The BitCurator Environment (BCE) began as an effort “to develop a system for collecting professionals that incorporates the functionality of many digital forensics tools,” and grew with the support of the members of the BitCurator Consortium (BCC). The independent, member-led community formalized administrative activities and expanded its capacity to meet member needs and took responsibility for oversight of the BCE. As the consortium developed capacity to meet the needs of community members, the flagship product faced its own product life cycle needs.

Over the years, dedicated individuals volunteered time and expertise to maintain and advance the BCE. Maintainers, administrators, and committee members have responded to change and uncertainty with a commitment to three major factors: (1) documentation, (2) ongoing education, and (3) cultivation of community. This workshop will center our collective efforts to grow the BCE into a community-supported ecosystem by continuing to embrace these three approaches.

The workshop will include an overview of the BCE’s maintenance history and discussion of major releases and contributors. Presenters will provide an overview of the project structure and discuss how source code repositories, documentation, and web presence have evolved in response to technological change and community requirements. We will help our community members become community maintainers with demonstrations of issue reporting, support seeking, and contributing to the environment. We will share examples of training resources developed by our community and conclude with a Question-and-Answer session.

Links shared in the chat

• https://groups.google.com/g/bitcurator-users
• https://github.com/bitcurator/bitcurator-salt/issues
• https://docs.github.com/en/issues/tracking-your-work-with-issues/creating-an-issue
• https://bitcuratorconsortium.org/bitcurator-support/
• https://www.30secondsofcode.org/git/p/1/
• https://nypl.github.io/digarch/