Sept. 16, 2014


Read it online: http://bit.ly/Xvy9up
Contact: David Wilcox <[log in to unmask]>

From The Fedora Steering Group
The Quarterly Report from Fedora
April-June 2014
Fedora Development - In the past quarter, the development team released one Alpha and three Beta releases of Fedora 4; detailed release notes are here:
	* Fedora 4.0 Alpha 5 Release Notes
	* Fedora 4.0 Beta 1 Release Notes
	* Fedora 4.0 Beta 2 Release Notes
	* Fedora 4.0 Beta 3 Release Notes
These four releases bring us much closer to the Fedora 4.0 production release. Features of note include enhanced object and datastream versioning, improved support for linked data, a XACML authorization implementation, REST-API improvements, transparent file system export, and many other improvements. In addition to these features, a great deal of effort has been put into improving the test coverage and overall performance of Fedora 4. We encourage the community to download and install Fedora 4 (a one-click installer is available) and test out the new features.
Fedora 4.0 is only the first release in the 4.x line - a number of features, including support for Fedora 3 to Fedora 4 migrations, are planned for subsequent 4.x releases. While releasing Fedora 4.0 into production is our top development priority, we must also start scheduling the 2015 January to June block of code sprints to work on the next 4.x release. Please consider contributing developer time to these sprints by contacting Andrew Woods ([log in to unmask]), the Fedora Technical Lead.
Fundraising
We are in the midst of our annual membership campaign, which runs from early May until the end of October. The annual membership goal for 2014 is $500,000, and as of this report we have raised $478,000. The Fedora project has a total of 51 members; this includes 13 new members and 38 renewals from last year's members. The Fedora Product Manager will continue to coordinate with members of the Fedora Steering Group to expand the pool of DuraSpace members supporting the Fedora project to reach the annual funding target for 2014.
Community Engagement and Outreach
In the past quarter, developers have continued to hold daily meetings in conjunction with development sprints, as well as weekly Fedora committer calls attended by the broader community. In June, the Fedora community came together for Open Repositories in Helsinki, Finland. Fedora featured prominently at the conference, with workshops, presentations, user group sessions, and the official announcement of Fedora 4.0 Beta.
Fedora 4 Training
As we approach the production release of Fedora 4.0, we expect members of the Fedora community to work toward deploying Fedora 4 locally. Consequently, many community members have raised the issue of training as a priority. In response to this demand, three Fedora 4 training workshops have been scheduled alongside events in October:
	* DC Fedora User Group Meeting (Oct. 6-7)
	* Islandora Camp Colorado (Oct. 16)
	* eResearch Australasia (Oct. 31)
In preparation for these events, the Fedora Product Manager and Technical Lead have been building reusable training modules for a one-day curriculum. These training modules will serve as a basis for expanding to longer, more in-depth training workshops in 2015.
Upcoming Conferences
In September, Fedora will be featured in presentations at The Future of Information Infrastructure and PASIG in Karlsruhe, Germany, immediately followed by a Fedora User Group meeting. Members of the Fedora Leadership Group, along with the Fedora Product Manager, will also be present at the 4th RDA Plenary in Amsterdam to discuss the project with the research data community.