[Nhcoll-l] FW: Specify Software Project News: Collections Consortium & SPNHC 2017

[Bentley, Andrew Charles]

Specify Software Project News


The Specify Software Project (www.specifysoftware.org<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.specifysoftware.org&d=DwIGaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=vt-mEk9NI8TRZajmKvYT-2HyduimSnCbUTtD9WkcjZc&s=RKTSTnct34KCpt2DHzi3_lkoOG-etkidfQpQucMbQDc&e= >) and the collections it serves are approaching a fork in the road. After 30 years of US National Science Foundation grant funding for Specify Software as a “public good”, the Foundation has encouraged us to broaden our revenue sources in order to sustain Specify Project activities, including software development and related help desk, cloud hosting, and data management services.

To that end, the Specify Project is enthused to announce an open community process to explore the governance, technical scope, and not-for-profit revenue model for an international consortium of collections institutions. The consortium’s mission will be to support collections community research data management by developing software and computational services focused on data from biological specimens and other types of natural history samples. Initial priorities for the consortium will be identified during our transition process in meetings with current Specify institutions, non-Specify museums, and advisory groups. Community governance will enable the consortium to continue to prioritize, develop, and support software tools for collections of all sizes and funding levels.

The consortium organizational development process will occur through the second-half of 2017 culminating in May 2018. During that period, the Project will continue to support Specify 6 & 7 platforms, Specify Cloud hosting, and helpdesk services for U.S. research collections without cost.

As part of our outreach for the effort, we will be participating in several collections-related professional society meetings this year, in the U.S. and internationally, including SPNHC 2017 in Denver next week. We look forward to seeing you there. We have reserved a conference room in the SPNHC 2017 venue, the Curtis Hotel, on Thursday June 22 to meet with collections researchers who would like to know more, or who would like to offer feedback. Use our online sign-up: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.signupgenius.com_go_508094ca9ad2eabf49-2Djoin&d=DwIGaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=vt-mEk9NI8TRZajmKvYT-2HyduimSnCbUTtD9WkcjZc&s=KDsmgcAqxUWsBP15sowGG5b3TayfiyskpZPAmRfqqK0&e=  or the sign-up poster at the SPNHC meeting, if you would like to reserve a time. We're offering nextgen Specify 'Post Mortem, We Sort' em" t-shirts to visitors on Thursday. We will be in the 'Rock' Conference room, one floor below the SPNHC meeting hall.  Just remember: "Specify Rocks".

Whether or not you will be at SPNCH 2017, we would be grateful to have your feedback on this informatics consortium development effort through our online survey at: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sustain.specifysoftware.org_specify-2Dconsortium-2Dsurvey&d=DwIGaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=vt-mEk9NI8TRZajmKvYT-2HyduimSnCbUTtD9WkcjZc&s=YgPKcNectN6LkLmj2Hjl3yKtSXxZfzIOX-K5t-F0Ftg&e= , and through our online forum at: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.sustain.specifysoftware.org_forums_forum_crci&d=DwIGaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=vt-mEk9NI8TRZajmKvYT-2HyduimSnCbUTtD9WkcjZc&s=Wcd2K9h8G_T3ezg363GiEii74tSy21v3eXGlU8vZwsI&e= .

We at the Specify Project look forward to working with the collections community, as we have for 30 years, to grow and sustain an agile, responsive, informatics consortium that will advance the use and engagement of the information curated worldwide by research collections of all sizes and resource levels.

Please make contact if you would like to know more, and consider participating in the transition survey and forum mentioned above.

Hope to see you at SPNHC and at other society meetings this year.

Jim Beach

--
James H. Beach, Director
Specify Software Project
Biodiversity Institute
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045, USA

beach at specifysoftware.org<mailto:beach at specifysoftware.org>
www.specifysoftware.org<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.specifysoftware.org&d=DwIGaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=vt-mEk9NI8TRZajmKvYT-2HyduimSnCbUTtD9WkcjZc&s=RKTSTnct34KCpt2DHzi3_lkoOG-etkidfQpQucMbQDc&e= >
Tel: +1 785-864-4400


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