2 weeks to go - setting the agenda for a BioHackathon

[pjot...@gmail.com]

Dear all,

We still have 2 weeks before the start and it is great to see
topics/groups already self-organizing. We have almost 200 people
signed up on this mailing list which is pretty massive.

First of all: we want to state we want to be inclusive. We also abide
by a code of conduct:

Please be helpful, considerate, friendly, and respectful towards all
other participants and respect the environment. We don't condone
harassment or offensive behaviour at our conference. We consider it
against our values as human beings. We're voicing our strong,
unequivocal support of exemplary behaviour by all participants.

It may sound like stating the obvious, but anyone who has concerns
should contact the organizers. Let's be nice to each other :). Other
than this policy the BioHackathon is pretty much policy free. We *aim*
for free software and free data solutions, but what individuals and
groups choose to do is up to them. The BioHackathon is simply a way to
combine our efforts.

In other words, this is a self organizing BioHackathon. It is
to scale without massive overhead. What does this mean?

1. Groups form themselves
2. When a group becomes too large, split it up. Typically I would
suggest a group should be no more than 8-10 people. Unless you want
it to be larger (like the policy group, I can imagine).
3. Every group appoints a coordinator before the start of the
BioHackathon. Ideally someone who already is taking initiative and
is happy to put time in coordination

Within group communications is up to the coordinator and group. There
will be options to choose from. You can be a member of multiple
groups. Participate in whatever way you care.

Global coordination - that is with the organizers - is handled through
this mailing list first and through IRC and tools like Slack second.

We also will have streaming video and video meeting room options.

All activity and notes can and probably should be recorded on the
BioHackathon wiki as it tracks one historic record of activity.
Notably the wiki is stored in git and anyone with github access can
add to it:

https://github.com/virtual-biohackathons/covid-19-bh20/wiki

Rather than having a top-down view and coordination of activity we are
encouraging a bottom-up view. In the next E-mails we'll give thoughts
on what we can pursue and what output channels we have. We will also
invite some people to bootstrap groups.

The organizers.

[Pjotr Prins]

# Choosing topics for the BioHackathon

Dear all,

From today we should bring up topics for the virtual BioHackathon on
COVID-19. The current list can be found at

https://github.com/virtual-biohackathons/covid-19-bh20/wiki

Feel free to create a topic. If you want to join an existing one: add
your name to the relevant wiki page. Perhaps add a description if that
is missing.

It is important that

1. Topics are centered around deliverable(s). A deliverable does not
have to be a completed product - but it should be stated what a group
wants to achieve.
2. Deliverables have to target things around COVID-19. That is a pretty
wide description!

We think it is important to deliver something that works for the
biomedical community and humanity in general. We have access to cloud
computing and possibly HPC. We can host databases and graph
stores. This means we can bring something that works the coming year!

We will start a separate thread for a project idea on a raw sequence data
uploader as a public service. If someone has a similar idea (smaller or larger)
please create a new thread on this mailing list. We have seen some interesting
ideas already on data sharing, metadata, policies, text mining etc. Start
splitting them into tasks. The discussion here is not to dictate what we need
to do, but to come up with ideas and see if we can realise them!

The organizers