[WSSSPE] WSSSPE4

Wed Feb 17 09:59:28 PST 2016

Neil,

I really like this document and suggestions. It is very much in the spirit of what we are trying to do here at CIG (geodynamics.org <http://geodynamics.org/>).  We would be be interested in contributing our thoughts to it at some point when you are ready.

Dan,

WRT to ideas from WSSSPE3, I am reminded of a topic that keeps on coming up which was triggered by a recent article about who writes “better code”. The idea that recurs is that of offering some sort of software prize.  It could be fun to get a panel discussing and/or audience debate about what “good code”, “beautiful code” etc. means. There are certain tenets we probably can all agree on but after that it gets murky.

Best,
-Lorraine

*****************************
Lorraine Hwang, Ph.D.
Associate Director, CIG
530.752.3656

> On Feb 17, 2016, at 4:25 AM, Neil Chue Hong (SSI) <N.ChueHong at software.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> I agree that there's still a purpose in holding WSSSPE meetings.
> 
> I like Sou-Cheng's ideas (my personal preference would be for demos to be introduced with short 5 minute plenary slots, followed by a longer parallel session where people can ask questions/interact if they want to).
> 
> I really like Michael's idea. I agree that a big issue with sustainability is the funding, and perhaps by working together more, we can become better at getting funding for the things we think collectively need it the most rather than a more scatter-gun approach.
> 
> For those of us not in the US, can I make a plea for this to be located somewhere which is no more than one hop from a major US entry-hub, so that it's a two hop journey for international attendees?
> 
> I also think that there should be a little more focus on the "doing" part of the meeting, where there's a selection of what the community thinks is most important ahead of time - the "what's going to kill us first" style of prioritisation - to enable participants to hit the ground running at the meeting. This might reduce the number of participants, as not everyone might be interested in the topic, but would ensure that we didn't spread ourselves too thin. Perhaps we could use the prioritisations from WSSSPE3 as a starting point?
> 
> As for things we could do differently / in addition, two things come to mind (triggered by Lorraine's comments):
> - More case studies, including negative or even neutral ones. We should be able to provide pointers to practices in use and how they turned out
> - Create a list of evidence that will convince sceptics, and work together to tick off that list one by one
> 
> For example:
> 
> - Employing a trained software engineer on a scientific software project leads to long-term savings and increased related scientific output over hiring more untrained postdocs / students
> 
> - If you have $10m this year to fund software in a specific area, when is it better to:
> a) Provide $10m to one project and ask all the others to merge with it or die
> b) Provide $2m to five projects to increase competition and innovation
> c) Provide short-fat funding to enable significant new functionality or refactoring
> d) Provide long-thin funding to enable retention of skills and ensure maintenance
> e) etc. etc.
> 
> - Addressing fears over open-sourcing scientific software (we created a list of fears [1]  as part of work on software development practice in the ELIXIR European Life Sciences consortium, along with initial attempts to address them, but it would be good to point to specific examples)
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> Neil
> 
> [1] This is a draft for information only, and shouldn't be seen as finished: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C8sWr-r9RJBO-RZaDtgjmlHLHCyTHxsBrD6I12vknQs/edit#heading=h.bg6it3rwav23 <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C8sWr-r9RJBO-RZaDtgjmlHLHCyTHxsBrD6I12vknQs/edit#heading=h.bg6it3rwav23>
> 
> On 17 February 2016 at 10:27, Manish Parashar <parashar at rutgers.edu <mailto:parashar at rutgers.edu>> wrote:
> Hi Dan,
> 
> Agree with most of the comments — I think a focused event on Fall is a good idea and co-locating it with another event makes sense. Something on the east coast (DC) would be great. 
> 
> Two aspects I would like to see in the workshop is the role of sustainable software in reproducibility, and approaches/best practices in credit/attribution for software.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Manish
> 
> -- 
> ==========================================================================
> Manish Parashar							Office: CoRE Bldg, Rm 628
> RDI2/OARC/Dept. of Computer Science		Phone: (848) 445-5388 <tel:%28848%29%20445-5388>
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> ===========================================================================
> 
>> On Feb 16, 2016, at 11:19 AM, Daniel S. Katz <d.katz at ieee.org <mailto:d.katz at ieee.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Please let me know your thoughts about a WSSSPE4 meeting, probably in the fall/autumn.
>> 
>> What would you want such a meeting to accomplish, thinking of what we’ve done previously and what new topics might have come up.
>> 
>> Where should such a meeting take place?
>> 
>> Should we do this along with any other event?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Dan
>> 
>> -- 
>> Daniel S. Katz
>> University of Chicago
>> (773) 834-7186 <tel:%28773%29%C2%A0834-7186> (voice)
>> (773) 834-6818 <tel:%28773%29%20834-6818> (fax)
>> d.katz at ieee.org <mailto:d.katz at ieee.org> or dsk at uchicago.edu <mailto:dsk at ci.uchicago.edu>
>> http://danielskatz.org <http://danielskatz.org/>
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Neil Chue Hong
> Director, Software Sustainability Institute
> EPCC, University of Edinburgh, JCMB, Edinburgh, EH9 3FD, UK
> Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5957
> http://www.software.ac.uk/ <http://www.software.ac.uk/>
> 
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