[GSoC] Bio JavaScript/Node.js idea (bionode)

[Fields, Christopher J]

Pjotr, Peter,

In the end I think this has to be a decision that Eric and Raoul make, as they are running the show.  We wouldn’t have any GSoC 2014 w/o their hard work.  My feeling is, in the end, openly discussing these will suss out the ones that seem to fit best overall.

My 2c, if it’s worth anything: I tend to agree with Pjotr, in that we should not limit ourselves to the various Bio*.  If anything, what I personally would like to see at the end of the day is a very good set of projects overall that we can pick from.

However, I also think a balance needs to be struck, and that whatever we accept has to (in the end) benefit OBF.  That, to me, is the purpose of GSoC.  If it means we can get a new Bio* started up or we can (even tangentially) add functionality to one of the Bio* projects, all the better.  But I do think this has to feed back to OBF somehow.  

The reality is, we simply can’t take every project from other related but non-accepted orgs.  In some instances, other accepted orgs might simply be a better fit, such as BioJS.  It doesn’t mean we won’t accept Javascript-based projects, but all alternatives need to be explored (particularly when there are a finite # of slots for a lot of projects).

chris


On Mar 3, 2014, at 5:56 AM, Pjotr Prins <pjotr2014 at thebird.nl> wrote:

> BioJS is browser oriented. It may or may not fit there. See also
> earlier E-mails on this ML by Chris and myself (Feb 27th).
> 
> Even so, can we please be open to new project ideas and get rid of the
> discriminatory programming language notion?  The bioinformatics
> community is growing rapidly. Way faster than before. We should cater
> for community needs as is represented by project ideas coming out of
> the community. 
> 
> I think, as long as the project is about bioinformatics and FOSS, it
> will fit GSoC/OBF.  We should only filter on the quality of students
> and mentors. 
> 
> Note also that Yannick is a respected member of BioRuby. 
> 
> Pj.
> 
> On Mon, Mar 03, 2014 at 11:39:04AM +0000, Peter Cock wrote:
>> Devil's advocate: Would this not be a better match to BioJavaScript
>> which was accepted as a GSoC organisation in its own right? What
>> do they think?
>> 
>> http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org2/google/gsoc2014/biojs
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Peter
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