Samvera for Managers

Owned by Bill Branan
Jun 16, 2017
2 min read
  1. What do I need to know to make a decision about Samvera?
    1. Proven scalability
      1. How big a repo (#of objects, type of objects, total dataset size) can Samvera handle in a "Standard" implementation
      2. When do "special" steps need to be taken to scale total object storage (fedora), accession or search rate (solr), user access (rails, web server, etc.)?
    2. Largest volume of materials it has been known to handle
      1. What does an average installation look like (mean or median number of objects under management across all Partners)
      2. Largest number of objects under management
      3. Most complex metadata or relationships under management
      4. Largest individual items under management (full length HD-video?  Avalon and WGBH)
    3. Features/functionality that already exist
    4. Customizable functionality
    5. Ease of implementation
      1. availability of turnkey
      2. availability of solution bundles
      3. see also 4.a-c
    6. Hardware needs to run it/software needs?
      1. Local datacenter
      2. Cloud implementations (AWS or other)
    7. What is the min avg and max for resource & skill needs
  2. How wide is the community?
    1. How long has it been used in major institution?
    2. What will Samvera do for my organization?
      1. Avoids reinventing the wheel
      2. Makes internal teams more robust by infusing outside perspective and insight (see 3.a)
  3. How does the Samvera system compare to current vender/proprietary systems already on the market?
    1. Collaboration Model
    2. Technical model - framework for customization & development vs. fixed product with finite configuration options
    3. Open Source - no ongoing or annual licensing, full access to source code / IP 
  4. What are the skills needed to implement, maintain and evolve? (or more broadly, what does it cost to own Samvera over time - can we say that most Samvera costs are in Human resourcing?)
    1. How many people do we need?
    2. How hard is it find people with those skills?
    3. How hard is it to gain and polish those skills?
  5. What is the specific technical potential for Samvera long term?
    1. Samvera framework components separated to support evolution - data store / index / presentation / rights management - eg. UCSD dams uses different datastore
  6. What does Samvera do really well?  
  7. What does Samvera do not so well?
  8. Use stories & content specifics
    1. What exists?
      1. text
      2. generic file
      3. audio
      4. image
      5. video
      6. abstract datasets
    2. What possible?
      1. GIS
      2. future abstract datasets
      3. evolving media support (new formats, containers constantly being added)
  9. Gems/heads that currently exist and what they do
  10. How does one get involved and what is expected of my institution?
    1. point at updated Samvera Community page?
  11. Community Sustainability
    1. Financial Model
    2. Governance Model
    3. Growth Plan
  12. How does Samvera relate to other software within this EcoSystem
    1. repositories
    2. preservation options
    3. workflow technologies 
  13. Interoperability & Migration 
    1. What is possible?
  14. What support is possible pre, during & post implementation?