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Considered the largest initiative of its kind in helping to enhance repository development worldwide, DRIVER is a multi-phase effort whose vision and primary objective is to create a cohesive, robust and flexible, pan-European infrastructure for digital repositories, offering sophisticated services and functionalities for researchers, administrators and the general public. DRIVER has established a network of relevant experts and Open Access repositories. DRIVER-II will consolidate these efforts and transform the initial testbed into a fully functional, state-of-the art service, extending the network to a larger confederation of repositories. DRIVER is integral to the suite of electronic infrastructures that have emerged in the worldwide GÉANT network and is hence funded under the e-Infrastructures call of the European Commission's 7th framework programme. It aims to “… optimise the way the e-Infrastructure is used to store knowledge, add value to primary research data and information making secondary research more effective, provide a valuable asset for industry, and help bridging research and education.” The objectives of DRIVER-II, the second phase of the project, include efforts to expand, enrich, and strengthen the results of DRIVER, in the following areas:
DRIVER is a fully distributed endeavour and profits immensely from this since: - It combines the expertise of its partners in many different domains such as technical knowledge, knowledge of university libraries, experience in strategic thinking and project management.
- The distributed computer power from technical partners facilitates the workings of the system through its specific nodes.
- The European background of its partners, from Slovenia to Denmark, Greece to the UK, is a great asset in the development of a pan-European infrastructure.
The congregation of such diverse content and services on the common DRIVER platform is of immense value to both specialized research communities and the general public. DRIVER represents a unique venture, drawing together stakeholders and integrating repositories over a diverse and expansive physical and cultural landscape. In its first phase, the project has succeeded in securing a high profile as well as an awareness among the international Open Access community and the targeted stakeholder groups. Moreover, DRIVER’s studies on interoperability and technological issues, combined with the uptake of subject-based communities, examine practices performed in similar environments stretching across European boundaries. The scientific and societal advances thus afforded will propel academic scholarship towards the envisioned Knowledge Society. DRIVER-II applies a work breakdown structure, in which work packages have been designed with well-defined tasks that are allocated to partners according to their expertise. The corresponding deliverables are either reports, which ensure conceptual clarity and terminological consistency throughout the consortium, as well as software releases, which promote the enhancements carried out in the infrastructure services. |
