In anticipation of the 2011 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 can also take the form of a hands-on software tutorial on using a tool, or on programming an API. BoFs have a leader (usually, but not necessarily, the proposer) who initiates or moderates the discussion. 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 1-1.5 hours 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. Similarly, users interested in seeing a hands-on tutorial BoF about their favorite tool are encouraged to use similar means to give tool developers a sense of the community interest in a tutorial BoF, and what common usage (or programming) questions are.

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, 3) Challenge entries, and 4) Software Bazaar entries. All Calls except for Full Talks remain open (see http://ievobio.org/ocs/index.php/ievobio/2011/) .

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 for the Study of Evolution (SSE) and the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB). Additional support has been provided by the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).

The iEvoBio 2011 Organizing Committee: Rob Guralnick (University of Colorado at Boulder) (Co-chair) Cynthia Parr (Encyclopedia of Life) (Co-chair) Dawn Field (UK National Environmental Research Center) Mark Holder (University of Kansas) Hilmar Lapp (NESCent) Rod Page (University of Glasgow)