[BioRuby] Restyling BioRuby.org

[Pjotr Prins]

On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 06:27:00PM -0500, Hilmar Lapp wrote:
> 
> On Feb 19, 2012, at 3:56 AM, Pjotr Prins wrote:
> 
> > With an embarrassing 0 (zero) responses, I can conclude there is
> > either no interest in this matter, or no one considers it his/her
> > business.
> 
> Or that nobody else has as much time on their hands :-)

Which somewhat proves my point. We need fresh blood. I must admit I
have not been good at nurturing this myself, but now I have seen the
light :).

Questions that keep going through my mind are:

1. Where is our leadership?

  This is not unique to BioRuby. The other projects suffer similar
  problems. Perhaps, in bioinformatics (the small b), people get too
  busy too quickly, and sitting leadership starts being the cause of
  inertia.

2. Is this the time fork the BioRuby project?

  I have been thinking this for many years ;). Forking the code is one
  thing - as noted before, we can and should strip out modules into
  Biogems. Forking the project is not possible, unless the domain gets
  released. Do we want a bioruby2.org?

3. How are we going to revamp our web presence?

  With Biogems.info we show that a change in this can have real
  effect on contributions. Here we have raised that we can take the
  web presence to a new level.

4. One for you Hilmar: does the OBF actually encourage inertia in the Bio*
   projects? 
   
  It is appears to me that sitting leadership is reluctant to
  give away their positions. I have discussed this with Chris Fields
  last year. We agreed that there are also few to take over the helm.
  So...

5. how do we nurture future leadership?

I am old and cynical enough to know people mostly work for their own
direct benefit (their itch, so tho speak) in OSS, or anywhere else.
Still, I am going to poke and prod for some time, to see if we can
make change. I believe Bio* projects are at fork in the road. Which
one are we going to take?  Should BioRuby exist as it is, or should we
use it as a breeding ground for young developers. Same question really
for BioPython and BioPerl.

The BioRuby community is almost in a coma, I think. Despite 180
readers of the ML. I see the same people engaging, and interestingly,
a significant number of messages from Biopython and BioPerl
leadership. Thank you for that. BioRuby is just coming out of its
shell, and you are helping.

6. What is needed to get BioRuby out of the comatose state? 

  With BioRuby we have had lively discussions before, but they tend to
  peter out. We can reason about this, but I think it goes back to 
  leadership again.

Please note that I have no ambition in taking on a leadership role.
That would also be too contentious ;). That is not what I am trying to
achieve here. But I would certainly like to make the leadership more
fluent, responsive, and rotating.

Pj.