The Fitzwilliam Museum's Digital output was based around 3 pillars of open computing:
- Open Data
- Open Science
- Open Licenses
We strived to create software and datasets that were liberally licensed eg MIT/GPL for software and CC 0 for metadata. Images are more strictly controlled by the University of Cambridge and are CC BY-NC-ND. The majority of the software and website code in these repositories has been written by Daniel Pett, with some input from team members (Georgina Doji, Oliver Warren, and Henry Evans.)
Most projects use PHP, R, Python, Ruby, Dart, Shell, Vue, Typescript, React or Java; the latest frameworks are used where ever possible for builds and include Jekyll or Gatsby for static sites, Laravel for our major websites; for CSS frameworks we use the latest Bootstrap or Tachyons.
Security for code is handled by a combination of University of Cambridge security scanning, Snyk and Dependabot, and projects are updated as soon as possible. Github Actions are used for Continuous Intergration, build of static websites, automated Twitter bots (eg FitzArtBot) and for extraction of new data from API endpoints. Site uptime is monitored via the brilliant uptime bot.
Content Management systems used in conjunction with the repositories held here include Wordpress, Tessitura's TNEW and Directus (Version 8 and Version 9). Github pages are used for deployment of websites where ever possible, with CNAMEs pointed to the repositories.
Curatorial colleagues have been instrumental in creating resources and learning to code (take a bow Helen Strudwick, Rebecca Roberts, Anastasia Christophilopoulou, Melanie Pitkin, Jana Mokrisova, Lisa Gee, and Megan Bushnell). Our AHRC funded Creative Economy Engagement Fellows (Abi L. Glen, Jennifer Wexler, Cat Cooper and Melanie Pitkin) generated 3d models, web resources and audio visual materials which are deployed here in conjunction with ThinkSee3d and Museum in a Box. As part of our AHRC funded Linking Islands of Data network, various international partners collaborated on linked open data and visualisation.
We have had help from amazing external contributors, for example Rainer Simon, Tom Elliot, Alexa Steinbrück, Philo van Kemanade and work with Cambridge Digital Humanities (Leo Impett and Andy Corrigan), Studio24 (on Tessitura) and Olamalu (on Miniatures and Mirador extensions).
Please do fork, remix or reuse the code we have created.
DEJP July 2022
