Repository developers are invited to participate in a new "Repository  
Challenge" prize activity to produce demonstrations of novel  
repository capability during the OR08 conference.

The Open Repositories conference annually attracts developers who  
working on a wide variety of repository-oriented platforms and  
projects from across the world. As well as providing a forum for  
discussion of the cutting edge of repository R&D, this year's  
conference will run a rapid cross-platform repository integration  
challenge. The aim is to get delegates working in small teams to try  
to quickly pull together established platforms and services to  
demonstrate a glimpse of some real-life, user-relevant scenarios and  
services. The "Repository Challenge" will be based around small teams  
of developers trying to achieve goals set by the repository manager  
and user community. This all takes place in a "scrapheap-code  
challenge [UK]" / "junkyard-code wars[US]" atmosphere over the two  
days of the conference. An awards ceremony at the conference dinner  
will celebrate the achievements of the teams with cash prizes given to  
the best demos (first team prize £2,500 / $5,000 / €3.350).

The Repository Challenge is intended to provide concrete examples of  
the ideas raised at a recent Repository Unconference, an event run by  
the JISC Common Repository Interface Group (CRIG) to identify key  
issues that repositories need to address to make a genuine impact in  
Higher Education. These include bringing the repository closer to the  
researcher's working environment,  automatically generating metadata,  
running multiple interfaces and taking advantage of Web 2.0 and  
utility computing services.

To participate in the repository challenge, register for OR08 at http://or08.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ 
  and email the Repository Challenge Chair: David Flanders ([log in to unmask] 
).

Comments are invited on the outputs of the Unconference (photos of the  
flipcharts) which are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ 
wocrig . Other CRIG discussion is available via blog planet: http://feeds.feedburner.com/jisc-crig 
  . Background information on CRIG can be found at: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/index/CRIG 
  . For more information on the challenge, contact the Repository  
Challenge Chair: David Flanders ([log in to unmask]).

--
Les Carr
Open Repositories 2008 Conference Chair