The NLnet Commons Fund supports research and development of open-source projects that advance a next-generation public-interest internet. I am exploring if we are submitting one or two separate proposals for OpenRefine at EUR 50 000 each. Applications are due by August 1 2025, which does not give us a lot of time to prepare. We are seeking letters of support from EU-based institutions (details below).
Project 1. Native In-App Reconciliation of Arbitrary Local Data Sets
Project 2. Extension Manager for OpenRefine Plugins
This proposal targets the goal post Better support for OpenRefine extensions. I suggest we limit the scope to the extension manager itself, including its user interface and registration mechanism for plugins. We will not include a refactoring of the extension API.
@abbe98 given your prior work on the extension manager would you be interested in collaborating on this proposal?
3. Eligibility: Demonstrating the European Dimension
Non-EU organizations may apply if they can demonstrate a European dimension (see Can anyone in the whole world submit in the FAQ). To meet this requirement, I would like to gather letters of support from EU-based institutions that can see benefit from the proposed project.
If you work at a European-based organization (such as a university, GALM, or newsroom) and can help secure a letter of support, please let me know. Maybe @lozanaross at NFDI, @Andre_Costa at Wikimedia Sweden or @b2m at LABW could help?
I am looking for your feedback regarding which project you'd like to see happen and how we can approach this grant application.
I had completely missed this application, if the NLnet application is unsuccessful I would be more than happy to sponsor work in this area if there is a contributor willing to pick it up.
I think my institution, the SODa Center for Data Competencies in University Collections –
funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research –, would be happy to provide a LOS/LOI. Reconciliation on local vocabularies is something many curators and researches in collections would like to have available via (OpenRefine-)GUI.
I will look into a LoS from hbz. If anybody has already drafted a LoS, I'd be happy if you posted it here. This will make it easier for other to follow suit.
Thank you all for your interest and support. I will create a Google Document by the end of the week to begin drafting both applications and preparing a template letter of support.
The draft document is available here for comments and suggestions.
I haven't started to draft the proposal regarding the Native In-App Reconciliation of Arbitrary Local Data Sets project, as we are waiting for an update on the eligibility of the 2025 Research Software Maintenance Fund in the coming days.
Please feel free to adapt it with your organization’s metrics (number of endpoints in use, extensions deployed, user count, etc.). Please let me know if you have any questions.
2. Extension-ecosystem R&D proposal
Following discussions with @Rory we’ve decided to focus one proposal on researching how OpenRefine can better handle breaking changes and extension compatibility. Through this grant we do not want to introduce changes to OpenRefine, but rather build proof of concept to support the conversation and let the community review, comment and inform future implementation. This work will:
Enhance compatibility testing between OpenRefine and its extensions
Build two proof-of-concepts for the community-identified approaches (declarative registration, module isolation, etc.)
Facilitate dialogue with CoreDev and extension authors via surveys, interviews, and a hands-on workshop
Publish recommendations and best practices for future development
@Rory is drafting the technical plan now, grounded in the existing GitHub issues and forum threads.
3. Native In-App Reconciliation Proposal
I’m also working on the second application, “Native In-App Reconciliation of Arbitrary Local Data Sets.” You can expect a first draft by mid-next week for community review.
4. Optional: Extension Manager UI proposal
Time permitting, I’ll prepare a third, lower-priority application for a full Extension Manager (UI + registration mechanism). We’ll only pursue this if we have bandwidth after the first two.
Feedback welcome! Let me know if you have suggestions on scope, partner involvement, or milestones.
FYI, I am hoping to finish the OpenRefine Launcher for our 3 supported OS's by end of this year. (Once we get back home to China and I'm in front of my computer.)
I already received two letters of support, and I am awaiting two more in the coming days. Please let me know if your institution is interested in partnering on the project.
For an update on my end, I'm still working on an application for extension ecosystem work. I was hoping to have a draft by today but I've been focusing primarily on understanding the extensive conversation around the developer experience of building and maintaining extensions. This has taken longer than I'd planned but I believe accurately capturing the state of the discussion is important for me to helpfully contribute to these efforts.
The core work of the grant would be to support the ideas already discussed in the "Improving the UX of extension install, and Butterfly" generally and the steps outlined in this post specifically. My ideal application will be one that supports and clarifies this work as much as possible, so please bear that in mind when reviewing the work in progress. I will post a follow up once I feel the draft better conveys my intention on this front.