In anticipation of the inaugural conference on Informatics for Phylogenetics, Evolution, and Biodiversity (iEvoBio), we solicit all attendees to propose and discuss Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings. See below for details.

Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings (BoFs) are informal, ad-hoc, focused face-to-face discussion groups that form around a shared interest. BoFs have a leader (usually, but not necessarily, the proposer) who initiates or moderates the discussion, but typically not a preset agenda. The topics of BoFs can range widely, including general cultural or computational infrastructure issues, or narrower questions such as how to make the best use of a particular software tool or how to solve a particular computational challenge.

Anyone willing to lead such a group can propose a BoF. iEvoBio will provide space that can accommodate up to 8-10 BoFs. Sign-up sheets will be provided on-site on the first day of the conference where attendees can propose a BoF or sign up for one proposed by someone else. BoFs will be about 1 hr in duration and take place in the afternoon of the second day of the conference.

In line with their informal nature, there is no official prior call for or submission of BoFs. However, we encourage those intending to propose one to sound out or rally potential attendees ahead of time. We suggest to employ Twitter (http://twitter.com) for this, using the #ievobioBof tag to mark BoF proposals and comments.

Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings are only 1 of 5 kinds of contributed content that iEvoBio will feature. The other 4 are: 1) Full talks (closed), 2) Lightning talks (waiting list only), 3) Challenge entries, and 4) Software Bazaar entries. The Calls for Challenge entries (http://ievobio.org/challenge.html) and Software Bazaar entries (http://ievobio.org/ocs/index.php/ievobio/2010/) remain open.

More details about the program and guidelines for contributing content are available at http://ievobio.org. You can also find continuous updates on the conference's Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/iEvoBio.

iEvoBio is sponsored by the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in partnership with the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB). Additional support has been provided by the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).

The iEvoBio 2010 Organizing Committee: Rod Page (University of Glasgow) Cecile Ane (University of Wisconsin at Madison) Rob Guralnick (University of Colorado at Boulder) Hilmar Lapp (NESCent) Cynthia Parr (Encyclopedia of Life) Michael Sanderson (University of Arizona)