Islandora Foundation contracting with DGI for "Modularizing Islandora" work

[Rosie Le Faive]

Following from the recent Call for Proposals, the Islandora Foundation has partnered with discoverygarden inc. to do some of the tasks listed in the Proposed Changes to Islandora Defaults and Islandora (ver 3).  Bids were assessed based on the procedure for selecting service providers and following the conflict of interest policy. The tasks included in this contract are:

1. Refactor Islandora Defaults from a Feature to an Installable Site (making it easier to maintain)

2. Scope out the modularization of Islandora.

When completed, we will have:

• A replacement for Islandora Defaults that is:

  • Easier to modify and improve

  • Better documented

  • More straightforward in how it’s to be used

• Scoping documents and/or plans for improving islandora’s modularity (“Phase 2”), covering the following questions:

  • What would it take to switch the node-media relationship?

  • How can we store useful and meaningful information about derivatives and their provenance/generation?

  • How can we offer a simpler option for derivatives (while not disregarding the scalability of the current system)?

  • How can we design our metadata for multiple use cases?

  • What would it take to (and should we) bundle the primary functions of the Islandora module into separate optional modules?

  • What would documentation look like with an Islandora made up of individual optional components?

  • What changes would be required for us to host our modules on Drupal.org?

We were not able to include all the work items listed in the original Proposed Changes document (linked above), and while this work will include scoping of phase 2 it will not cover its implementation. 

The Foundation is open to partnering with institutions who are interested in helping to fund further development. If you have questions about this work or future work, please contact Rosie Le Faive (rlef...@upei.ca) or comm...@islandora.ca.