Phyloinformatics VoCamp: Open Call for Participation

(Apologies if you have seen this before, and for the late notice  
otherwise. Note that the deadline for application is Friday this week.  
The application form should not take long though, so don't let this  
deter you if you are interested.)

                    NESCent Phyloinformatics VoCamp

                      OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

Integrating diverse biological data with the historical process of  
evolution is a grand challenge for 21st century biology. The  
interoperability of data from diverse fields (e.g., genetics, ecology,  
biodiversity, biomedicine) requires a technology infrastructure based  
on formalized, shared vocabularies.  Developing such vocabularies is a  
community project.  In order to build controlled vocabularies and  
ontologies, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent: http://nescent.org 
) is sponsoring a "Phyloinformatics VoCamp".

We invite scientists from diverse sub-disciplines to apply for this  
event, as explained below. The application deadline is September 18,  
2009. More information about motivation, plans, and preliminary ideas  
is available online at http://bit.ly/VoCamp_Proposal.  Feel free to  
disseminate this notice to colleagues who may be interested.*

A VoCamp (http://vocamp.org) is an intense, hands-on, working meeting  
with face-to-face interactions between a diverse group of people  
focused on vocabulary and ontology design, development and  
application.  The Phyloinformatics VoCamp will include ontology and  
vocabulary developers from relevant efforts, experts on knowledge  
representation and reasoning, and users and developers of integrative  
applications that use these ontologies.

This event will partially overlap with the Biodiversity Information  
Standards (TDWG: http://tdwg.org) Annual Conference in Montpellier,  
France, November 9-13, 2009.  The VoCamp is an activity of the TDWG  
Interest Group on Phylogenetics Standards (http://wiki.tdwg.org/Phylogenetics 
) and is partly supported by TDWG and the Université Montpellier.

GOALS AND ACTIVITIES
-------------------

The objective of the event is to connect previously disparate ontology  
development efforts, stakeholder communities, and interoperability  
initiatives with shared objectives. Aside from sharing knowledge,  
expertise, and best practices, our goal is to build-out existing  
ontology resources in a hands-on manner in terms of ontological rigor,  
semantic richness, and modularity that supports effective reuse.

We also plan to have programming expertise and activities present at  
the event, such as for necessary large-scale transformations, and  
especially for proof-of-concept applications that directly apply the  
ontologies being developed.

On a long-term basis, we anticipate that the event, if successful,  
will give rise to similarly structured follow-up events organized by  
the participating stakeholder communities, such as TDWG, SONet (http://sonet.ecoinformatics.org/ 
), and OBO (http://www.obofoundry.org).

ORGANIZATION
------------

The VoCamp will be 4 days in duration during November 7-11, 2009 and  
is co-located with the TDWG annual conference (http://www.tdwg.org/conference2009/ 
) in Montpellier, France.  The first two days (Nov 7-8) will be  
dedicated entirely to VoCamp and the remainder of the event (Nov  
10-11) will overlap with TDWG 'workshops days'.  Participants will  
have the opportunity, and are encouraged, to interact with TDWG  
participants and attend conference sessions outside of the VoCamp.

The specific vocabulary development targets will be selected by the  
participants partly in advance through a dedicated area on a wiki, a  
mailing list, and one or more conference calls, and partly on-site  
through an Open Space activity. The exact agenda for the event will be  
developed similarly, but will be largely devoted to ontology and  
vocabulary development time. At the event itself, participants will  
self-organize into small subgroups focused on particular targets. The  
VoCamp will conclude with a wrap-up session, and a report presented to  
the TDWG conference audience.

We also anticipate that several "boot camps" will be needed to ensure  
a productive event for all participants, for example on ontology  
design and engineering, reasoning, and infrastructure for  
collaborative development of ontologies.

We welcome comments and suggestions for issues in ontology development  
that are not explicitly addressed here or in our proposal but that  
could be addressed at the event. Please email the organizers at vocamp1@nescent.org 
  with any suggestions.

HOW TO APPLY
------------

The application consists of your cv and your responses to 6 questions  
about your experience, skills, objectives, support, and commitment to  
open software development. To apply, please fill out the online form  
at http://bit.ly/VoCamp_Form by September 18, and submit your CV  to  
the organizers at vocamp1@nescent.org. NESCent will provide funds in  
support of expenses, including travel, accommodation, registration,  
and meals. Pending the final amount of funds available and the support  
requested by the participants, sponsorship may need to be capped.  
Logistical and travel details will be communicated to accepted and  
confirmed participants.

We specifically encourage applications from members of under- 
represented groups, specifically women and minorities, and from  
graduate students and post-docs.  If you have questions or are unsure  
whether to apply, please contact an organizer or write to vocamp1@nescent.org 
..

Please understand that funding and space for this event are limited.  
We also need to balance a critical mass of expertise in specific areas  
with broad participation. Therefore, not all qualified applicants can  
be guaranteed acceptance.

Yours,

The Organizing Committee

Arlin Stoltzfus, Chair (University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute)
Nico Cellinese (University of Florida)
Karen Cranston (Field Museum of Natural History)
Hilmar Lapp (NESCent)
Sheldon McKay (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, iPlant Collaborative)
Enrico Pontelli (New Mexico State University)

* This announcement was sent to the following lists: evoldir, TDWG,  
SSB, nexml, phylows, CDAO, SONet, EcoLog, OBO-discuss, GBIF, TAXACOM.

Received on Tuesday, 15 September 2009 21:37:23 UTC