The leaders of our work groups 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.
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 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
You'll note that pretty much everything going on with VIVO is posted in the VIVO wiki – http://wiki.duraspace.org/display/wiki. 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
- The VIVO Steering Committee now posts its minutes to the wiki. See https://wiki.duraspace.org/x/6YF6Aw BTW, if you don't have a Duraspace username and password, you may want to get one. You will be able to edit wiki pages and enter issues in the the Jira issue tracker. More on both in future emails.
- Conference preparation is gearing up. You may have seen the recent call for papers: http://goo.gl/XaPc7n Please consider submitting a paper or poster, or volunteering to help review submissions. And, of course, please plan to attend in Cambridge, MA August 12-14.
- OHSU hosted an outstanding VIVO Implementation Fest. Thanks to Melissa and Jon and the organizing task force! Materials from the IFest are available on Google Drive: http://goo.gl/6EzVrc
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
