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tags: short guide
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==**THIS NOTE IS A SAMPLE FROM AN OPEN LIFE SCIENCE COHORT CALL (OLS-2).**==

# Example sheet: Expanding the inclusivity and accessibility of your online calls

:::info
- Schedule: <LINK>
- Date and time: <LINK>
- Zoom call joining link: <LINK>
- **Hosts**: Bérénice, Emmy, Malvika, Yo
:::

**Before this meeting:**

- <Describe activity here>

**Table of contents**

[TOC]

:earth_asia: Cohort call
---

**Syllabus**: [OLS-2 Week-6](https://openlifesci.org/ols-2/schedule/#week-06)

**This week**

In this cohort call, we will learn about:

- Project development plan

:wave: Roll call
---

please add :writing_hand: to be allocated to **Written Discussion Breakout Room**
or :speech_balloon: for **Spoken Discussion Breakout Room**, or both if you are happy to be assigned to any breakout room. - *we will explain this in the beginning of the call, so it's ok if you want to wait to add this later.* [More info](https://hackmd.io/Rxv59dqAQ1C7gnHz5P-5PQ)

*Examples:*
- Yo Yehudi (they/them) / OLS / t: yoyehudi / :writing_hand: :speech_balloon:
- Malvika Sharan (she/her) / OLS / t+gh: malvikasharan / :writing_hand:
- Emmy Tsang / TU Delft, OLS-host / t: emmy_ft / :speech_balloon:

*Name (pronouns - optional) / Project / social handles (twitter - t, GitHub - gh, etc.) / breakout room preference: :writing_hand:, :speech_balloon:, both.*

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**Icebreaker question**
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What is your recent favorite tool or app or software?

- [name=Sophia] NOTION!! Once you get to know me, you'll learn how much I love, use, and rave about [Notion](https://www.notion.so). You can also view my template homepage [here](https://www.notion.so/Home-1c2a17e01e1347d98b8cd48871aef9f4) if you're wondering how I use it
- 😅😍
- [name=Kate]Github! I never knew I could host such a great website from there! 😍
- [name=Bailey] The **Atom text editor** (from the people behind GitHub!). I recently converted after downloading it just to see how easy it would be for students to use (though I also still use vim on command line).
- [name=Aleks] Need to try **atom**, people say it is great
- [name=Kirstie] **Whatsapp**, honestly, its let me stay in touch with SO many people. My dad was in hospital for 8 days a couple of weeks ago and it was his (and our) absolue lifeline given that we couldn't go an visit him :phone:
- [name=Arielle] ToDoist! I use it to keep track of all my tasks, including long term projects and daily reminders +1
- [name=Piv] not recent but LifeRPG - since the pandemic started I've added tiny tasks to add structure to my day. small walks, listening to podcasts, etc.
- [name=Laura] **Borrowbox** for fiction books while the library has been closed :books:
- [name=David] Headspace, for that feeling of chill when your daily commute is a walk from one room to another - :+1:
- Kirstie: I just signed up for the Turing's paid subscription. Interested to see where I can fit it in :relaxed:
- David: Some are good for walkies, easy to zone out (not fallen over yet)
- Camila: I also started using it with the Turing subscription, I love it. Having a session at the end of the working day helps me a lot to transition.
- Jez: I subscribed for a about a year and while I found it a bit samey after a while and unsubscribed it was definitely worth it, I learned a lot and I'll probably go back to it at some point
- [name=Jez] [GNU Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) text editor (+ [spacemacs](https://www.spacemacs.org/) configuration) with [org-mode](https://orgmode.org/) for note-taking, planning & project management, knowledge management, document writing, ... all in plain text
- [name=Aleks] OBS for recording videos, Clemetine for managing a music library
- [name=Renato] :+1: for OBS!
- [name=Renato] [GitPod](https://www.gitpod.io/) - amazing tool for co-working on text/coding open source projects - Great integration with GitHub/Lab
- [name=Sarah] My new Google Nests - really enjoying controlling the "mood" of my music and having it follow me around my flat (spying microphones in my flat aside :grimacing: but they do have hardwired mic off switches)
- [name=Pauline] Pomodoro focus app. Managed to focus and complete tasks despite the distractions :-) :+1:
- [name=Emma] - Git hub and making emojis in markdown!:smiley:
- [name=Paula] Github
- [name=Teresa] HackMD! I find it massively useful for every project I work on, with or without coding.
- [name=Paul] VSCode! I feel it makes writing code so much easier. It also makes working with GitHub very easy as well.
- [name=Peter] VSCode! I like how it has "language engines" for Python and CWL that provide useful hints on variable and function name and formatting

🗣️ Welcome!

host: Malvika Sharan (4 mins) [⏰ 4]

**Call recording reminder:**
- Please note that this call will be recorded
- The video will be available on the [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/OpenLifeSci) in the next few days
- Turn on your webcam if you don't mind being in the video (or off if you do!)

