Brief Report | 11. May 2023

Final Project Report: (Further)Development of OpenSource Software ConedaKOR

By Dr. Anne Klammt

Keywords
Brief Report Organizing Archiving Authority Data Image Research Software Research Funding Metadata Art History
Drafting tools lying on a wooden table

Tools on a wooden table

"Tools lying on a wooden table" CC0 Creator: Fleur, Owner: www.unsplash.com

1 Project overview

1.1 Aims

Within the framework of the project funded by NFDI4Culture, Task Area 3 - Research Tools and Data Services, measures were implemented to improve the usability and thus sustainability of the open source software ConedaKOR.
ConedaKOR is a mature open source research software that has been used in the humanities research context for over twelve years and is constantly being further developed. ConedaKOR performs archiving, management and research of image and metadata on a common web-based interface. Developed at the Institute of Art History in Frankfurt in Main, ConedaKOR is now used in various universities and research institutions. Until now, the lack of easily understandable documentation limited the use of the software for users and system administrators. In addition, there was a lack of low-threshold installation options.

The project addressed the three desiderata with four work packages (WP), which were fully implemented.

WP 1: Tutorial videos (target group: users, administrators, developers)
WP 2: Documentation I (target group: users)
WP 3: Documentation II (target group: administrators, developers)
WP 4: Container virtualisation of ConedaKOR using Docker

1.2 Timeframe

Approval: 20.04.2022
Implementation: 01.05.2022 - 31.12.2022

1.3 Partners and Implementers

The project was carried out jointly by the Leibniz Institute of European History Mainz (IEG) and the German Forum for Art History Paris (DFK Paris) in cooperation with the company Wendig OU (Estonia). The project was jointly managed by Anne Klammt (DFK Paris) and Thorsten Wübbena (IEG). For the DFK Paris, Deborah Schlauch supported the project as a research assistant.

1.4 Funding

The project was funded with a total of 10,000 €. Of this amount, 6,000 € went to the IEG, which was responsible for the implementation of WP 3 and 4 and worked on WP 1 and 2 in an advisory capacity. The DFK Paris received 4,000 € and carried out WP 1 and 2 and provided advisory support for WP 3 and 4.

1.5 Research data management

All products created in the project were freely accessible, openly licensed, documented and published in reusable form in trusted repositories in accordance with FAIR principles. In addition, the products were made publicly available via platforms with a wide reach (YouTube, GitHub) in order to achieve the broadest possible use. The data underlying the products are additionally archived in the IEG's archive repository to ensure long-term accessibility.

2. Work packages

2.1 Work package 1: Tutorial videos

A total of five videos were made and published on the AV portal of the TIB Hannover, YouTube and the ConedaKOR website. The videos were produced in English and also provided with English subtitles on YouTube.
Three of the videos are aimed at users and provide an introduction to the installation with Docker and the use of the software. The focus here is on presenting its essential features and is linked with references to further documentation.
Two other videos are aimed at system administrators and developers, with one providing a detailed introduction to the installation and configuration of ConedaKOR and the other demonstrating how data from a ConedaKOR instance can be used in a CMS (in this case WordPress) via API usage.

Products

Users

Administrators

Developers

2.2 Work package 2: Documentation I (target group: users)

Based on the preliminary work of the guide for the ConedaKOR instance at the Institute of Art History at the Goethe University Frankfurt, documentation was written that is generic and detached from the concrete implementation. The documentation is divided into three sections that relate to the tasks and needs of the database managers, the editors and the users. The documentation is published on GitHub, which simplifies future maintenance as a "living document" parallel to further developments of ConedaKOR.

Product

2.3 Work package 3: Documentation II (Target group: Administrators, Developers)

Based on the existing readme file for ConedaKOR on GitHub, a documentation was developed that is generic and detached from the concrete implementation. The documentation is divided into two parts that relate to the tasks and needs of system administrators and developers. The documentation is published on GitHub, which simplifies future maintenance as a "living document" parallel to further developments of ConedaKOR.

Products

2.4 Work package 4: Container virtualisation of ConedaKOR using Docker

The aim of this WP was to enable a simplified installation of ConedaKOR by means of container virtualisation. In this case, the software "Docker" is used, for which - through the development work in WP 4 - images can now be created that contain all the system libraries, script languages, dictionaries, etc. that are needed for the process of a runnable ConedaKOR instance.

Product

Authors: Anne Klammt (German Center for Art History Paris | DFK Paris), Thorsten Wübbena (Leibniz Institute of European History, Mainz | IEG)