Michele Mennielli is the International Membership and Partnership Manager of DuraSpace and attended the first Force 11 conference. We had a nice and beautiful conversation, which I would like to share with you.

Is this your first meeting?

Yes, it is.

Wow, welcome! What made you decide to attend this year?

I am working on a survey, a joint effort between OCLC research and euroCRIS, trying to assess research information management practices worldwide. As a Board member of euroCRIS I am here to promote it. Since we are talking about Scholarly Communication and how different systems should integrate, it was seen as a good opportunity to promote the survey, which was launched last week. 

How do you find the conference so far?

It’s interesting because there are many different points of view represented here. I have found the workshops and sessions, such as the workshop on blockchain I attended, to be innovative. What I like the most is that the audience of the sessions are very engaged, there are vibrant conversations and they are not just listening.

What would you say is the benefit of this meeting?

Most of the conferences I attend are to reinforce, build relationships… not just content of the conference per se but about the people, community building. Technology are the main interactions between systems, it is crucial that to build interactions between systems you have to first build interactions between people.

Tell me one thing that stands out in your mind so far.

This is my first conference and I have never attended a conference with such a strong participation of researchers, dealing with repositories and research information management in general. So it was interesting to listen to their perspectives when it comes to techology that should facilitate or make their lives much easier. Technology is important to understand their points of view to be able to support them better. The value added for me is that they are part of the ecosystem we are serving.

What happens when you go home?

I had fruitful meetings and they are going to be interesting to follow up in the next few months, trying to work together on a few new projects, especially when it comes to better integrating repositories and research information with other components of the research ecosystem.  

How do you plan to stay engaged?

I have to promote the survey and I will be in contact with people I met here. So the survey closes by mid January and our intention is to publish the preliminary results by May 2018. I will also stay engaged by being on the mailing list and through social networks which are both very active.

What do you recommend or areas that aren’t being addressed?

Next Generation Repositories and how they can better support research activities; ecosystems, analyzing who does what. The role of research information management systems (CRIS) in such an ecosystem.