Obf

The OBF Community Support Sponsorship scheme aims to sponsor small open-source-focused events like a scientific meeting, small conference, training workshop, hackathon, or time-limited series like monthly seminars. See details in this post. One application was funded under this program to prototype the workflow, with OBF offering financial support for a seminar series hosted by the Bioinformatics Hub Kenya. Congratulations to Michael Kofia Landi for leading this application and working collaboratively with the BHKi team – Pauline Karega, David Kiragu, Margaret Wanjiku and Festus Nyasimi – and OBF Board including Treasurer Heather Wiencko, to help establish a process for this new type of OBF funding.

Thank You. Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I have reached the end of my term after working with the OBF board members since 2019 and have stepped down from the board. It is bittersweet! I will miss seeing my colleagues from OBF in monthly calls, but also, this comes with an opportunity to make space for new voices to come into the leadership role of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation.

Guest post by Thomas Schlapp, CoFest organizer

This year we’re looking to have another post-BOSC CoFest! Last year (my first year being involved in BOSC at all) showed me just how collaborative and innovative this community can be. I’d absolutely LOVE to see more of it again. Last year we saw six very fascinating projects see progress (look them over HERE!). Let’s see if we cannot do just a few more in the name of innovation and collaboration!

As previously described, during the November 2021 public Board meeting, the OBF announced two new initiatives to be voted on by the OBF membership. Both of these received a large majority of votes:

1. OBF Community Support Sponsorship (53 for, 3 against, 2 abstaining)
2. OBF Code of Conduct (54 for, 2 against, 1 abstaining)

The work to set up the new Community Support Sponsorship is underway. The new Code of Conduct is now available on the OBF website.

During our last public Board meeting, the OBF announced two new initiatives that are being proposed for approval by the OBF membership in a formal votes.

1. OBF Community Support Sponsorship: a proposed new grant programme, based on the OBF Event Fellowships but aimed at supporting grassroots projects running events in their own communities. For details see: - /2021/05/11/obf-community-support-sponsorship/ - https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/issues/86

2. Code of Conduct: BOSC has a code of conduct, as part of the parent conference, but OBF does not yet have its own code of conduct. This pull request lays out a Code of Conduct for the OBF that, if approved by a membership vote, will replace the content on /code-of-conduct/. For details see: - https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/78

The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship program aims to promote diverse participation at events promoting open source bioinformatics software development and open science practices in the biological research community. Rupesh Gelal, a student from Nepal Engineering College, Nepal, attended the 2021 RISC-V Summit, supported by this fellowship granted to him in the second round of 2021.

The pandemic has made attending conferences and events more accessible for full-time students like me, who often can’t travel internationally to attend in-person events. These days everything is possible remotely — there is no need to travel halfway across the world. Still, the cost of small hardware (headphones, webcam, speaker, and/microphone) for attending remote events can be a hindrance sometimes. Fortunately, I came across the Open Bioinformatics Foundation Event Fellowship while researching the 2021 RISC-V Summit. I applied immediately for the fellowship. After a month, I received an email notifying me about my successful application. In this post, I provide an overview of my participation at this conference.

The OBF held a public Board meeting on September 21, 2021, via Zoom. During the meeting, one Board member, Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, whose term expired, was elected to another term as Board member-at-large, and two new Board members were elected: Hilyatuz Zahroh and Caleb Kibet. Additionally, two proposals were presented (see below). The meeting minutes will be made available in the obf-docs GitHub repository.

Hilyatuz (“Hilya”) Zahroh is a bioinformatician at the Genetics Research Centre, Universitas YARSI, in Indonesia. She also works with Asia Pacific Bioinformatics Network ( APBioNet) to facilitate the sharing of bioinformatics knowledge and skills through education and trainings in the Asia-Pacific region, and is involved with RINarxiv, a preprint server for Indonesia. She was a vice-chair of the 18th International Conference on Bioinformatics (InCoB) 2019, and the treasurer of the Bioinformatics and Biodiversity Conference (BBC) 2020. Hilya is committed to fast-forwarding science by promoting open access in bioinformatics and facilitating the learning of bioinformatics skills within communities.

The deadline for applying for an OBF Event Fellowship has just been extended to October 4, 2021! The OBF Event Fellowship program is aimed at increasing diverse participation at events relating to open source bioinformatics. You can read blog posts by previous Event Fellowship recipients.

See more details on our webpage, and submit your application at https://forms.gle/7ocmgvypiFHeFNfy7!

Date, Time, and How to Join

Date and time: 2021-09-21, 17:00 UTC (10am PT / 1pm ET / 18:00 UK) Participation link: https://lbnl.zoom.us/j/97312757115 Password: OBF2021 Meeting ID: 973 1275 7115

Agenda

Approve minutes from the previous Public Board Meeting: https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/87

Term expirations and Elections to the Board (electronic ballot)

• Hilyatuz Zahroh and Caleb Kibet, running for Board member at-large
• Board member Bastian Greshake Tzovaras’ term expires this year and he would like to stand for another term as member-at-large.

Voting by OBF membership

• OBF Community Support Sponsorship: a proposed new grant programme, based on the OBF Event Fellowships but aimed at supporting grassroots projects running events in their own communities. Subject to approval by the OBF membership in a formal vote.
  • /2021/05/11/obf-community-support-sponsorship/
  • https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/issues/86
• Code of Conduct: BOSC has a code of conduct, as part of the parent conference, but OBF does not yet have its own code of conduct. This pull request lays out a Code of Conduct for the OBF that, if approved by a membership vote, will replace the content on /code-of-conduct/.
  • https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/pull/78

Minutes

After the meeting, the meeting minutes will be made available in the obf-docs GitHub repository.

The call for application for the second round of this year’s Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) Event Fellowship is open. Please submit your application before October 1, 2021 (save a calendar reminder).

Just announced: deadline extended to October 4, 2021!

Please apply via this Google application form: https://forms.gle/7ocmgvypiFHeFNfy7.

The OBF Event Fellowship program is aimed at increasing diverse participation at events promoting open science practices such as open source bioinformatics resource development and dissemination in the biological research community. These fellowships are available to support both in-person and remote (virtual) participation at events such as conferences, workshops, training courses or collaborative development sprints. See more details on our webpage.