[codemeta-pmc] 2023 Progress and Next Steps

[Morane GRUENPETER]

Dear CodeMeta PMC,

As we near the end of 2023, I want to thank you for your important contributions to overseeing the evolution of CodeMeta. Your efforts have been truly valuable.

Throughout this year, significant milestones have been achieved:

1. In February, we implemented the governance model, establishing the governance repository.
2. In May, we released CodeMeta v2.1, introducing new crosswalks.
3. In August, CodeMeta v3.0 was released, incorporating changes to the vocabulary.

Our community has grown steadily, with users and contributors relying on CodeMeta to fulfill the important goal of establishing research software as a first-class output in the scholarly ecosystem through software metadata.

## The CodeMeta identifer

The new identifier of CodeMeta is:
 https://w3id.org/codemeta.
This is the result of the discussions regarding issue #321 (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/issues/321).
We have made updates to the README and json.ld with the new identifier.
Additionally, Valentin has prepared a PR to update the website (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta.github.io/pull/48), which we plan to merge on Monday, Dec 18th, pending any blocking comments.

## Next steps
As we look ahead to 2024, we are considering the next steps for the CodeMeta vocabulary, crosswalks, and community.

### Current PR Status
Currently, we have 12 open PRs, including major changes to the vocabulary. Two possible paths lie ahead: 

a 3.1 release solely for crosswalks or a direct move to V4.0. 

PR #274 (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/pull/274) is one of the important PRs as it involves switching funding to schema.org.

To enhance the machine-actionable format for mappings, we are reviewing existing crosswalks and contemplating the adoption of the SSSOM format (https://mapping-commons.github.io/sssom/).

Several PRs proposing changes to the vocabulary require further discussion within the community:
- #322 - Remove restriction of 'identifier' to URIs (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/pull/322)
- #275 Add containers for contributors and keywords (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/pull/275)
- #257 Remove softwareSuggestions (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/pull/257)
- #250 Switch maintainer to schema.org version (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/pull/250)

### New properties
Issues tagged as `suggested property` could potentially lead to new PRs (https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/labels/suggested%20property).

Another discussion we've delayed concerns documentation properties. To achieve consensus, I've opened a special discussions tab here: https://github.com/codemeta/codemeta/discussions/335.

### Proposal for v4.0
I propose sharing the current status with the community and issuing a call for contributions until the end of January 10th, 2024. Post this deadline, we aim to merge existing and validated PRs and release v4.0, incorporating vocabulary changes and additional crosswalks.

Please share any objections or feedback regarding this proposal by Friday Dec 15th at 18:00 CET. Your input is crucial as we continue to develop and maintain the CodeMeta project.

Best Regards,

--
Morane Ottilia GRUENPETER

Chair of the CodeMeta PMC
Head of Open Science Operations
Software Heritage http://www.softwareheritage.org
@INRIA Paris
personal website: http://moranegg.github.io/