At the Fall 2006 DLF Developers’ Forum, the group discussed the idea of creating a DLF Tools Registry. Katherine Kott was asked to form a small study group to investigate this idea by assessing the availability and characteristics of existing software registries and also to identify the important questions for the Forum to answer before deciding whether and how to build its own registry solution. Assisting Katherine in this effort were Joan Starr and Tito Sierra, who served as authors of this report.
The team looked at twelve existing registries and came to the conclusion that the DLF should initiate the development of a new registry only if there is a compelling reason to do so. The following are key questions to consider. Tito Sierra will lead a group discussion of these questions at the DLF Developer's Forum in Pasadena.
What specific problems would a DLF Tools registry solve that other existing registries cannot?
It is worth thinking about this from the perspective of “what is DLF’s core mission?” Designing, building, launching and supporting a new repository for code sharing may not be in that core.
Registries are either homegrown, or based on a wiki platform. Who is willing to commit the technical resources to set up the DLF Tools Registry?
If a new registry application is to be deployed, who will host it? DLF or a DLF member institution?