Directions for Digital Repositories

The Internet provided a platform for global digital communication; the Web added document browsing and repositories have added persistence and curation. What have we achieved with this multilayered platform in the last decade? And what scope have we for achieving new things? The newly emerging discipline of Web Science tells us that the Web isn't a thing but an activity: the creation of a network of information by a network of individuals. The Web wasn't invented by Tim Berners-Lee, it is being invented by all of us as we gradually adapt our tools and change our practice. In this presentation I will discuss some of the changes that have occurred in the UK and European experience, the changes that we have embodied in the EPrints repository platform, and some of our hopes for changes yet to occur.