Roadmap Process. We are entering week four of the public discussion of roadmap items. I had an opportunity to discuss the VIVO Roadmap Process and the Roadmap Features with the Implementation and Development Working Group this week. It was a good discussion. The process involves identifying and discussing features that have been proposed over the past several years. Features appear to clump according to the role of the person involved with VIVO – there are a body of features that might benefit "end users" – people who use VIVO in their work (not the work of VIVO!), features that might benefit the "stewards" of VIVO at VIVO sites – these include project managers, data managers, outreach managers, local developers and system administrators. And finally there are features that benefit the developers of VIVO. All these perspectives are important. Next week, there will be a survey of the VIVO mailing lists, the Steering Group and the Leadership Group asking for feedback regarding interest in the features – we will ask whether you would be willing to participate in developing the feature – as a developer, a project manager, a writer, or in any other way. We will ask about priorities for VIVO. This data will go to a task force that will develop a roadmap proposal. The number of features on the roadmap will depend on the interest expressed by the community. The task force will take strategic, technical and effort considerations into account in developing the proposal. Please see the VIVO Roadmap Process page for more detail about how this will work.
There were great questions on the call with Implementation and Development:
Question: What about features for people who are interested only in VIVO data and not in using the VIVO application?
Answer: Such people are typically represented by the stewards. Several of the "steward" features are oriented toward people interested only in the VIVO data.
Question: Will all 80 proposed features be included in the survey?
Answer: Yes, and there will be ample opportunity for you to comment on your interest in specific features.
Questions: How many features will VIVO be able to implement over the course of the year?
Answer: This will be determined by the amount of contributed effort, and the complexity of the features of value to the community.
Question: What about features that haven't gotten to the list yet? How are features added?
Answer: All features we've heard of are added. Please send them in (comment on the feature page, or email Mike), they will be added.
Question: After we have a roadmap, how does it get amended?
Answer: Whew. Let's get to a first roadmap. I'm sure we will be able to develop an open on-going process for amending the roadmap as we execute on features deemed high value by the community.
If you haven't already done so, please review the Roadmap Features and discuss them with your colleagues. The survey will open at the end of the week
Customizing VIVO. There were some very interesting exchanges on the VIVO email lists this week regarding customizing VIVO.
- On the ontology list, a discussion of ontology hijacking – when do we redefine elements of another ontology in order to "make things work." How do we avoid doing this? Is it ever appropriate?
- On dev all, a discussion with code regarding turning DOI in VIVO into clickable links to DOI landing pages.
- Also on dev all, a discussion with code for setting a profile to open in "View All" if the number of items on the page is low.
Roadmap Process. We are entering week three of the public discussion of roadmap items. I'll be on the Implementation and Development call this Thursday at 1 PM US Eastern to participate in the discussion, and answer any questions you may have about the process. See Weekly Implementation and Development Calls for call details. All are welcome to attend.
Outreach and Engagement Work Group calls starting. The Outreach and Engagement workgroup, co-chaired by Julia Trimmer of Duke and Kristi Holmes of Northwestern, will be restarting its regular call series beginning Tuesday, July 21 at 1 PM Eastern. See Outreach and Engagement Working Interest Group for call details. All are welcome.
Task Force Updates. Lots of task force news this week:
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The task forces are a key mechanism for improving VIVO. These self-organizing, time-limited, results-oriented efforts bring people together to get something done. I hope you will consider participating in, or organizing a task force. And thanks to all our task force members for their work to improve VIVO.
Nominations for Steering Group. Another way to help the VIVO community is by serving as a Steering Group member. Five additional members will be elected to the Steering Group this summer. We have begun to receive nominations. Elections will be held the week of July 20. If you know someone who you feel would make a great addition to the Steering Group, please nominate them by dropping a note to Mike Conlon. The current Steering Group is Dean B. Krafft, Robert H. McDonald, Melissa Haendel, Jon Corson-Rikert, Kristi Holmes, and Paul Albert. Please consider who might join them.
Duraspace Board Meeting. As some may know, I serve as a board member of Duraspace. I had the pleasure of attending the board meeting in Washington DC this past week. The board reviewed finances, membership, strategy and the projects. Duraspace stands as a strong supporter of open source and has helped VIVO organize its finances, membership, strategy, and governance. I look forward to continuing to work with Duraspace.
Wiki Updates. Have thoughts about the wiki? Please drop me a note. We are slowly improving content, organization, and formatting. It's an interesting process. We'll cut down on redundancy, and find appropriate homes for historical material. We will engage more people in writing and editing. As we move forward, I encourage you to participate. When you see something to improve, please improve it. If you see something to comment on, please leave a comment. Recent Updates to the wiki can be found on the Search the VIVO wiki page.
I hope you enjoy this first official week of summer. Self nominations are accepted.
Go VIVO!
Mike
Mike Conlon
VIVO Project Director
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