[Open-bio-l] R: Code fest 2010: thinking to '11

[Brad Chapman]

Hey all;
It's awesome to see so much interest in continuing the informal
Codefests; this is a great discussion. Raoul, thanks for kicking 
it off.

To try and summarize the thoughts so far, we have 2 different
ideas floating about regarding future Codefest sessions:

1. Another Codefest next year in conjunction with BOSC and ISMB in
Vienna. So far we have proposals for either Milano or Vienna itself.
The key aspect here is to figure out the logistics: if we wanted to
do Milano what is the transport situation to Vienna afterwards? If
we want to have it in Vienna can we find someone locally who is
willing to do the on the ground work to ensure we have space,
internet and power?

Although the work of actually organizing is not especially taxing,
we do need to have someone committed locally as there are lots of
little things that need a person willing to handle them. It's
not too early to try and identify folks who might be interested and
get them integrated into the community. Although we wouldn't need to
book a room a year out, we would want to ensure that anyone
interested in hosting would get enough out of the coding session to
make it worth their time to help with the organization. Can anyone
who knows people in Vienna who might be interested get in contact
for at least an informal discussion? Then we can start to enumerate
the specifics so we can compare our options.

2. Intermediate, potentially regional, Codefests between BOSC. These
sound like a good idea, and I would second Richard's point about
associating these with conferences to help encourage attendance. It
is a lot easier to justing budgeting out time and travel money if
there is a relevant more "official" event happening in conjunction
with the coding session. It's good to keep in mind that not
everyone, and their bosses, are entirely altruistic and to think
about how we can also satisfy professional needs while getting in
some coding time. Steffen, are there any conferences or near Luebeck
that it would make sense to coordinate with?

There were also some great ideas about BOSC itself. I helped
with the organizing this last year for the first time, and Kam is
really open to letting organizers try and shape the conference
goals. When Kam makes the announcements about organizing, which
should be near the end of the year, definitely get involved and
mention these ideas. It would be cool to see us try out some new
notions of what BOSC can provide for attendees.

Finally, thanks again to everyone for coming to Codefest this year.
It was a great turnout and looking forward to doing it again,
Brad