An Example of a Shared Repository

I just ran across the Fedora Commons, "the home of the unique Fedora open source software, a robust integrated repository-centered platform that enables the storage, access and management of virtually any kind of digital content." The Commons is a non-profit organization "whose purpose is to provide sustainable open-source technologies to help individuals and organizations create, manage, publish, share, and preserve digital content upon which we form our intellectual, scientific, and cultural heritage." It continues the mission of the Fedora Project, which evolved from the Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (Fedora) developed by researchers at Cornell Computing and Information Science. It looks like what they do for libraries, etc. is very similar to what we want to do with directories. Paul has some specific ideas about why the way in which they do it is not the way in which we want to do it, but I'll let him explain.

I'm interested in their funding sources. Two years ago, they got a 4-year, $4.9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. "The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, established in 2000, seeks to advance environmental conservation and cutting-edge scientific research around the world and improve the quality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Foundation’s Science Program seeks to make a significant impact on the development of provocative, transformative scientific research, and increase knowledge in emerging fields." Could we learn something from Fedora's application for the grant?