NEWS RELEASE: Beta One Release of Fedora 3.0

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Fedora Commons:
Sandy Payette
(607) 255-9222, <mailto:payette@cs.cornell.edu>payette@cs.cornell.edu
Dan Davis
(607) 255-6090, <mailto:ddavis@fedora-commons.org>ddavis@fedora-commons.org

Ithaca, NY - December 20, 2007 The 12th release of the popular Fedora 
software is now available for testing. The first beta version of 
Fedora 3.0 featuring a Content Model Architecture (CMA), an 
integrated structure for persisting and delivering the essential 
characteristics of digital objects in Fedora, is available at 
http://www.fedora-commons.org/. The Fedora CMA plays a central role 
in the Fedora architecture, in many ways forming the over-arching 
conceptual framework for future development of Fedora Repositories.

Like a well-thumbed book on a shelf, digital content is stored with 
the expectation that intellectual works will be the same each time 
they are accessed, whether the content was put away yesterday, or 
many years ago. Fedora is a simple, flexible and evolvable approach 
to delivering and sharing the "essential characteristics" of enduring 
digital content. Librarians, archivists, records managers, media 
producers, authors and publishers use patterns of expression formats 
such as books, journals, articles, collections to convey the 
essential characteristics of content. The capabilities of digital 
tools combined with essential characteristics of digital works result 
in well-understood patterns of expression for different types of 
content models.

The software engineering community also utilizes patterns of 
expression for the development of complex computer systems. The same 
concepts that satisfy agile IT infrastructures can help provide 
solutions for creating, accessing and preserving content. The Fedora 
CMA builds on the Fedora architecture-downloaded more than 18,000 
times in the last 12 months-to simplify use while unlocking potential.

Dan Davis, Chief Software Architect, Fedora Commons, 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.

We encourage the Fedora community to download and experiment with 
Fedora 3.0 Beta 1.  It is particularly important to receive comments 
while the software is still being developed to help ensure this 
important update to the Fedora architecture meets the needs of the 
community.  Please contribute your observations and comments  to 
<mailto:fedora-commons-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>fedora-commons-developers@lists.sourceforge.net 
or 
<mailto:fedora-commons-users@lists.sourceforge.net>fedora-commons-users@lists.sourceforge.net. 
Fedora 2.2.1 will remain available for all production repository 
instances.

API-M-LITE

A simple web interface for managing and modifying objects is an item 
on many Fedora Users' wish lists. For the release of Fedora 3.0 Beta 
1 developer Matt Zumwalt, <http://www.yourmediashelf.com/>MediaShelf, 
decided to take the lead by creating  API-M LITE. Zumwalt says,  "The 
idea of  Restful interfaces has gotten a lot of traction lately, 
especially in the Ruby world.  It seemed like a good fit for Fedora, 
so MediaShelf decided to make it happen. I have been using the API 
since August and am certain that it will enable all of us to start 
using Fedora in radical new ways. We are very happy to contribute 
this code to Fedora Commons and look forward to making further 
contributions in the future."

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), Robert Haschart (Fedora Commons),, Ross 
Wayland (Fedora Commons),Matt Zumwalt (API-M LITE, Media Shelf), 
Cuong Tran (API-M LITE, Digital Innovation South Africa), and 
<http://www.fedora-commons.org/participate.php>many others.

Overview of new Features in Fedora 3.0 Beta 1 Release

-Content Model Architecture - Provides a model-driven approach for 
persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital 
content in Fedora
-API-M LITE - An experimental interface for the creating, modifying, 
and managing digital objects using a Web interface in a REST style
-Mulgara Support - Fedora now supports the Mulgara 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 with having to reload the database
-Dynamic Behaviors - Object may added or removed dynamically from the 
system moving system checks into runtime errors
-Error Reporting  - Provides improved runtime error details
-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
-Many new enhancements! (see: Release Notes)

Overview of Features Planned for the Fedora 3.0 Final Release

-Simple JMS Messaging - Integrates JMS messaging for sending 
notification of important events
-Administrative Client - Revised to support Content Model 
Architecture enhancements
-Message Update for GSearch - Provides a reference implementation for 
using JMS notifications to update search engines
-On-line Validation Testing - Hooks into the runtime error system to 
provide more meaningful error reports include conformance to content 
models and referential integrity checks
-Off-line Validation Testing - Provides system operators a way to 
validate the integrity of part or all of their repository
-Updated OAI Provider - Revises the OAI Provider to take advantage of 
the Content Model Architecture
-Updated Utilities - Revises all the Fedora-provided utilities for 
integrate properly with the Content Model Architecture
-- 
Carol Minton Morris
Communications and Media Director
Fedora Commons
http://www.fedora-commons.org

Cornell Information Science
301 College Ave.
Ithaca, NY 14850
607 255-2702
clt6@cornell.edu