**Participation reminder:**

- [Code of conduct & community participation guidelines ](https://openlifesci.org/code-of-conduct)
- If you experience or witness unacceptable behaviour, or have any other concerns, please report it by contacting the organisers - Bérénice, Malvika and Yo. ([[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])).
- To report an issue involving one of the organisers, please email one of the members individually ([[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]), [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail]), [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])).

Breakout room description
---

host: Yo Yehudi (3 mins) [⏰ 7]

- Link to the post: https://hackmd.io/Rxv59dqAQ1C7gnHz5P-5PQ
- :writing_hand: Written Discussion rooms
- :speech_balloon: Spoken Discussion rooms

Open Science I: Using project management skills during development stage
---

Host: Emmy (3 min) [⏰ 10]

Open science has many aspects, so we'll be covering this over two separate cohort calls. This week, we're looking at different aspects that open science projects may have, across a few main areas:

- Iterative project management
- Open Source Software (reproducible, peer-reviewed code!)
- Open Source Hardware (affordable, maintainable equipment!)
- Open Data and sharing research outputs!

In the next cohort call (week 8), we'll cover open dissemination - open access, preprints, citizen science and open education.

🖥 Agile and iterative project management methods
---
Host: Emmy (10 minutes + 5 for questions) [⏰ 25]

**Guest speaker**

- [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CWnHXZHFDYFTqE2KKgZ8R5i_46XqAqnjy12gYSDESxk/edit?usp=sharing)
- Agile methodology
- Iterative design
- Break tasks into manageable chunks
- Use-case links: [OLS-2 OSUM](https://github.com/orgs/osumontreal/projects/3) - [OSL demo board](https://github.com/open-life-science/demo-project-board/projects/1)

- Notes:

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- Questions / comments

- Name / Question
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👥 Breakout discussion: Iterative project management and design
---

Host: Yo (15 minutes) [⏰ 70]

**Breakout room reminder:** if you need assistance in your breakout room, please click the ' **Ask for Help**' button at the bottom of your screen

_Instructions: Try to break down your first milestone into achievable chunks, and share what you found interesting and challenging._

👥 Break-out room

10 minutes, ~3-4 rooms: we will have some written discussion and some spoken discussion room:

- First 5 minutes: Work silently on breaking up and taking notes below.
- It's okay to talk and bounce ideas off your group if needed in the 'Spoken discussion rooms'
- Last 5 minutes: Share with your group & get feedback.
- *Written discussion room:* Read through what others have written, +1 or comment where needed.
- *Spoken discussion rooms:* Take turn to share your ideas 1 minute each and capture the main insights in your notes

- Room 1 - Written: (Pradeep, Muhammet, Hilyatuz)
- [name=Muhammet] The key goal in our project is making a tool that will simplify the metagenomic classification, these days metagenomics analysis has been a boom and a simple classification analysis requires users to use the command line which frustrates non-IT people. The biggest challenge in this is after we come up with the pipeline its gonna require some computational power which not everybody has it. Or not everybody uses the same OS. So we are thinking about how to represent the pipeline in a way so people do not need to worry about their computational power nor OS.
- [name=Hilya] The key goal to this project is to create an open source platform to stream bioinformatics talks, tutorials ans trainings. Among the key milestones are to finish the website development [APBioNetTalks](https://apbtalks.apbionet.org) and then stream our first talk.
- Room 2 - Spoken: (Harriet, Markus, Kate, Laura)

- [name=Markus] a key goal of our project is to better integrate other package developers and users into our project, I find it hard to break this down into milestones because I'm not sure how to best measure success
- identify success criteria
- identify ways how to approach other package developers (for example, raising issues, joint presentations)
- [name=Laura]: a key milestone opportunity for our project is the Turing Way BookDash in November: we want to use this as an opportunity to create lots of content and also identify barriers to contributing. So our more detailed plan looks a bit like:
- identify what we want BookDash participants to get done during the week
- break that down into discrete issues on github that are open and ready for +1
- make sure the contributor guides are up to date and provide information that we think will be needed
- ...other prep things that we haven't thought of yet...
- [name=Kate]: 1. Review existing post occupany evaluation data via:Universities; Individual researchers; Web portals; Github. Create table and add web links: Add columns for data types, for tick boxes; Make the table easy to read; Format the data in Markdown (is this even possible??), or similar 😊. Share via Github: Add issue/section on website; Invite collaborators to add more; Continue to add to this over time

