DISPLAYS plans for three prototypes and a final system that will allow for a continuous development process that keeps scientific and technical research and development on target, and allows rapid incorporation of research results that can be demonstrated at regular user trials while observing a quality assurance cycle that accounts for update of user requirements after evaluation at user trials.

Thus, successive prototypes at regular intervals provide a sound basis for timely evaluation, adjustment to user requirements, and evaluation at user trials. As an evaluation methodology, a set of tools will be designed to allow efficient and professional evaluation at user trials workshops in work package 9, which will rotate around consortium member sites; and again for efficiency and economies of scale will be set to coincide with related digital library conferences where appropriate.  System design and integration in work package 8 and the actual implementation of prototypes and final system in work packages 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 completes the user requirements, design specification, implementation test and evaluation cycle.

The implementation of DISPLAYS over a P2P ‘sharing’ network and GRID Infrastructure, see Figure below, which shows both an architectural and technology view) is also based on a digital libraries service oriented architecture that leverages the Semantic GRID by providing semantic search services and is also focused on sustainability allowing the Portable Antiquities community to share the cost of access to heritage resources and repositories, including creation, interpretation and use costs on the P2P sharing network.   DISPLAYS will thus allow cooperative community access in a manner that can grow almost without limit, because new citizens or organisations accessing their Portable Antiquities through DISPLAYS bring both demand and supply.  The more popular a DISPLAYS digital library (and there could be many types, e.g. art history, local history, archaeological, scientific collections, virtual museum exhibitions, and so on) becomes, the more new users join (i.e., citizens or organisations) bringing new resources to these community based heritage repositories (digital library archives).  These new users contribute to these repositories by accessioning their own digital cultural resources to a community based DISPLAYS digital library managed by themselves for themselves, while at the same time bringing more access bandwidth (through their own broadband connections) and storage media.