From Flickr by dwstucke https://flic.kr/p/dcmAL3

This summer we’ve made solid progress toward our DMPRoadmap MVP, done oodles of outreach for machine-actionable DMPs, and addressed some DMPTool and DMPonline-specific items. Keep reading for the high-level highlights and what to expect in the coming months:

What we’re working on now…

• DCC is running all three production services—DMPonline, DMPTuuli, and DMP Melbourne—on the new Roadmap codebase. Check out the Release Notes for v0.3.
• The DMPRoadmap co-development team continues to add new features (details on the Github wiki). At the moment, we’re focused on upgrading to Bootstrap 3 and making the site compliant with accessibility standards. This turned out to require a wholesale replacement and refactoring of the HTML and Javascript and will ultimately make the transition to future versions of Rails easier. It will push our release date further into fall 2017, but a key benefit is that it will make it easier for our many external partners to maintain local installations of the tool and contribute back to the core project.
• Preparations for the DMPTool data migration include a comprehensive template audit. We’re reviewing all funder guidelines to make sure resources are accurate and up-to-date (in progress; a shout out to the MIT library for contributing to this effort!). We will also normalize the format and presentation of funder templates in the new platform and apply themes to make it easier for admins to add supporting guidance across templates (more about themes here and here).
• Please note! The DMPTool brochure page https://dmp.cdlib.org now redirects to the main application https://dmptool.org/. You may want to update your bookmarks. The brochure page was launched with the current version of the tool in 2014, but has become an outdated and unnecessary hurdle to getting to the part about writing a DMP. We’re planning to provide dynamically updated tool usage info in the new version to supersede the brochure page.
• The DMPonline services will also be migrating to the revised set of themes for the MVP release. Since this removes some of the existing themes, we’ll be contacting admin users with advice on how to merge or remove redundant guidance.
• New templates have also been added to DMPonline. These include an update for the Wellcome Trust which now asks for Output Management Plans covering data, software, and other research materials, and a new template for the ERC. Further details are available in the DCC news item.

What to expect in the future…

• More communications via blogs, listserv, Slack with a revised timeline and release date for the MVP. Once estimates are in place, we can schedule usability testing with the DMPTool and DMPonline communities and prepare materials for a rollout (stay tuned).
• More marketing and outreach about the DMPRoadmap project and machine-actionable DMPs. A huge thanks to our DMPTool street team for helping to spread the word (and stickers) at meetings on this side of the pond (RDAP, ALA, DUG/ESIP, ESA, upcoming DLF)! Extra props to Sophie Hou (NCAR) for presenting our poster at the US Geological Survey Community for Data Integration workshop and Sherry Lake (UVA) for taking a poster turn at the Dataverse community meeting.
• Stephanie presented in a morning course “Data in the Scholarly Communications Life Cycle” at the FORCE11 Scholarly Communications Institute (event, slides). Thanks to Natasha Simons (ANDS) for coordinating a great course!
• Meanwhile, Sarah and DCC colleagues have been making the UK/EU rounds. You can see slides from our presentation at the Jisc Research Data Network event. We also ran DMP sessions at the inaugural EUDAT summer school and the CODATA research data science school. These gave participants a grounding in developing DMPs, FAIR data principles, and the tools and services that can help with this.

Where to catch up with us next on machine-actionable DMPs

• Join us at the next RDA Plenary in Montreal (19-21 Sept) for an Active DMPs and Domain Repositories IGs joint session. There will be lightning talks and discussion of work in this arena including updates from two new RDA working groups—DMP Common Standards and Exposing DMPs—that each have case statements out for comment. Remote participation details to follow.
• The FORCE2017 meeting in Berlin (25–27 Oct) presents another opportunity to engage on the topic. We just submitted a FAIR DMPs session proposal to refine concepts and define 10 simple rules for machine-actionable / active / dynamic / FAIR DMPs.
  

  Sophie (left) & Sherry (right) evangelizing about machine-actionable DMPs