Mozilla Science Lab Week in Review, January 26 – February 1

Shoutouts

Huge thanks to Susan Allen of UBC Earth and Ocean Science for organizing the Software Carpentry workshop that Bill Mills taught last week, Tiffany Timbers, Bill’s excellent co-instructor for the workshop, and Karina Musalem for helping out; these workshops give us a chance to connect with the community, and we couldn’t do them without the support of everyone who helps make them happen.

Also, shoutouts to Kathi Unglert, also of UBC Earth and Ocean Science, for letting Bill sit in on her study group tutorial session last week; Kathi did a fantastic job of walking her colleagues through awk and sed in the bash shell, in a study group format that will serve as an important case study for future such events. See her blog, Volcano Diaries, in the Reading List below.

In & Around the Lab

Bill spent the week at UBC to teach a Software Carpentry workshop in the Earth and Ocean Science department, but also to learn from the vibrant community of scientist-coders that is growing there, and to try out a new event – Hacky Hours, as inspired by our colleagues in Melbourne at the Research Bazaar. Watch this blog tomorrow for his thoughts on meetups and study groups at UBC, and details on how you can try setting up the same events in your home town.

Also this past week, we opened another community brainstorm and discussion list on our new project, Open Science Comes to Campus, in collaboration with Shauna Gordon-McKeon of Open Hatch. What are the skills and customs new contributors need to know in order to successfully participate in an open-source research project? The discussion is still ongoing – please, add your ideas and experiences to the conversations linked above, so we can design the event the community most wants.

Near-Term Forecast

This is the last week before Bill and Kaitlin fly to Melbourne for the Research Bazaar Conference – we’re excited to deliver some workshops, meet our colleagues in the region, and see what we can learn from and give back to the community there. We’ll be following ResBaz with a tour of New Zealand to do the same – watch the blogs for report-backs on our experiences there.An