The leaders of our work groups group chairs met last Friday with the VIVO steering group to review project progress and suggest some improvements in how the project works. Two changes are being made now. First, the working group leads will meet each month with the steering group. This should help improve communication, keep the community connected, and encourage even more communication between meetings. Second, the combined group recommended that I provide a weekly email to the community asking for help for on-going work, and passing along updates. So here we are some updates.
- The search for the tech led position is in full swing. We have a good number of qualified applicants and will continue to accept applications as we begin interviews. If you know of people who would be great for the position please encourage them to apply. You'll find the position description and the members of the search committee in the VIVO wiki here https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/MKAOB
- Registration for the conference is open! Register here: https://www.etouches.com/ehome/vivo2015/register/ The workshop line-up is very strong, submissions of contributed papers and posters are being reviewed by the program committee. David Weinberger has accept our invitation as a keynote speaker. More on David here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Weinberger
- The telling VIVO stories task force (https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/z6kOB) is looking for VIVO success stories. Do you have one? Please contact Julia Trimmer. VIVO stories are brief case studies documenting concrete value generated by using VIVO.
- The implementation documentation task force (https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/1KMOB) is up and running. You may have received an email asking you to share your pain points in implementing VIVO. What documentation should we have had? What did you find that was not helpful? What works? Please share your thoughts with one of the task force members.
- The contributed software task force (https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/uqMOB) is developing recommendations regarding locally developed apps and tools and how this software might be contributed to the VIVO ecosystem, increasing the value of VIVO. If you have thoughts or experience in other projects with contributed software, please share!
- Finally, the asset inventory task force (https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/DZsOB) is making good progress identifying all the stuff of the VIVO project. The task force is interviewing key people on the project and we will ask for your help shortly in reviewing the assets and developing recommendations for consolidation and improvements.
You'll note that pretty much everything going of what goes on with VIVO is posted in accessible via the VIVO wiki – http://wiki.duraspace.org/display/wikiVIVO. If you haven't already done so, you'll want to check it out. Plans, documentation, minutes of meetings, and much more can be found there. You'll find quite a bit of historic material (one might say "old"). But much of the material is timely and useful. As task force work proceeds I expect you will see the quality of the material improve. To help with this or any
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other VIVO effort, you will need a Duraspace username and password
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. Takes one minute to get one.
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Sign up here: https://wiki.duraspace.org/signup.action
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Four task forces are forming to help VIVO develop:
1. Julia Trimmer of Duke has volunteered to lead a task force that will collect VIVO user success stories. These stories are critically important in building understanding of how VIVO helps people. If you would like to join this task force, please contact Julia.
2. Violeta Ilik of Northwestern has volunteered to lead a task force to improve the VIVO Implementation documentation. This has been one of our most requested "needs." To volunteer, please contact Violeta.
3. Chris Barnes of Florida and Ted Lawless of Brown have volunteered to lead a task force to develop recommendations for including contributed, non-core applications in VIVO releases. The community has developed many oustanding VIVO applications. Contributed applications demonstrate the stength of the community as well as improve the benefit of having a VIVO. Please contact Chris or Ted to volunteer for this task force.
4. I will facilitate a task force to inventory VIVO digital assets -- web sites, repos, mail lists and other assets. As you may know, VIVO has collected a variety of things over time and they can be bewildering to new comers and veterans alike. The task force will also recommend consolidation of assets to simplify our environment. Paul Albert of Weill Cornell Medical College, Alex Viggio of Symplectic, Lauren Gala of Penn, Jim Blake of Cornell and Jon Corson-Rikert of Cornell have volunteered for this task force. If you would like to help, please contact any of us.
Go VIVO!
Mike
Mike Conlon
VIVO Project Director