[tdwg-tag] Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings for Conference on Informatics for Phylogenetics, Evolution, and Biodiversity (iEvoBio)

Hilmar Lapp hlapp at nescent.org
Mon Jun 14 22:49:32 CEST 2010


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)




More information about the tdwg-tag mailing list