Digital Public Library of America Announces Interim Technical Team

From a DPLA Announcement by Rebekah Heacock

We recently held a small technical working meeting in Cambridge that brought together a group of talented colleagues from libraries and non-profits with excellent technical minds working on commercial products to collectively brainstorm a rough outline for a generative DPLA platform. Coming out of this productive meeting, we are pleased to say that the initial development phase of the common core platform (between now and April 2012) will be led by an interim development team drawn from existing Harvard Library and Berkman Center staff, in regular consultation with the Steering Committee and Technical Aspects workstream.
Interim Development Team
The initial group includes David Weinberger, Paul Deschner, and Matt Phillips from the Harvard Library system and Daniel Collis-Puro and Sebastian Diaz from the Berkman Center. In addition to their experience and development expertise, this multi-talented group has many strengths, including their pre-existing working relationship with one another; their proximity to and regular engagement with the Steering Committee, DPLA Secretariat, and DPLA Technical Aspects workstream; and, important in practical terms, their ability to begin working immediately on a very tight timetable. By acting as the primary drivers of the interim technical tasks (described in more detail below), they are well-positioned to get immediate traction. Consistent with the technical principles we adopted in June 2011, this group will pursue an open and consultative process, while still making rapid progress on these ambitious tasks.
At the same time, we will begin drafting job descriptions for longer-term development roles within the DPLA. The members of this interim team may compete with others for the longer-term role; they may also roll off to other projects after the April 2012 DPLA plenary meeting in San Francisco.
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Throughout this effort, the Technical Aspects workstream will advise the development team on key policy and technical framing issues. This workstream, led by Chris Freeland of the Missouri Botanical Garden and Martin Kalfatovic of the Smithsonian Institute, will continue to serve as a channel for public input into the development process, providing community guidance and feedback to the development team and helping to surface key technical questions and considerations. We are deeply grateful to these volunteers who continue to provide excellent and timely guidance on the project’s development.

Read the Complete Announcement
Includes list of deliverables the tech team as been asked to produce/

Filed under: Libraries, Public Libraries, Resources