AtoM 3 Design Principles

Drafted by the AtoM Foundation Roadmap Committee

Slides accessible at https://bit.ly/2022_atom3_rc

Text for slides is accessible at https://bit.ly/2022_atom3_rc_text

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Last updated: July 2022

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What is the AtoM Foundation Roadmap Committee?

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Roadmap Committee Activities To Date

• Has met monthly since April 2020
• Created AtoM 3 Wishlist document and continue to add to it
• Gathered feedback from users informally and through invitations to user meetings
• Identified a “modular development” approach for AtoM 3, rooted in Domain Modelling
• Engaged in Domain Modelling training, facilitated by Artefactual Systems
• Generated AtoM 3 Design Principles to propose at the 2021 AGM
• Sought feedback from Atom Foundation members on AtoM 3 Design Principles
• Revised AtoM 3 Design Principles based on feedback from Foundation members

What are Design Principles?

• For the purpose of the AtoM Foundation and the AtoM 3 open source software and community, the design principles proposed by the RC and informed by community wishlist items are

a set of values that will act as a compass to inform the design, development, and maintenance of AtoM 3 as a software and community

• The design principles proposed will guide:
• How the Foundation supports the AtoM community
• AtoM 3 design
• AtoM 3 development (eventually)
• The design principles proposed by the RC are not “software design principles”, but they can inform these

Why are we proposing Design Principles?

• “AtoM is a means to an end” for archives
• AtoM 2 has some life in it yet - it is not disappearing
• We, as a community using AtoM 2, want to continue to describe archives and make archival descriptions discoverable online within the AtoM community
• AtoM 3 is a community project stewarded by the AtoM Foundation to meet this “means to an end”
• AtoM 2 is many things to many people - AtoM 3 will need boundaries to guide its development
• These proposed design principles will act as a compass to guide the design, development, and maintenance of AtoM 3 as a software and community

Design Principles: general considerations

The RC is proposing 8 AtoM 3 Design Principles and providing brief definitions.

For each principle, the AtoM Foundation will still need to determine:

• Who monitors the implementation of the Design Principles in AtoM 3 and how.
• The design principles outlined in the slide deck all have a governance component. The best approach to overseeing each design principle can be determined once a governance model is chosen for the overall management of AtoM 3.
• How the Design Principles will be expressed within AtoM 3 software.
• How the Design Principles will be understood and shared within the AtoM community.

Existing AtoM 2 Design Principles

• Web accessible
• Standards based
• Multilingual
• Multi-institutional

Existing AtoM 2 Design Principles

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principles

• Web accessible
• Standards based
• Multilingual
• Multi-institutional

• Meeting needs & contexts of institutions of various sizes
• Web accessible
• Standards-based
• Multilingual

• Multi-institutional
• Uses archival terminology (domain-driven)
• Enabled for Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD)
• Maintainable

View diagram at https://bit.ly/atom3_dp

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Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 1:

meets needs and contexts of archives of various sizes

• AtoM 3 will accommodate collections of various sizes and complexities
• The AtoM Foundation will foster ongoing communication and AtoM 3 priorities across archives, regardless of size or staffing
• While IT support for installing, upgrading, and maintaining the software locally will still be required, no matter size or staffing of an archives, the AtoM 3 platform that will meet the needs of archives of varying sizes
• AtoM 3 hosting options must be available

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 2:

web accessible

• AtoM 3 content (e.g. archival descriptions and digital objects) should be accessible to people with disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities, including following standards and guidelines such as WCAG
• It should be accessible on a variety of browsing platforms, including desktop computers, tablets, and mobile devices

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 3:

standards based

• Standards based means that AtoM will continue to support archival domain standards critical to archival description and core to archival work across multiple jurisdictions.
• Examples include DACS, ISAD(G), MAD, RAD, ISDIAH, ISAAR-CPF, ISDF, and others relevant to cultural heritage. Additional web-based standards may include EAD, Dublin Core, MODS, OAI-PMH, and pertinent WC3 standards
• AtoM 3 should take into account Records in Contexts (RiC), a conceptual model developed by ICA, for archival description
• AtoM 3 should be capable of supporting efforts to decolonize archival practice in alignment with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 4:

multilingual

• Within AtoM 2, multilingualism is understood in various ways:
• The software interface is available in multiple languages, with interface elements translated from English by volunteers
• Administrators can configure the default language of the interface and also enable users to switch the interface to additional languages locally
• A multilingual AtoM instance means that content can exist monolingually in multiple languages side-by-side or that content is presented bilingually (or more) in parallel
• AtoM 3 should continue to support this multilingual functionality

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 5:

multi-institutional

• Holds content from multiple repositories, with responsibility for the content clear to both repositories and researchers
• Content may be submitted and updated either manually or automatically (via API)
• User permissions should allow the restriction of editing and access to a specific repository
• The workflow of a single repository within a multi-institutional instance should be as straightforward as for a single repository instance

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 6:

uses archival terminology (domain-driven)

• Domain-specific vocabulary is the language that is used primarily within one area of knowledge but not others. The words will usually have a specific meaning within that domain.
• The primary domain of AtoM 3 is that of archival practice and theory
• Using language of the domain allows users of the system to communicate better with developers of the software

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 7:

enabled for Linked Open Usable Data (LOUD)

AtoM 3 should support the production of Linked Open Usable Data – structured data that can accessed and processed by other computers on the web

• Support use of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) that allow descriptive entities to link to and be linked from other descriptive resources on the web
• Support use of standard ontologies to characterize relationships between descriptive entities
• Implement LOUD standards, e.g. RDF (Resource Description Framework) and IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework)
• Allow users to move easily between writing narrative descriptions intended for humans and generating structured data intended for machine processing

Proposed AtoM 3 Design Principle 8:

maintainable

AtoM 3 should aim for ease of maintenance so that future upgrades can be managed with minimal disruption.

• Support the ability to port AtoM 2 data to AtoM 3 and to export data out of AtoM 3
• Support separate modules for distinct functionality (e.g. description, accessioning, physical storage); modules should be relatively self-contained (plug in / out)
• Support automated testing in the release cycle
• Minimize the need for full data migrations across upgrades to the AtoM 3 code

Next Steps

• We are seeking community feedback on these proposed principles through a survey.
• Feedback will be evaluated alongside proposed principles
• The finalised Design Principles will be submitted to the AtoM Foundation Board for approval
• Foundation to consider and formalize who is monitoring these principles and working towards them in the community