[Biopython-dev] Invitation for Biopython news coordinators

[Brad Chapman]

David;
Thanks for taking the time to write; it is great to hear that you are
interested. Copying this to the dev list so others can comment and you
can feel free to discuss as much as you want.

> I'd be keen to help spread the good word about bio-python, I'm a very 
> novice programmer who has been using the tools to work on some 454 
> transcriptome data. I will probably never be a good enough programmer to 
> contribute code to the project so would see this as a way to "give 
> something back".

Perfect. Getting involved is the first step; you'd be
surprised how much you can learn just by taking on new tasks. I
started helping with Biopython by writing documentation. 

> For me as a n00b the most useful resource by far has been the cookbook - 
> seeing some working scripts that I could change to suit my ends has 
> helped me get to the point that I can write much more generalised code 
> for my project 'from scratch'.  To that end I think it would be really 
> helpful to highlight work that other people have done, either published 
> or made available by authors, with a little detail on  the  questions 
> and the way BioPython was used to get at them.  We could extend it to 
> show some "use cases" for BioPython working with other programs or how 
> new features can be used once they are included in the main release.
> 
> To me the most obvious way of presenting such information would be a 
> blog, we could invite authors and developers to make short posts and 
> failing that I'd be happy write up posts summarising published research. 
> We could also try an aggregate blogs from the devs and anyone else 
> talking about biopython "in the wild".

This sounds great. You are welcome to use the twitter account, news
posts, the wiki, or a blog -- however you see fit. For your aggregation
idea, you might want to take a look at friendfeed. It's pretty simple
to set up a room and pull in RSS feeds, twitter postings, and what not.
There is a Python for Bioinformatics room:

http://friendfeed.com/rooms/python-for-bioinformatics

Most feeds come from general Python sources so it is a bit more
broad, but is a good starting place. I know some of the admins (Chris,
Paulo, Andrew) are around here, and may want to chime in.

For publications, Peter has done a lot of work on identifying papers
that use Biopython:

http://biopython.org/wiki/Publications

Building on this to include short reusable examples from the research
would be very useful.

> Anyway, those are a few ideas, I'm definitely keen to help out and to 
> take on board any other ideas that are out there.

Great, let us know how you want to get started. Feel free to start
with something small and expand from there. Peter can help out
with account information for twitter; if you need other things just
ask away.

Brad


> Cheers,
> David
> 
> Brad Chapman wrote:
> > Biopythonistas;
> > Communication is a key component of successful open source projects.
> > The challenges of distributed programming by volunteers can be
> > overcome by ensuring that the whole community is aware of
> > interesting discussions, new contributions, and development goals.
> > Traditionally, this communication has happened through our mailing
> > lists, wiki pages, and bug tracking system. While these will
> > continue to to be useful resources, new methods of disseminating
> > information are changing how we interact through the web.
> >
> > I'd like to issue an invitation for anyone interested in helping
> > revolutionize how Biopython news is disseminated. We are looking for
> > contributors from the community to brainstorm new ways to make the
> > discussions that happen at biopython.org accessible. You would
> > actively follow development here and on the development lists and
> > distill this information into useful quick bullet points for those
> > interested in Biopython but too busy to follow detailed discussions.
> >
> > We are proposing two ways to do this:
> >
> > - Monthly highlights on our news server:
> >   http://news.open-bio.org/news/category/obf-projects/biopython/
> >   The RSS feed from these posts are currently widely distributed around the
> >   internet.
> >
> > - More frequent pointers to interesting discussions or other items
> >   of interest happening in Biopython through our Twitter account:
> >   http://twitter.com/biopython
> >
> > This is an opportunity for those of you who are looking to become
> > more involved, and would like to learn more about Biopython by
> > following all of the coding activity more closely. The position is
> > very flexible and we are happy to have one or more people take it
> > on; we would also encourage you to be as creative as you want in
> > doing so.
> >
> > I see this as an chance to both provide information and to highlight
> > the great work people do at Biopython. If you are interested in
> > taking on this role please respond with your ideas. Thanks for your
> > interest,
> >
> > Brad
> > _______________________________________________
> > BioPython mailing list  -  BioPython at lists.open-bio.org
> > http://lists.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/biopython
> >