New paper “Authoritative linked data descriptions of debian source packages using ADMS.SW” accepted at OSS 2013

I’ll be presenting “Authoritative linked data descriptions of debian source packages using ADMS.SW” at OSS 2013.

Here’s the abstract :

The Debian Package Tracking System is a Web dashboard for Debian contributors and advanced users. This central tool publishes the status of subsequent releases of source packages in the Debian distribution.

It has been improved to generate RDF meta-data documenting the source packages, their releases and links to other packaging artifacts, using the ADMS.SW 1.0 model. This constitutes an authoritative source of machine-readable Debian “facts” and proposes a reference URI naming scheme for Linked Data resources about Debian packages.

This should enable the interlinking of these Debian package descriptions with other ADMS.SW or DOAP descriptions of FLOSS projects available on the Semantic Web also using Linked Data principles. This will be particularly interesting for traceability with upstream projects whose releases are packaged in Debian, derivative distributions reusing Debian source packages, or with other FLOSS distributions.

Update: If you are interested, a preprint is available here in HTML form. See also previous installments on ADMS.SW in this blog.

Update: The slides of the presentation I made at Isola are here.

New paper “Introducing OSLC, an open standard for interoperability of open source development tools”

We’ll be presenting at ICSSEA 2011 in november, our paper “Introducing OSLC, an open standard for interoperability of open source development tools“, which recaps of some efforts we conducted in COCLICO.

Authors: Olivier BERGER, Sabri LABBENE, Madhumita DHAR, Christian BAC

Abstract: In the COCLICO project, efforts have been made to improve interoperability of software development forges, to help integrate them better in the modern software quality process of organizations. In order to improve such interoperability, implementation of the Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) specifications has been conducted (in particular the Change Management domain specifications). The OSLC-compatible open source adapters we have developed for the Jenkins Continuous Integration server and the FusionForge bugtrackers, have been integrated in a Web mashup, allowing to demonstrate the interoperability potential of OSLC-CM in a continuous integration use case. Even though deployment of OSLC is still limited for open source tools in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) field, we believe it will offer great benefits and potential, for new complex and difficult problems, in particular for large scale bug tracking applications.

Keywords: ALM, standard, interoperability, OSLC, OSLC-CM, FusionForge, Jenkins, open source, free software

COCLICO project’s efforts towards better forges interoperability (long)

Abstract

I’ve given a talk in the recent Open Forges Think Tank track of Open World Forum, which was organized by Christian Rémy from Bull, also a partner in the COCLICO project (btw, thanks Christian, this was a great track, with several interesting presentations and a great panel).

I’ve had the privilege to speak on behalf of the whole COCLICO project, in the afternoon session which was focused on forges interoperability.

This article will somehow be a transcript of what I’ve said (or intended to say), with the accompanying slides available here.

In this quite long piece, I’ll first recap some of the context elements about the COCLICO project. Then I will describe the interoperability issues that I’ve tried and focused on in my presentation, including the issues of project lock-in in the forges. I’ve tried also to describe the current ideas we’ve elaborated in the project to address these issues of interoperability (including our plans for open standards elaboration for forges interoperability). I finally conclude with a proposal to join the PlanetForge community for all interested parties.

Unfortunately, not all of these ideas are currently yet properly documented on the COCLICO website, so I hope this article will serve as a useful reference for what COCLICO is doing, still being a subjective piece of my own views, not necessarily representing those of other COCLICO participants, nor a precise description of what we’ll manage to achieve in COCLICO or PlanetForge.

Continue reading “COCLICO project’s efforts towards better forges interoperability (long)”

“Weaving a Semantic Web Across OSS Repositories: Unleashing a New Potential for Academia and Practice” published

A new paper of ours was just published. If you’re curious about all that Semantic Web and Linked Data hype and how it would impact forges and other software development tools, and the link with Open Source development platforms, then, read this :

Weaving a Semantic Web Across OSS Repositories: Unleashing a New Potential for Academia and Practice
(DOI: 10.4018/jossp.2010040103)
Authors: Olivier Berger (Institut Telecom, France); Valentin Vlasceanu (Institut Telecom, France); Christian Bac (Institut Telecom, France); Quang Vu Dang (Institut Telecom, France); Stéphane Lauriere (Mandriva, France)
in International Journal of Open Source Software & Processes (IJOSSP) Volume: 2, Issue: 2 (2010), Pages: 29-40 pp.

Here’s the abstract:
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