Teaching basic lab skills
for research computing

Minutes from 2012-12-19

Our second all-hands meeting was held on Wednesday, December 19, from 12:00-13:10 Eastern time.


Actions

  • Dhavide Aruliah
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Unix shell
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for basic Python
  • Amy Brown
    • Proof-read Code of Conduct
    • Add Code of Conduct to bootcamp "how-to"
    • Create graphic for "Participant" badge
    • Create PDF certificates for "Participant", "Instructor", and "Organizer"
    • Add wording to web site to clarify what does/doesn't qualify for use of "Software Carpentry" name and logo
    • Add wording to web site asking people to let us know if they're using our material, and requiring them to check with us if they're using our name/logo
    • Keep track of who's talking to what sites about bootcamps
    • Get explicit retroactive signoff on contributions
  • Neil Chue Hong
    • Contact OSS-Watch regarding enforcing trademarks for our material
  • Matt Davis
    • Arrange bootcamp at Cal Poly
    • Arrange bootcamp at San Diego State
    • matplotlib material
  • Ted Hart
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for regular expressions
    • Arrange bootcamp at ESA conf.
  • Bernhard Konrad
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for testing
  • Emily Jane McTavish
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for regular expressions
    • Create ticket to arrange bootcamp at U. Kansas
  • Geoff Oxberry
    • Create ticket to arrange bootcamp at U. Delaware
  • Cait Pickens
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Git
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for basic Python
  • Karthik Ram
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Git
  • Joon Ro
    • matplotlib material
  • Alex Viana
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for SQL
  • Ben Waugh
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for testing
  • Ethan White
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for SQL
  • Lynne Williams
    • Co-author bullet-points and cheat sheet for Unix shell
  • Greg Wilson
    • Publish Code of Conduct to web site
    • Retroactively issue "Participant" badges for 2012 bootcamp attendees
    • Issue "Instructor" and "Organizer" badges
    • Finish Instructor's Guide by end of Jan 2013
  • All
    • Check locally to ensure that it's OK to ask bootcamp participants to agree Code of Conduct
    • Claim ticket for "Arrange bootcamp at [site]"
    • Introduce us to one more potential bootcamp site for 2013
    • Volunteer to help with online office hours
      • Dhavide Aruliah
      • Erik Bray
      • Shreyas Cholia
      • Matt Davis
      • Ross Dickson
      • Steve Haddock
      • Mike Hansen
      • Geoff Oxberry
      • Cait Pickens
      • Alex Viana
      • Ben Waugh
      • Ethan White
    • Send Greg a picture of yourself in a Software Carpentry t-shirt

Roll Call

  • Aron Ahmadia
  • Carlos Anderson
  • Dhavide Aruliah
  • David Ascher
  • Azalee Bostroem
  • Erik Bray
  • Amy Brown
  • Shreyas Cholia
  • Neil Chue Hong
  • Warren Code
  • Matt Davis
  • Gabriel Devenyi
  • Ross Dickson
  • Justin Ely
  • Steve Haddock
  • Ted Hart
  • Konrad Hinsen
  • Katy Huff
  • Trevor King
  • Ian Langmore
  • Chris Lasher
  • Emily Jane McTavish
  • Cameron Neylon
  • Geoffrey Oxberry
  • Cait Pickens
  • Karthik Ram
  • Anthony Scopatz
  • Alex Viana
  • Ben Waugh
  • Ethan White
  • Lynne Williams
  • Greg Wilson

