[tdwg-phylo] Evolutionary Database Interoperability Hackathon
Hilmar Lapp
hlapp at nescent.org
Tue Jan 27 00:02:53 CET 2009
(Note that the issue we are trying to address and the standards we try
to bring to bear here are closely related to what we discussed at the
workshop and the conference session in Perth. If you are interested in
participating, I'd encourage you to apply! -hilmar)
NESCent Hackathon on Evolutionary Database Interoperability
OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent; http://
nescent.org) is sponsoring an "Evolutionary Database Interoperability"
hackathon aimed at enhancing the value (and raising the profile) of
important community resources for evolutionary and biodiversity data
by increasing their accessibility to users and software. We are
broadly soliciting applications for participation from the community.
More information about the event is available online at http://evoinfo.nescent.org/Database_Interop_Hackathon
.
A hackathon is an event at which a group of programmers who otherwise
do not have the opportunity to interact on a routine basis meet with
users and domain experts to collaboratively develop working code that
is of utility to the community as a whole. The Database
Interoperability Hackathon will bring together developers from a
number of emerging standards for evolutionary data exchange (NeXML; http://nexml.org
), data and metadata semantics (CDAO; http://www.evolutionaryontology.org
), and programmatic access of evolutionary data providers (PhyloWS; http://evoinfo.nescent.org/PhyloWS)
with database programmers and metadata experts from a variety of
evolutionary and biodiversity community resources. In addition, the
mix of people will include programmers of embeddable widgets, mash-up
and aggregation applications that can showcase the value of the effort
for research applications.
We also welcome comments and suggestions for issues in database
interoperability that could be addressed at the event but are not yet
on our radar. Please email the organizers at hackathon3 at nescent.org
with any suggestions you have.
GOALS AND ACTIVITIES
The focus of the programming aspect of the meeting will be to promote
interoperability among online evolutionary databases through the
following core set of activities.
1) Mapping the data and operation semantics of the participating
online resources to an ontology, CDAO.
2) Implement a NeXML transformation for participating online resources
as a formally defined query input and data output.
3) Implementation of programmable web-service interfaces following the
emerging PhyloWS standard.
4) Showcase some of the possibilities that can arise from achieving
data provider interoperability through small integration and/or mash-
up oriented prototype applications.
Supporting activities will include discussing input from end-users,
discussing compliance with emerging reporting standards (MIAPA) and
documentation of solutions and open problems on the hackathon wiki.
ORGANIZATION
The event will be 5 days in duration and will take place at NESCent in
Durham, North Carolina, on March 9-13, 2009. Participant travel,
accommodation, expenses for meals, etc, will be paid by NESCent.
Logistical and travel details will be communicated to accepted and
confirmed participants.
The specific development targets will be selected by the participants
through a hackathon wiki, a mailing list, and one or more conference
calls. The exact agenda for the event will be developed similarly, but
will be largely devoted to coding time. At the event itself,
participants will self-organize into small subgroups (of 2-5) focused
on particular targets.
The NeXML, CDAO, and PhyloWS standards are products of the
Evolutionary Informatics working group (http://evoinfo.nescent.org),
under the auspices of whom this event is being organized.
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
We invite all individuals interested in attending to apply by
responding to the questions below. We specifically encourage
applications from members of underrepresented groups, specifically
women and minorities, and from graduate students and postdocs.
1. Please indicate if you would be available for all or only for part
of the March 9-13 time period.
2. All code and documentation produced at the event is to be made
available immediately under an OSI-approved open-source license or a
Creative Commons license. Please indicate if this would pose any
difficulty for your participation.
3. Please briefly describe your qualifications (programming languages,
metadata standards, experience with data schemas, web-service
programming, mash-up programming, etc).
4. Please state what you would most like to accomplish at the
hackathon, given your current understanding. If you would not be
writing software at the event, please state how you would like to
contribute and how you would expect to benefit.
5. Please indicate if you are a member of an underrepresented group
(including women, persons with disabilities, and any of the following
minorities: African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Alaska
Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander).
To apply, please enter your personal information and your responses by
February 5 into the online form at
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p6ikV0To6fXpJ369ozyNSSw&hl=en
In addition, if possible please email a CV to the organizers at hackathon3 at nescent.org
by the same deadline. If you are interested in participating but
are unable to respond in full by that deadline, please let us know as
soon as possible. Please understand that the funds as well as the
space for this event are limited. We also need to balance a critical
mass of developers in certain areas of expertise with a broad
participation of different data providers, and so not all qualified
applicants can be guaranteed acceptance.
Yours,
The Organizing Committee
Arlin Stoltzfus, Rutger Vos (Evolutionary Informatics Working Group)
Hilmar Lapp, Todd Vision (NESCent)
Katja Schulz (Tree of Life)
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