[BioRuby] New age BioRuby

[pjotr.public14 at thebird.nl]

Hi everyone,

We are happy to announce a new age BioRuby. This is BioRuby in the
broadest sense, which includes gems and web presence. As a group, we
have decided to take BioRuby into a new age, and change the way we
approach community and newcomers. This we will do at four levels:


(1) Democracy

First of all, for new age BioRuby the decision making process will be
transparent and democratic. To guard the democratic process we are
forming a panel of active major BioRuby committers, including Pjotr,
Raoul and Francesco. The panel will act as a monitor. Other active
major BioRuby and biogem committers are welcome to join the panel.


(2) Web presence

The web presence needs to change to appeal to a new generation of
coders. We are committed to changing that.


(3) BioRuby gems

The recently published Biogem system has introduced the plug-in
approach and we think has a natural evolving process that BioRuby
needs to be adapted for the new generation of tools. We will take on
moving functionality into gems, creating a modular setup, and reducing
the existing BioRuby source to a skeleton framework. The old BioRuby
will continue to exist for reasons of backward compatibility. Until
someone else is elected by the community, the panel will be
responsible for the new BioRuby code base, and Pjotr will be in charge
of coordinating the effort.


(4) New talent

The new age of BioRuby is really about nurturing new talent. This
means giving away responsibilities to the next generation. We will
rotate leadership for projects on a regular basis.

To achieve our ends we will put together a VISION statement for
BioRuby, as well as a road map.


Pj, Ra & Fra