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[Bioc-devel] Mentored Projects at Bioconductor

4 messages · Paul Shannon, Vincent Carey, Nicolas Delhomme +1 more

Original
Paul Shannon
# 
Dear Bioc-devel,

We announce a new feature of the Bioconductor web site, "Mentored Projects".  The web page is

  http://www.bioconductor.org/developers/mentored-projects

with this overview:

  Developers new to Bioconductor may find mentored projects a useful way to apply,
  refine and extend their skills. Projects are identified by experienced 
  Bioconductor developers. The projects involve important but manageable programming 
  tasks. Experienced developers act as mentors, providing guidance and oversight. 
  Successful mentored projects will be incorporated into relevant packages to benefit 
  contributors users, and the Bioconductor project as a whole.

We welcome your comments on this plan, and on the web page, before we announce to the full Bioconductor list.  We especially welcome additional project proposals, and suggestions on how to make these projects successful for all concerned.

 - Paul
Nicolas Delhomme
# 
Dear Paul,

This is a great idea. I've got a number of ideas for package that I've not got the time to implement yet and I suppose some of those could be eligible for that page. 

The web page is nice. I think that there should be some guidelines on what is expected from a) the person taking up the project, b) the mentor (duties, required competencies, etc.) listed on that page. If it is successful - which I hope - there might  be a large number of projects on that page and it might become difficult to track them. Maybe, instead, a series of pages listing the different kind of projects, e.g. "accepted undergoing projects", "new projects",... would be good. I really think that accepted projects should not be hidden from the webpage until they are completed to make sure that we avoid re-inventing the wheel too much. Another point that should figure in the project description is the mentor geo-localization. Being located in Europe, it might be difficult to monitor someone on the west cost. 

I really like this idea, although one concern I have is that it will de-facto create a binding between the mentor and the applicant(s). Is there a need for that to be formalized; some kind of mutual agreement or so?

Cheers,

Nico

---------------------------------------------------------------
Nicolas Delhomme

Genome Biology Computational Support

European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Tel: +49 6221 387 8310
Email: nicolas.delhomme at embl.de
Meyerhofstrasse 1 - Postfach 10.2209
69102 Heidelberg, Germany
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On Aug 31, 2012, at 3:20 PM, Paul Shannon wrote: