Posted by j.laird on 24 February 2021 - 2:00pm 

Photo by Andrea Enríquez Cousiño on Unsplash

One of the many opportunities to start a new collaboration during the Collaborations Workshop 2021 (CW21) is through the mini-workshops and demo sessions. This year we’ll have ten 30-minute sessions related to the themes of CW21: FAIR Research Software, Diversity & Inclusion, and Software Sustainability.

FAIR Research Software

The FAIR Guiding Principles - Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability - for scientific data management and stewardship aim to maximise the discoverability and reusability of research data, leading to increased transparency and reproducibility of research results. At a high level, the principles are meant to apply to all scholarly digital research objects, including algorithms, tools, and workflows, but there is ongoing discussion about how they can be applied to research software in a practical and useful way. The RDA FAIR For Research Software Working Group (FAIR4RS WG) has been coordinating a range of existing community-led discussions on how to define and effectively apply FAIR principles to research software in order to achieve adoption of these principles and continue to advance the aims of the open science movement. 

Anna-Lena Lamprecht will facilitate an Interactive Introduction to the FAIR Research Software discussion, which will offer a quick primer for people who have not yet been involved in the FAIR4RS discussion, but would like to join later CW21 workshops or other initiatives on this topic. Participants will discuss similarities and differences of data and software and what these mean for the application of the FAIR principles. Participants will take a look at software aspects requiring specific attention, and share recommendations for FAIR4RS in practice.

Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion is inherently about justice and equity, and it brings different perspectives, ideas and experiences to a community that can lead to higher quality research and improved business performance. What actions can we take to address the underrepresentation, differential needs and systemic disadvantages that exist within the research software community? How can we build inclusion and equity into our projects and teams to attract and retain diverse talent, and ensure accessibility and participation of diverse perspectives in our research/work?

In Good Practices for Designing Software Development Projects (The Turing Way), Malvika Sharan will introduce the guide for ‘project design’ to discuss good practices for designing software-related research projects, including how to use open-source tools and resources for meeting project goals and apply agile methods for project management. She will demonstrate The Turing Way project design to prompt discussions on developing inclusive engagement pathways and setting software projects that are open for contributions from people with diverse skills. Through this discussion, participants will highlight the importance of designing projects for inclusion and selecting effective processes for project onboarding, code review, acknowledgement, communication and project sustainability.

Software Sustainability

Sustainability means that the software you use today will be available - and continue to be improved and supported - in the future. Which best practices for ensuring accessibility and reproducibility of research software have yet to be largely adopted? How can we onboard new collaborators with diverse perspectives to help improve, maintain and sustain software over its lifetime?

During README tips to make your project more approachable, Hao Ye will review practices in creating READMEs so as to best welcome people to your project, communicate the vision of your work and its unique value, and demonstrate how to get started using or contributing to your project. Participants will engage in short group discussions about READMEs and user personas, and then engage in scaffolded practice on crafting READMEs for their own personal projects or provided examples.

But wait, there’s more!

We’ll be running lots of other mini-workshops and demo sessions, and you can find them all on the CW21 agenda.

To find out more information and to register, please visit the CW21 website.