Software Repository Interoperability

A number of academic, commercial, and government software repositories currently exist that provide access to software packages, reusable software components, and related documents, either via the Internet or via intra-organizational intranets. It is highly desirable, both for user convenience and savings in duplication of eeort, that these repositories interoperate. This paper describes interoperability standards that have already been developed as well as those under development by the Reuse Library Interoperability Group (RIG). These standards include a data model for a common semantics for describing software resources, as well as frameworks for describing software certiication policies and intellectual property rights. The National HPCC Software Exchange (NHSE) is described as an example of an organization that is achieving interoperation between government and academic HPCC software repositories, in part through adoption of RIG standards.