Dspace is the most widely used open source software in the world for academic archives. DspaceCRIS is a project derived from Dspace software by the Italian company 4Science in 2014. These two projects have followed a parallel development path over time. However, a merger path seems likely for these two sister projects. According to the announcement made by Maureen P. Walsh of the Dspace Management Group on October 21, 2024, these two projects will probably merge under Dspace in the Dspace 10 version.
Why Are There Two Projects?
Dsace is a project that was started in 2002 by MIT University in the USA and Hong Kong University as a software to host academic archives of universities. The software is licensed as Open Source Code. In other words, every university that wants to has the right to download, install and use the software.
In 2014, a group that left the Italian company Cineca established a company called 4Science. They copied and developed the Dspace software and published it under the name DspaceCRIS. They also provide commercial services for this software.
In the Open Source world, this process is called "forking". You can copy an Open Source software, improve it and republish it. However, ethically, if the main project is open source, the code of the forked project must also be open source.
This is how these two sister projects are born. After 2014, DsapceCRIS has always been one step ahead of the main project with the wind of having a commercial company behind it. DspaceCRIS, which is richer in terms of visuals and functions, is starting to be used independently of 4Science worldwide. In fact, in our country, a group of entrepreneurs from Izmir University of Technology are forking DspaceCRIS and releasing a version called GCRIS.
In the last 7 years, the Dspace project has been experiencing a major technological renewal with the Dspace 7 version. 4Science is the group that provides the greatest support in this renewal. With Dspace 8, the Dspace project is one step ahead of the CRIS project for the first time.
So where is the problem? Why are they merging?
The merger of the two projects is actually inevitable. Dspace consists of technologically very complex software components. Although commercial companies can act more agile in terms of product development, software such as Dspace, which universities will use safely for decades, is longer-term, more cautious and more suitable for the active participation of the entire community. Moreover, the development of software of this complexity requires much longer-term methods and practices rather than short-term commercial concerns.
What Will Be the Benefit of This Merger?
The merger will first of all put an end to this chaos.
Secondly, the development of the product will now be entirely under the control of the DSpace Committee, which is open to the participation of academic and technical experts worldwide. Commercial companies like Selensoft will focus on perfecting the services they provide instead of developing the product.
As Selensoft, our experience in the world of open-source software since 2008 assures us that the future of the DSpace platform is much brighter, more transparent, and more promising.
Dspace and DspaceCRIS Merge!