- Room 3 - Written: Bailey

- [name=Bailey Harrington]: I am creating a website for my first main milestone. I am debating between Wordpress (which I actually started with) and GitHub Pages (which will allow me to do more of the things I want to do). Broken down parts of this include:
- figuring out how/whether I can use a modified verison of a GitHub pages theme (I need to check their licenses to see what type of modification is allowed)
- writing content for the static pages: About, Contact, Home, et cetera
- finding a way to allow people to submit contributions that does not require them to interact with the GitHub interface if they find that uncomfortable or unintuitive

- Room 4 - Spoken: Georgia, Karega, Ismael, Arielle
- [name=Georgia]: I have a tricky milestone for my project which is working out the moderation process for online platform. The steps to do this are: running focus groups to gather different people's opinions, collating and analysing the focus groups, researching other moderation processes and creating a scaffold, co-designing a code of conduct to support moderators, choose and recruit moderators, and design a data-flow/communication process.
- [name=Ismael] I'm in a group (of 3) project and one of the biggest challenges is building a community. For this, we have agreed to share our discussions more widely and transparently. Which we have then whittled down to streaming our discussions on Twitch! (Yet to be done). So a milestone is to have one of our meetings over Twitch. And a simple task we all have is to open Twitch accounts! We are now using Asana to keep track of milestones and tasks.
- [name=Arielle] I use workback plans to set milestones and then breakdown the steps needed to reach milestones. One of my main projects at the moment is organising a workshop for mid-November
- [name=Karega] I'm woring on a backend database and a frontend platform. First time after having a call with my collaborators my vision became less clear, this was when we were supposed to develop a roadmap. So we have broken it down to two parts, bakend and frontend. Step one is just gathering all sorts of data we'll put in there. Made Notion account and have a slack channel where everyone can throw in their ideas.

- Room 5 - Written: (Eva, Paula, Paul)
- [name=Eva]: For us one of the biggest challenges was trying to figure out how to get contributors to add their workflows to our database. For this, we had several steps: 1) figure out a platform to share the resources (Github repo or github org?) 2) recruit potential collaborators 3) make a template and guide for submitting resources 4) make Slack channel to start building community
- [name=Paul]: I find that when breaking down milestones, it can be too easy to not break them down thoroughly. This leaves room for ambiguity, and you may end up not being as productive as you should.
- [name=Paula]: Set a deadline, set the schedule to go through the proposals, review the guidelines, add comments to each, do last review and send all the feedback back.
- Room 6 - Spoken: Emma, Aleksandra, Camila & Teresa
- [name=Emma] problems of getting other to interact with gitbhub as can be seen as scary by researcher that are not used to it. Using issues and then breaking these down into smaller achievable tasksable to tick things off! having short-, medterm goals Using issues and then breaking these down into smaller achievable tasksable to tick things off! having short-, med- and long-- and long-- and long-- and long-term goals Using issues and then breaking these down into smaller achievable tasksable to tick things off! having short-, medterm goals Using issues and then breaking these down into smaller achievable tasksable to tick things off! having short-, medterm goals
- [name=Camila Rangel Smith] Breaking up a big milestone into smaller pieces is very useful to get progress on a project. It stops the process from being abstract.

- [name=Teresa] Because I have not started my roadmap yet, I was listening to the other "roommates". We were also talking about the usefulness we think github has on project management even for the projects whih do not involve coding. Nice talk by the way :wink:

**share-out (5 minutes)**

- What did you find very interesting about this process?
- Kate: Breaking work down into manageable steps always feels quite satisfying, but I rarely do it!
- It's interesting to see the solutions people have to different problems: it creates a nice, problem-solving atmosphere!

🗣️ Closing & Assignments
---

- **Assignments**

Create a project development plan for your project
- [Assignment to help you use Agile methods](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bn4qR9b3XmAYXT8GZK9yI1xI3GE71GBMQ0ySkXtba4o/edit?usp=sharing) to breakdown your milestones into smaller tasks and define a timeline for your milestones

**After these assignments:**
- <add details here>

**Next cohort call:**
- <add details here>

**Open Q & A time**
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**Feedback**
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*License*: CC BY 4.0, Open Life Science (OLS-2), 2020