---
tags: scverse, governance, meeting
---
# 2022-02-22: Wolfgang Huber meeting
*Attendees:* Mike Smith, Wolfgang Huber, Fabian, Isaac, Lukas, Danila
## Agenda
* Could you give us a broad overview of how bioconductor is structured?
* What roles do they have for people doing analysis? E.g. not the methods developers?
* What initiatives/ events/ projects have been the most valuable for bioconductor?
* How do they involve industry? Contributions, sponsorship?
* how they handle orphaned projects maybe?
## Notes
* Introductions
* Wolfgang
* Core member of bioc for past 20 years
* Starting with micro-array
* Mike Smith
* Software developer with Wolfgang
* Member of bioc community advisory board
* bioc community advisory board
* Which packages
* Their CI system/ release cycle takes a full time engineer
*
* Recognition for people
* Packages keep identity
* Was some resistance due to "reduced visibility"
* "like a journal"
* It's a brand.
* "This is still your paper but it's published in a journal"
* Think of the added value
* Have a check/ **badge**?
* How is bioconductor structured
* Continually evolving
* In the beginning it wasn't formalised, and it was a promise to support core packages (data standards, I/O, etc.), CI, support forum where people can ask question about.
* Authoritiarian -> Democratic
* Only recently been formalised, with elections, the board, etc.
* Advisory boards
* Rotation of these boards
* Who is on the boards?
* Scientific: institute invitee
* Community/ technical: nominated, vote by existing members
* Is a set time commitment
* Not just developers, but have submitted packages
* Get requirements docs: https://www.bioconductor.org/about/technical-advisory-board/
* Valuable intial events
* Summer schools/ workshops
* E.g. authors of packages giving workshops, bioconductor would largely make connections
* Bioconductor conference took a few years to start
* Developer day at conferences
* Tutorials/ workshop day at a conference seems valuable
* https://www.nature.com/articles/nmeth.3252
* Can send through a document on structure
* Industry collaboration
* Sponsor conferences
* Robert Gentleman
* Genetech has funded a full time person
* Microsoft Genomics
* Donate cloud compute
* Present at developer forums
* Instrument developer interaction
* Affymetrix
* Contribute packages
* Mostly in kind contribution, e.g. developer time
* Didn't sound like there was much formal interaction here?
* It is a requirement to have an open license. Industry contributors have to be ok with that. R/Bioc limits licences to a set of permissive licenses.
* $$$
* Bioc is not a commercial entity, it can't pay salaries.