---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2005 14:28:20 -0500 From: Sandy Payette To: diglib@infoserv.inist.fr Subject: [DIGLIB] Fedora 2.0 Press Release Hello there, Below (and attached) please find the press release for Fedora 2.0. The Fedora Project provides powerful open-source digital repository software and is a joint developed effort by Cornell University and the University of Virginia with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. For more information go to the project web site at: http://www.fedora.info/ http://www.fedora.info/ - Sandy Payette ================================================================ For Immediate Release Fedora 2.0 - A Powerful Open-Source Solution for Digital Repositories The Fedora Project (http://www.fedora.info) is proud to announce the release of version 2.0 of the Fedora open-source digital repository software. This release represents a significant increase in features and functionality over previous releases. New features include the ability to represent and query relationships among digital objects, a simple XML encoding for Fedora digital objects, enhanced ingest and export interfaces for interoperability with other repository systems, enhanced administrative features, and improved documentation. More than ever, Fedora is capable of serving as the foundation for many types of information management applications, including institutional repositories, digital libraries, records management systems, archives, and educational software. As with prior versions of the software, all Fedora functionality is exposed through web service interfaces. At the core of this functionality is the Fedora object model that enables the aggregation of multiple content items into digital objects. This allows objects to have several accessible "representations." For example, a digital object can represent an electronic document in multiple formats, a digital image with its descriptive metadata, or a complex science publication containing text, data, and video. Services can be associated with digital objects, allowing dynamically-produced views, or "virtual representations" of the objects. Historical views of digital objects are preserved through a powerful content versioning system. The new Fedora 2.0 introduces the "Resource Index" which is a module that allows a Fedora repository to be viewed as a graph of inter-related objects. Using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), relationships among objects can be declared, and queries against these relationships are supported by an RDF-based triple store. Fedora 2.0 also introduces "Fedora Object XML" (FOXML) which is a simple XML format for encoding Fedora digital objects. To support multiple XML standards, Fedora's ingest/export interface has been enhanced, permitting digital objects to be encoded in different formats. Currently, there is support for METS and FOXML. In future releases other XML formats will be supported, including MPEG21-DIDL. Other new features include a mass-update utility for modifying objects, a new administrative reporting interface, improved documentation, and tutorials. The Fedora open-source software is jointly developed by Cornell University and the University of Virginia with generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Fedora 2.0 marks the final milestone in Phase I, a three year project to develop the core Fedora Repository system. Now underway, Fedora Phase II is a three year development project that will focus on advanced features including workflow, digital preservation, policy enforcement, information networks, and federated repositories. For more information, contact Ronda Grizzle (rag9b@virginia.edu), Technical Coordinator; Sandra Payette (payette@cs.cornell.edu), Co-director Cornell University; or Thornton Staples (tls@virginia.edu), Co-director University of Virginia. Sandy Payette Cornell Information Science 301 College Ave. Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14850-4623 Tel: (607) 255-9222 URL: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/payette