora 3.0 that is a 
foundational step towards a model-driven content 
architecture." He went on to say, "Users will 
find it simpler to maintain and operate their 
repositories with version 3.0-it's more scalable 
and fits better into the Web."

Fedora 3.0 features the Content Model 
Architecture (CMA), an integrated structure for 
persisting and delivering the essential 
characteristics of digital objects in Fedora. The 
software is available at 
<http://www.fedora-commons.org/> and at 
<http://sourceforge.net/projects/fedora-commons>. 
The Fedora CMA plays a central role in the Fedora 
architecture, in many ways forms the over-arching 
conceptual framework for future development of 
Fedora Repositories. Fedora 3.0 features include:

Overview of new Features in Fedora 3.0 Release
-Content Model Architecture - Provides a 
model-driven approach for persisting and 
delivering the essential characteristics of 
digital content in Fedora
-Fedora REST API - A new API that exposes a 
subset of the Access and Management API using a 
RESTful Web interface contributed by MediaShelf
-Mulgara Support - Fedora supports the Mulgara 
2.0 Semantic Triplestore replacing Kowari
-Migration Utility - Provides an update utility 
to convert existing collections for Content Model 
Architecture compatibility
-Relational Index Simplification - The Fedora 
schema was simplified making changes easier 
without having to reload the database and 
significantly increasing scalability
-Dynamic Behaviors - Objects may be added or 
removed dynamically from the system moving system 
checks into run-time errors
-Error Reporting - Provides improved run-time error details
-Multiple Owner as a CSV String - Enables using a 
CSV string as ownerID and in XACML policies
-Java 6 Compatibility - Fedora may be optionally 
compiled using Java 6 while retaining support for 
Java Enterprise Edition 1.5 deployments
-Relationships API - API-M has been extended to 
enable adding, removing, and discovering RDF 
relations between Fedora objects
-Revised Fedora Object XML Schemas - The new 
schemas are simpler, supporting the CMA and 
removing Disseminators
-Atom Support - Fedora objects can now be 
imported and exported in the Atom format
-Messaging Support - Integrates JMS messaging for 
sending notification of important events
-Validation Framework - Provides system operators 
a way to validate all or part of their 
repository, based on content models
-3.0-Compatible Service Releases - New versions 
of the OAI Provider and GSearch services are 
compatible with Fedora 3.0. The GSearch release 
also enables messaging support for GSearch, which 
allows for more robust and seamless integration 
with the Fedora repository.
-Many new enhancements--see the Release Notes: 
<http://www.fedora-commons.org/documentation/3.0b2/userdocs/distribution/release-notes.html>.

The Fedora CMA builds on the Fedora 
architecture-downloaded more than 20,000 times in 
the last 12 months-to simplify use while 
unlocking potential. Dan Davis explains the CMA 
in the context of Fedora 3.0, "It's a hybrid. The 
Fedora CMA handles content models that are used 
by publishers and others, and is also a computer 
model that describes an information 
representation and processing architecture." By 
combining these viewpoints, Fedora CMA has the 
potential to provide a way to build an 
interoperable repository for integrated 
information access within organizations and to 
provide durable access to our intellectual works.
Please continue to contribute your observations 
and comments to 
<fedora-commons-developers@lists.sourceforge.net> 
or <fedora-commons-users@lists.sourceforge.net>. 
Fedora 2.2.2 will continue to be supported for 
production repositories.

Acknowledgements
The release of Fedora 3.0 is made possible by a 
collaborative partnership with community 
developers and the Fedora core software 
development team that include: Chris Wilper 
(Fedora Commons), Eddie Shin (Fedora Commons), 
Bill Branan (Fedora Commons), Paul Gearon (Fedora 
Commons and Mulgara), Robert Haschart (Fedora 
Commons), Ross Wayland (Fedora Commons), Aaron 
Birkland (Fedora Commons and National Science 
Digital Library), Jim Blake (Fedora Commons and 
National Science Digital Library), Matt Zumwalt 
(API-M LITE, Media Shelf), Gert Schmeltz Pedersen 
(GSearch), Cuong Tran (API-M LITE, Digital 
Innovation South Africa), Pradeep Krishnan, 
Ronald Tschalär, Bill Arrow, Jim Paul  and many 
others.

About Fedora Commons
In 2007 Fedora Commons 
<http://fedora-commons.org/> was established as 
the permanent home of Fedora open source software 
which is a robust, integrated, repository 
platform that enables storage, access and 
management of virtually any kind of digital 
content. Fedora has been downloaded 25,000 times 
in the last year, and is used by over 125 
national libraries, institutions, and businesses 
worldwide to do more with their digital 
collections, enable long-term preservation of 
digital assets, build on a flexible and 
extensible, modular architecture, keep control of 
their data, and participate in Fedora's 
innovative community. To find out about Fedora 
organizations, institutions and projects see: 
<http://fedora.info/wiki/index.php/Fedora_Commons_Community_Registry>.