Web standards for describing datasets and profiles
Latest version published on 14 February, 2019.
By Alejandra Gonzalez-Beltran, University of Oxford. Supported by the UK Software Sustainability Institute Fellowship, I attended the fourth Face-to-Face (F2F) meeting of the W3C Dataset eXchange Working Group (DXWG) in Lyon, France, at the end of October 2018. Here, I report on how W3C WGs work and the specific outputs we’ve been producing at DXWG.Seeking input: Challenges to sustainability of open source research data tools
Latest version published on 18 February, 2019.
By Danielle Robinson, Code for Science & Society, with an introduction by Raniere Silva, Software Sustainability Institute. As we reported in 2014, 7 out of 10 UK researchers said that it's impossible to conduct research without software. Some of those software can be categorised as open source data tools—defined as open source projects that facilitate any part of researchers data workflow, including data collection, analysis, visualisation, sharing, reuse, publication, and/or collaborative data projects. Code for Science & Society (CS&S) are working on a research project with…Friction Reducers and Collaborations Workshop 2019 Hackday
Latest version published on 13 March, 2019.
By Raniere Silva, Community Officer, Software Sustainability Institute. The third and last day of Collaborations Workshop 2019 (CW19) is reserved for the Hackday. During the Hackday, attendees collaborate on a project that will be presented at the end of the day and have the chance to win a prize. This year the first prize is 11.6' Pinebook notebook.Polar Software Workshop and Hackathon: Training the next generation of polar scientists in software sustainability
Latest version published on 14 February, 2019.
By Sammie Buzzard, Software Sustainability Institute Fellow Organised in collaboration with the UK Polar Network and the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) UCL, more than 20 early career polar scientists were given the opportunity to improve their software skills during an interactive workshop. As with many scientific disciplines within polar sciences, we have our software heroes with the open source code stored in GitHub, and we have those who would never dream of sharing their code. There are, however, many who would like to fit into the first category and to be more open…CESSDA Expert Seminar 2018: Balancing Theory with Practice
Latest version published on 14 February, 2019.
By Steve Crouch, Software Sustainability Institute, and John Shepherdson, CESSDA Platform Delivery Director describe the main outcomes of two technical training events which took place in 2018 and plans for the next steps in 2019.Building new communities as a Fellow
Latest version published on 23 September, 2019.
By James Baker, University of Sussex. Applying to become a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow was one of the best decisions of my career. Now that may sound a little hyperbolic, but looking back over the four years since I made the application to become a fellow, so many experiences I've enjoyed, encounters I've had, and connections I've made can be traced back to that decision.A mathematical perspective on being a Fellow
Latest version published on 23 September, 2019.
By Vincent Knight, Nikoleta Glynatsi, and Geraint Palmer, from Cardiff University, School of Mathematics. Being a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow creates a sense of belonging to a community and legitimacy to a practice. This blog post is co written by three mathematicians at Cardiff University, each at various stages of their academic career.Being FAIR – data licences in InterMine
Latest version published on 24 January, 2019.
By Julie Sullivan, at InterMine, with an introduction by Raniere Silva, Community Officer, Software Sustainability Institute. Licences in the open source world are a big challenge. In 2015, GitHub reported that only around 20% of the repositories had a licence assigned to them. Julie Sullivan and the InterMine team found similar figures for data on their platform that had clear licence information. Julie wrote the following blog post where she addresses the challenges InterMine faces when displaying licence information to users. This post was originally published at the InterMine blog.Northwest Universities R Day event
Latest version published on 25 January, 2019.
By Reka Solymosi, University of Manchester. In October 2018 I was part of a team who organised the first ever (UK) North West Universities R Day. Inspired by the series of events organised by the R user groups based at the University of Manchester (UoM) and Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), we decided to host a one day conference to bring people together around the topic of using R.Sustain Summit 2018
Latest version published on 24 January, 2019.
By Raniere Silva, Community Officer, Software Sustainability Institute. Sustainer is "the individual or organisation who is concerned with the fragile state and future of highly-used and impactful open source projects." A diverse and fantastic group of sustainers met in London at the end of October for a day discussion related to the sustainability of open source projects.