This is a preliminary proposal that has been reviewed by nobody and could change substantially. It has not been approved or accepted in any way. Feel free to leave comments at the end of the document.
Editor's notes
These notes are only for the editor of this document. Others should avert their eyes!
- work estimate at google docs
Background
Several years ago the Minnesota Historical Society built its first iteration of the Great Rivers Network on Autonomy's IDOL platform. As MHS considers the next stages of GRN development, there is some concern that IDOL may not be a sustainable platform for this work and an interest in reviewing the available technology for a next generation solution. GRN integrates access to a diverse set of institutional collections around the upper midwest. It is intended to be a standards-based, open, sustainable, robust tool to facilitate resource discovery.
I have been asked by MHS leadership to help with the development of a request for information (RFI) and a review of the information we get back from vendors. Given that the MHS intends to proceed with an RFI instead of a "full blown" request for proposal process, I believe that MHS is seeking a "best fit" solution, rather than a perfect solution. Our job will be to understand the goals of GRN clearly and select the platform that can help us meet as much of that target as possible while still being a system the staff of MHS can reasonably sustain. This means that there will be plenty of compromises during the discovery process we engage in over the next few months.
MHS would like to embark on the RFI development in January 2009 and have a platform direction targeted by June 2009.
RFI development
I have been asked to participate in and facilitate RFI development, but not to write the document. MHS staff will be responsible for authoring. I propose that my role be planning two meetings for MHS staff to discuss use cases and requirements of a next generation GRN. I will work on agenda and timing of these meetings with MHS staff, but in any case, both meetings will be complete before the end of February 2009.
In addition I will review a draft RFI generated by MHS staff and provide notes on the draft. This should be complete by the middle of March 2009.
Vendor response
I will help MHS devise a tool for reviewing the RFI responses. I will assemble these responses and facilitate a meeting (or two, if necessary) where MHS staff discuss and weigh the responses. I recommend that we set a goal of selecting two or three most likely approaches to a next generation GRN by mid-April 2009.
Any vendors associated with those two or three approaches would be invited to join us for a briefing about their platforms (demonstration, conversation, and so forth). I would help develop and agenda for these vendor meetings and provide a review of each visit. Vendor visits would be in May 2009.
Any final choices of vendor or strategy for the next generation GRN remain with MHS staff, I will help with process, but not make any decisions. Decisions are expected to be made in June 2009.
MDL liaison
Both MHS and the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) understand that I am consulting for the other. Since some of the MDL work corresponds quite closely with the GRN effort, I will serve as a liaison between the two efforts. This in no way replaces liaisons already present between MDL and MHS, but it does add another channel of information between the two. In this role I will expect to attend two or three meetings during the course of January-June 2009 as well as participate in email conversations and writing updates on activities of one for the other.
Costs
The consultant costs would be $10,500. The first $2,300 would be invoiced after the completion of the two RFI meetings (no later than the end of February 2009), the next $2,000 would be invoiced after the review of vendor responses (no later than mid-April 2009), the balance of $6,200 invoiced in June 2009, after the vendor visits are complete.
Eric Celeste
Eric brings over 15 years of library and 25 years of technology experience to his consulting. At MIT Eric shepherded the creation of DSpace, open source digital repository management software developed with HP and now deployed at hundreds of institutions worldwide. At the University of Minnesota Libraries he encouraged the development of the UThink blog service, a wiki-based staff intranet, LibData, and the University Digital Conservancy. He works with non-profit institutions on appropriate uses of technology for informing, communicating, and collaborating with their constituencies.