[OAI-general] RE: OAI-general digest, Vol 1 #74 - 1 msg
ePrints Support
support@eprints.org
Mon, 21 Jan 2002 03:52:45 +0000
[I've branched this to "eprints-underground" which is a list for non-technical
issues relating to eprints.]
Are there people on these lists at places which could do the technicial
support & hosting for another archive or would rather pay someone else to
maintain their archive? It'd be interesting to give this a try, but I just
don't have the time.
(ps. My CVS version of eprints-2 just validated against Hussains OAI
checker so the next release should have working OAI, which is nice.)
Christopher Gutteridge support@eprints.org
ePrints Technical Support +44 23 8059 4833
On Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 01:44:26PM -0500, Hussein Suleman wrote:
> hi
>
> i'll bite :)
>
> without going into the differences between data and metadata management,
> i agree that in general it is much better to outsource archive
> management. however, i am not sure if everyone is in a position to do
> that just yet.
>
> notably, most universities and non-profit organizations do not seem to
> have found a workable business model to sustain DLs with
> manually-enforced quality controls (e.g., peer reviews, editing) and
> still give away the content for free as expected by their users.
>
> so, as a result, it seems some institutions are considering setting up
> institutional archives (and hosting non-institutional archives at
> institutions) to piggyback on the already sizeable technology investment
> and networking infrastructure in the higher education and research sector.
>
> sure, there are problems with this model, including that:-
> - it doesn't address non-institutional DLs
> - it doesn't scale arbitrarily (once archives get too large
> "piggyback"ing is no longer an option)
> - it perpetuates the view that content should be free (i think at least
> some of it should be!)
>
> but, all things considered, i think it will work in the short term until
> we find a better solution :) ... and, it may also work in the long term
> for very specialized areas. in a way, it may bring the advantages of DL
> technology to those "mini-archives" that cannot afford off-site hosting.
>
> just a few thoughts ...
>
> ttfn
> ----hussein
>
> H.M. Gladney wrote:
>
> > There is a bothersome implicit assumption in these notes--that an
> > e-print archive needs to manage (part of) its own servers.
> >
> > Another possibility is that an archive buy storage and Web services from
> > one of giant server farm companies that many businesses find practical.
> > Doing so is likely to have several large advantages over any kind of
> > "roll your own" (aka RYO) solution: avoided administrative headaches,
> > automatic capacity management (as alluded to in the attached note), very
> > short delay between proposal and service delivery, and probably (TBD)
> > lower cost than RYO.
> >
> > If someone can identify strong arguments against this proposition, I'd
> > much enjoy hearing them and perhaps having a friendly debate.
> >
> > Regards, Henry
> >
> > Henry Gladney, Ph.D (408)867-5454
> > HMG Consulting
> > 20044 Glen Brae Drive, Saratoga CA 95070
> > http://home.pacbell.net/hgladney/
> >
> > ----Original Message-----
> >
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: ePrints Support [mailto:support@ecs.soton.ac.uk]
> >>Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 3:39 AM
> >>To: Bob Kemp
> >>Cc: EPrints Underground List; jisc-dner@JISCMAIL.AC.UK;
> >>september98-forum@amsci-forum.amsci.org;
> >>oai-general@oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu
> >>Subject: Re: [OAI-general] Re: [EP-underground] Sustaining ePrints
> >>
> >>
> >>One issue in the design of eprints-2 is that it is geared up to allow
> >>many (smaller) archives to be run on one physical computer.
> >>Which means
> >>that a larger organisation could buy one "chunky" computer and then
> >>provide eprints archives with seperate customisations, OAI
> >>exports (and
> >>colour schemes) for various departments which don't have the
> >>resources and
> >>expertise to do this themseleves. This should reduce the cost
> >>in parts (and
> >>system admin hours!) to get several archives going.
> >>
> >
> > In addition, should a particular archive become heavily used, moving it
> > to a
> > dedicated box is a snap. You really loose nothing with a multi-archive
> > (versus monolith) design, and gain so much. Thanks to OAI protocols,
> > developing an institute wide interface to all the small archives isn't
> > much
> > of a hassle -- in fact kinda unnecessary due to ARC
> > (http://arc.cs.odu.edu/). If you can't tell, I'm a fan of this design.
> >
> >
> >>This would probably work out more cost effective than buying
> >>and installing
> >>a machine and having learn the ins-and outs of the system for a single
> >>archive. EPrints is free, so we don't have to grub for
> >>licenses by requiring
> >>one copy per archive :)
> >>
> >
> > Hurrah for free (GPL) software!
> >
> >
> >>My own server, running eprints-alpha-2, is running
> >>demoprints.eprints.org,
> >>eprints.aktors.org + a couple of other test archives. Later,
> >>it will be
> >>running our department publications archive and an archive of
> >>Ted Nelsons
> >>material.
> >>
> >>The bottle neck is processor power, caused by larger datasets
> >>but mostly
> >>by "hits". So large, popular archives should probably run on
> >>their own
> >>machine.
> >>
> >
> > Some more metrics: on my un-optimized server, eprints/apache/mysql
> > altogether require about 40MB of memory per archive. Most web hits are
> > from
> > robots and some from OAI harvesters (as it should be). We have 10
> > archives
> > now, though some are just skeletons waiting for our authors to "see the
> > light" so to speak.
> >
> > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> > Ed Sponsler - Sr. Applications Development
> > Caltech Library System
> > eds@library.caltech.edu
> > http://library.caltech.edu/digital
> >
> >
> > --__--__--
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OAI-general mailing list
> > OAI-general@oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu
> > http://oaisrv.nsdl.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/oai-general
> >
> >
> > End of OAI-general Digest
> >
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> >
>
>
> --
> ======================================================================
> hussein suleman - hussein@vt.edu - vtcs - http://www.husseinsspace.com
> ======================================================================
>
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