Framing, discussion and notes from the International Internet Preservation Consortium's new portfolio on collaborative tool development. Presented and discussed at the IIPC General Assembly in Reykjavic, 11 April 2016.

1. IIPC General
Assembly 2016
Portfolio Discussion
Tools Development
IIPC Portfolio Lead
Tom Cramer
Stanford University

2. Objectives from Consortium
Agreement
The Consortium principles and objectives remain to:
work collaboratively, within each country's legislative framework, to identify, develop and facilitate
implementation of solutions for selecting, harvesting, collecting, preserving and providing access to
Internet content;
facilitate international coverage of Internet content archive collections within national legal frameworks
and in accordance with each member’s collection development policy;
be a strong international advocate for initiatives and legislation that encourage the collection and
preservation of and access to Internet content.
To achieve this aim, the Consortium will continue to:
provide a forum for the sharing of knowledge about Internet content archiving;
develop and recommend standards for collecting, preserving and providing long term access to Internet
content;
facilitate the development of appropriate and interoperable, preferably Open Source, software and
tools;
raise awareness of Internet preservation issues and initiatives through activities such as conferences,
workshops, training events and publications.

4. Why Tools Development?
One of the main missions of IIPC is to foster collaborative tool
development.
the world of web archiving is vast, yet the number or participants
relatively small
the more we can foster a rich tool environment, the more everyone
involved in any part of the web archiving lifecycle benefits
Could IIPC play a greater role in collaborative tool
development for web archiving?
major focus of 2015 GA was open source, collaborative development
for 2016-17: what can IIPC do to improve how we do tool
development in the web archiving community?

5. Proposed Portfolio Direction
1. Reaffirm statement of principles and objectives for tool development as a
priority.
2. Build a consensus vision for the value of tools, and a collaborative,
interoperating toolscape, among IIPC members.
3. Synthesize an agenda for tools development across IIPC members
4. Codify APIs that lead to modular and interoperable tools across full W-A
lifecycle (from capture / preservation / access / research)
5. Advance some small scale, collaborative development efforts: little things
can lead to big things
6. Help seed grassroots, open source or otherwise collaborative efforts: tool
training, hack-a-thons, adoption fairs, etc.

6. Breakout Session Focus
Is tool development a priority for web archiving?
If so, why and in what areas?
Can we change how we approach tool development?
Smaller, more modular approach?
Emphasis on interoperability & APIs?
Lessons and patterns from open source communities?
Build member capacity to contribute to and benefit from these efforts?
What are the intersections of tool development with the other IIPC Portfolios:
Member Engagement and Partnerships & Outreach?
Who is interested and able to participate?
What are next steps?

7. Report Out
YES, tool development is a priority.
Interoperability / APIs / Modularity are key.
standards, data models, metadata are too
Use case-driven dev essential (both what & WHY)
Needs and opportunities to reduce friction of collaboration.
(Lots of dev happening both locally and outside
IIPC that could be plugged in.)
Dev-to-dev face time (tech training, hack-a-thons, unconferences)
Slack, email lists, GitHub, etc.
On ramps for new devs, too.
Needs for both small and big efforts.
IIPC as a facilitator / broker for (big) efforts.