Dr. Simon Fisher1, Anthony Lennan1
1University Of Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Simon started his working life in corporate IT consultancy, before continuing at University to pursue an interest in Neuroscience. In post-doctoral research he investigated how synaptic plasticity in the brain supports learning and behaviour. Having recently returned to the technology space, Simon is now focused on solution architecture for research and learning technology.
Abstract:
Introduction: A common pattern in Humanities and Social Sciences research is the creation and dissemination of databases of research artefacts, which may include text, images, geographic coordinates, audio, and video. At the University of Melbourne, we recently identified a need for improved options for publishing such collections on the web. A previous, now deprecated, Microsoft Access based solution left hundreds of orphaned collections and websites; many of which require recreation or archiving, as they are valuable cultural and research outputs. Furthermore, future projects require a feature-rich and well-supported platform to host these collections.
Methods: We collected requirements from the user community, and completed an extensive market scan of 19 products to identify three products for further in-depth assessment: Heurist, Omeka Classic (actively used on-prem), and Omeka-S.
Results and Conclusion: We then reviewed multiple solution possibilities based on these products and determined a recommendation of Omeka-S based on key decision factors and architectural principles. Here we discuss the decision process and issues in this area of research dissemination.