Minutes

  1. Staffing
    • Amy Brown from Continuum to help with administration starting Jan 2013.
    • Jon Pipitone to help with web site and online tutorials starting Jan 2013.
  2. Moved to Git
    • Git tutorials to be folded together and put into lessons to teach to scientists
  3. Code of Conduct
    • Many sites not sure that we can set a code of conduct for events that happen on campus
    • Code of conduct modeled on the PyCon Code of Conduct
    • Those who have hosted events/or know of events scheduled at US universitites, please check and let Greg know what your local policy is
    • Might apply to overseas schools too (e.g., Saudi Arabia)
    • Problems with inappropriate behavious at bootcamps:
      • Rare for problems, but nice to let people know expectations in advance
  4. Criteria for Badges
    • Criteria needs to be clear to ensure the instructors are qualified
    • Previous instructors will be grandfathered in
    • Badges for learners important as part of grant QA process
      • Obstacles:
        • No way to know what attendees learned
        • Not allowed to publish identifying information without consent --> we would need sign-off giving permission to publish names
      • Greg: "We could do a participant badge with consent". Also mentioned "Driver's License Test" to come in future
      • Will use http://openbadges.org as a badging tool
      • Motion passed "Participant Badges" --> will contact 2012's attendees to tell them they can have a record of attendance
        • Will postpone assigning skill specific Participant badges until we have specific criteria (to be developed by the spring)
        • Amy will be designing PDF for certificate
        • Past participants can apply for badges post-attendance
  5. Use of "Software Carpentry" Name
    • If events focus on four general areas okay:
      • modular program structure
      • task automation
      • version control
      • testing
    • If the event does not fall into one (or more) of these categories, then they cannot call their workshop/bootcamp Software Carpentry or use the Software Carpentry logo
    • Not trying to stop people we don't know from using materials, trying to stop people not teaching SWC content areas from using SWC name.
    • Greg still needs to speak with a lawyer about international trademark laws
      • Ian Mitchell has a draft, but policy still needs legal review
      • Greg will circulate draft later
    • Trademark only licensed in Canada currently
    • Need to have people to check with SWC central before using the name. Even if we can't legally enforce it (Thanks Konrad!)
    • Motion passed "use of Software Carpentry"
    • Neil Chue Hong will get in touch with OSS-Watch regarding enforcing trademarks for open source software
  6. Volunteers to write three-line summary of modules for pre-bootcamp circulation as well as cheat sheets for use in bootcamps
    • People going to bootcamps not entirely sure what they will be learning
    • Need summary of what SWC teaches to include in agenda
    • Summary (for before the workshop) + cheat sheet required --> makes sense for pairs to work on both bcause they will have to think about all the same issues.
    • Unix shell - Dhavide -- Lynne
      • Fernando and I gave out this UNIX cheat sheet at the last workshop:
        • It's CC licensed; might be helpful as a starting point at least, but we liked it.
        • That cheat sheet is CC BY-SA, and SWC is CC BY, but maybe not a problem if you keep the cheat sheet separate.
    • Version control with Git - Cait, Karthik.
    • Basic Python --Dhavide, Cait
    • Testing Ben, Bernhard (if you want help) (Yes, thanks, will e-mail you.)
    • SQL -- Ethan, Alex Viana
    • Regular Expressions - Emily Jane, Ted [what portion of bootcamps include regexp?] [I don't know in general- but folks at UT really liked them last week][I like them too, but we didn't cover them] [Do you guys also cover regexp testers? Kodos is super useful for Python. [like regexpal?]I use regexpal as well Cool! --> grep and sed in shell scripting
  7. Volunteers to write cheat sheets for modules for use in bootcamps
    • See prevous point on 3 line summary. The volunteers for each section will do both the 3 line summary and the cheat sheet
  8. Volunteers to lead "sales" conversation with not-yet-scheduled bootcamps
  9. Volunteers to make introductions to new sites
    • Companies are okay, even though focus is on public sector
    • Bootcamps do not have to be in English; welcome moving the material to other host countries
    • Amy to keep track of who is talking with which sites
    • [katy] Argonne!
      • Katy: Other Chicago area school ideas? [katy] other than UChicago, which we're doing... I can't bottom-line more than one more before this summer... but I could help at Northwestern, UIC. I don't really have contacts at those places... but... hm. [cait] I don't have contacts either (undergrad at Lake Forest College, north of the city, but no grad students there). Northwestern could be interesting.
    • [Geoff] Livermore? I could do Philadelphia-area sites also, with enough advance notice, since I grew up around there. I went to the University of Delaware, and can talk to them.
    • [Emily Jane] University of Kansas
    • [Ted] I have a proposal in for ESA 2013 (Ecological society). [Karthik] yay Ted. I'm maxed out on ESA workshops but will help run it if I don't have schedule conflicts. let me know.
    • [Geoff] I could do one at the AIChE conference; it's being run in San Francisco, so it's easy for me to add another couple days.[Karthik] I'm in SF and can help.
    • [Matt] Cal Poly, San Diego State
  10. Volunteers for online office hours (Jan-Feb, once a week)
    • Online tutorials not well attended last summer
    • Will test having individual help to answer that question
    • Greg/John will send out a call in the new year
    • Volunteers willing to give 1 hour per week:
      • Steve Haddock: sounds like fun to try.
      • Dhavide Aruliah: I'm willing to give it a go for an hour on Wednesdays...
      • Ethan White: Count me in
      • Mike Hansen: I'm onboard.
      • Ben Waugh: me too, and have some funding to pay grad students to help
      • Matt Davis: Definitely in for this.
      • Cait Pickens: I'm in
      • Geoff Oxberry: I'm in, after I get trained in the study group
      • Ross Dickson: volunteers
      • Erik Bray
      • Alex Viana
      • Shreyas Cholia: onboard assuming travel schedule is not too hectic
    • Hosts please encourage people to use the service once it goes online
    • Goal is to give people enough knowledge to ask their questions on something like StackOverflow
    • Lynne to track questions/responses and create FAQ page for webpage
  11. Volunteers for minor tasks
    • Someone to volunteer to write numpy/matplotlib (#72) [Joon Ro just developed some material as well] [I thought Matt had a start on this?]
  12. Developers Certificate of Origin/Signed-off-by for Git(Hub) commits. https://github.com/wking/signed-off-by/blob/master/Documentation/SubmittingPatches
    • Need retroactive clearance for open source for content developers
  13. Applying to Sloan Foundation to have someone work FT for SWC for a year
  14. New teacher materials? - Instructor's Guide Partially Exists
    • Hopefully by end of January with John's help
    • Next round of study group starts off in January. Let Greg know if you would like to participate
  15. Big picture question (maybe folded into discussion of long-term assessment): Are two-day workshops the best model for making a difference? I am becoming skeptical about how much sticks two months later...[Steve]
    • Greg: "If you can give a three week or three month one, tell me and let me know how it goes."
    • We have done a couple 2-week class (and official univeristy quarter-long).
    • The two-day format seems good at telling you what you should learn, but not necessarily teaching it (with implications for curriculum).
    • I like week long formats, personally [Anthony]
    • I'm a fan of 2 day workshops, long enough to get some real material in, but able to fit into busy schedules [Emily Jane]
  16. Greg's Last Request: Send to Greg a nice hi-res photo of yourself in the SWC T-Shirt.