About Us
Fedora is a robust, modular, open source repository system for the management and dissemination of digital content. It is especially suited for digital libraries and archives, both for access and preservation. It is also used to provide specialized access to very large and complex digital collections of historic and cultural materials as well as scientific data. Fedora has a worldwide installed user base that includes academic and cultural heritage organizations, universities, research institutions, university libraries, national libraries, and government agencies.
The Fedora project is led by the Fedora Governance Group and is under the stewardship of the DuraSpace Community-Supported Programs Division of Lyrasis who's mission is to provide leadership and innovation for open source technology projects and solutions that focus on durable, persistent access to digital data.
In partnership with stakeholder community members, Lyrasis has put together global, strategic collaborations to sustain Fedora which is used by more than three hundred institutions around the world. The Fedora project is directly supported with financial and in-kind contributions of development resources through the Lyrasis Membership Program. Learn more about Lyrasis' support for open source technology projects and solutions here.
Date | Event |
1997 | Sandy Payette and Carl Lagoze created the original Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (Fedora) at Cornell University |
1998 | Fedora reference implementation developed and made available to researchers and the public |
1998 | Original Fedora article published by Payette and Lagoze |
2000 | Thornton Staples and Rosser Wayland, at the University of Virginia Library created prototype digital library system using the Fedora architecture |
2001 | Fedora Project Phase I: Cornell University and University of Virginia received grant from Mellon Foundation to build open source Fedora |
2002 | Beta release of Fedora open source software |
2003 | First public release of Fedora open source software (Fedora 1.0) |
2004 | Fedora Project Phase II: Cornell University and University of Virginia received second grant from Mellon Foundation to continue development |
2005 | Fedora 2.0 released |
2006 | Significant growth of Fedora user community |
2007 | Start-up of Fedora Commons not-for-profit organization with grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation |
2008 | Fedora 3.0 released |
2009 | Fedora Commons joined with the DSpace Foundation and began operating under the new name DuraSpace in July 2009 |
2011 | Fedora 3.5 released |
2012 | Fedora Futures community initiative established to refresh the Fedora repository platform for the next 5-10 years and reinvigorate the community |
2013 | Fedora 4.0 Alpha 2 released |
2013 | Fedora 3.7.0 and 3.7.1 released to ensure that Fedora 3 users continue to have access to stable repository functionality |
2013 | First issue of the Fedora Quarterly Report published |
2014 | Fedora 4.0.0 released into production |
2015 | The first Fedora Camp was held at Duke University in North Carolina |
2016 | Fedora 4.7.0, which upgraded ModeShape to version 5 and removed the Infinispan component, was released |
2017 | The first international Fedora Camp was held at Oxford University in the UK |
2018 | Fedora 5.0, which aligns with the Fedora API Specification, was released |
2019 | DuraSpace and LYRASIS merged organizations, and Fedora was added to an expanded portfolio of programs under the DuraSpace Community Supported Programs Division |
2021 | LYRASIS is announced the release of Fedora 6.0.0. |
Name History
In 1997 a research project at Cornell University was named the Flexibile Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (Fedora). In 1998 the Fedora name was used in article published by Payette and Lagoze and in research software that was released to the public under the Fedora name.
In 2005 Red Hat, Inc. filed a trademark request for the name “Fedora” to be associated with their Linux operating system project. Cornell and UVA formally disputed the request and, as a final settlement, all parties settled on a co-existence agreement that stated that the Cornell-UVA project could use the name when clearly associated with open source software for digital object repository systems and that Red Hat could use the name when it was clearly associated with open source computer operating systems. The transferable agreement stipulated that each project must display the following text on their web site:
Cornell University and the University of Virginia offer an open source digital object repository software under the mark FEDORA Project. Red Hat’s FEDORA Project is not affiliated, connected, or associated with the FEDORA Project of Cornell University and the University of Virginia. Cornell University and the University of Virginia do not sponsor, approve of, or endorse Red Hat’s FEDORA Project.
Red Hat, Inc. offers open source computer software for operating computer systems under the mark FEDORA Project. The FEDORA Project of Cornell University and the University of Virginia is not affiliated, connected, or associated with the FEDORA Project of Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Inc. does not sponsor, approve of, or endorse the FEDORA Project of Cornell University and the University of Virginia.
Interesting Facts
- FEDORA is an acronym that means Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture.
- The logo was intended to represents a network or graph of interconnected digital objects. However, the red nodes have been affectionately referred to by many as the “meatballs” or the “red meatballs”.
- The original research that led the first Fedora prototype at Cornell University was conducted in the Digital Library Research Group in the Computer Science Department at Cornell University. The research was funded by DARPA and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
- To learn more about the original Fedora research, check out the old web site courtesy of Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.