Site URL is: http://open-bio.org/bosc2002 and the pictures from the event are available at http://gallery.open-bio.org/gallery/bosc2001
About the OBF
The Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF) is a non-profit, volunteer-run group that promotes open source software development and Open Science within the biological research community. Membership in the OBF is free and open to anyone who wants to help promote open source or open science in a biological field.
OBF runs the annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC).
BOSC 2025 took place July 21-22, 2025, in Liverpool, UK (as part of ISMB/ECCB 2025). BOSC 2026 will be part of ISMB 2026 in Washington, DC.


OBF Event Awards
The OBF Event Fellowship program aims to increase diverse participation at events promoting open source bioinformatics software development and open science in the biological research community.

Minutes of 2002 BOSC Meeting
August 2, 2002
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Call to order
Board members present: Hilmar, Chris, Ewan, Steven, Andrew
Recognition of observers (about 21)
This meeting was open to the the public. I don’t know all of the people who commented, hence the question marks.
Review of schedule by Ewan
Steven - asked about money owed us from Hidelberg meeting Chris - says it’s about 20-30 commercial people Decided to follow up on that money - assigned to Chris (AI) Steven - asked about audit Chris, financials Jan. to Jan. year; report out next year Action item: Chris to find an accountant to audit
[Read More]July 2002 O|B|F Newsletter
Available online at http://open-bio.org/newsletters/2002-08-newsletter.html
O|B|F Statement on Public Funding & Open Source
Preliminary Policy Statement on Public Funding and Open Source
The Open Bioinformatics Foundation believes that scientific software developed with public support should be distributed under terms analogous to those applied to biological materials. In common with treatment of reagents under the UBMTA and good practice, we believe that the essential source code necessary for reproducing published results should be made readily available for non-commercial research use.
While acknowledging that open source licenses may not be optimal in every instance, we believe that development and release of software under open source licenses is often beneficial and efficient in creating valuable scientific software, and in encouraging its widespread use and most successful exploitation.
[Read More]October 2001 O|B|F Newsletter
2001 Bioinformatics Open Source Converence
Site URL is: http://open-bio.org/bosc2001 and the pictures from the event are available at http://gallery.open-bio.org/gallery/bosc2001