---
# System prepended metadata

title: SSI Fellows Community Call - December 2024
tags: [SSIFellowsCommunityCalls]

---

# SSI Fellows Community Call - December 2024

:::info
* Thursday 12th December, 12:00 - 13:00 (GMT)
* Zoom room: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82947893105
* Recording: 
* Previous calls: [https://bit.ly/3eu7NjT](https://bit.ly/3eu7NjT)
* Summary: 
:::

[toc]

## Agenda
Times in GMT (check your time zone here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=SSI+Fellows+Community+Call+December+2024&iso=20241212T12&p1=302&ah=1)

12:00 - 12:05 Welcome & check-in
12:05 - 12:25 Fellows’ updates
12:25 - 12:45 Breakout room discussions
12:45 - 13:00 Q&A + closing


## Roll call
_Name / Cohort year / Affiliation / Location / Pronouns / Social media_

* Catherine Inglis / SSI staff / EPCC, University of Edinburgh / she/her 
* Sam Harrison / 2022 (or was it 2023?) / UKCEH / Lancaster / he/him / [:butterfly: Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/samharrison.science), [:elephant: Mastodon](https://mas.to/@samharrison7)
* Eli Chadwick / 2021 / University of Manchester / Basingstoke / he/they
* Phil Reed / 2025 / The University of Manchester / Todmorden, West Yorkshire / he/him / [:butterfly: PhilReedData](https://bsky.app/profile/philreeddata.bsky.social) 
* Jyoti Bhogal/2025/RSE Asia Association/Pune, India/she,her/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jyoti-bhogal/, GitHub: https://github.com/jyoti-bhogal
* Sarah Gibson / 2020 / 2i2c / East Midlands, UK / she,her
* Colin Sauze / 2021 / National Oceanography Centre / Liverpool, UK / he,him
* Robert Chisholm / 2025 / University of Sheffield / Sheffield, UK / @robadob, @_robadob
* Deborah (Debs) Udoh / 2025 / OLS, UK / she/her
* James Baker / 2015(!!!) / Uni Southampton / he/him / jwbaker.bsky.social
* Laura Shemilt / 2025 / Rosalind Franklin Institute/ she/her / laura.shemilt@rfi.ac.uk
* Alessandro Felder / 2025 / UCL / he-him 
* Milena Dobreva / 2025 / datafication in GLAMs / Glasgow / milena.dobreva@strath.ac.uk 
* Melissa Nolas / 2024 / Children's Photography Archive/UCL Visiting RF / London / she/her / LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-nolas-a8496a269/
* Sangeeta Bhatia / 2025 / Imperial College London/ she,her / https://www.linkedin.com/in/sangeetabhatia03/
* Shoaib Sufi / SSI Staff / Univesity of Manchester / https://www.linkedin.com/in/shoaibsufi/
* Riva Quiroga / 2022 / Universidad Católica de Chile / she,her/ @rivaquiroga, https://bsky.app/profile/rivaquiroga.bsky.social 
* Esther Plomp / 2025 / TU Delft/University of Aruba / Aruba / She/her / https://scholar.social/@toothFAIRy
* Hui Ling Wong / 2025 / Imperial College London / London / she,her
* Sarah Jaffa / 2023 I think? / University of Manchester /she / sarah.jaffa@manchester.ac.uk
* Arielle Bennett / 2025 / The Alan Turing Institute / she/her / @arielleb.bky.social
* Ella Kaye / 2025 / University of Warwick / Oxford / she/her / https://ellakaye.co.uk, https://bsky.app/profile/ellakaye.co.uk
* Dominic Orchard / 2015 / University of Cambridge/University of Kent / He/him / https://bsky.app/profile/dorchard.bsky.social https://dorchard.github.io/
* Olexandr Konovalov / 2014 / University of St Andrews / he,him / https://olexandr-konovalov.github.io/
* Saranjeet Kaur / 2023 / RSE Asia, Imperial College London / She, her 
* Jack Atkinson / 2025 / University of Cambridge / he,him / https://jackatkinson.net/
* Aleks Nenadic, SSI Research Software Training Lead, she/her, Uni of Manchester, a.nenadic@software.ac.uk
* Patricia Herterich / 2019 / OLS / Edinburgh, UK / @pherterich & https://openbiblio.social/@pherterich
* Nicky Nicolson / 2025 / Snr research leader in digital collections at Kew Gardens / n.nicolson@kew.org @nickynicolson on github / bluesky / twitter / https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickynicolson/
* Mike Simpson / 2025 / Research Software Engineer @ Newcastle / Vice-president of SocRSE / https://linktr.ee/mdsimpson


### Check-in
_Include your name and answer any of the following prompts: How are you today? What are you working on? Where do you need support?_

* Dominic. Tired! A rare day where I am writing mostly code. Before this: trying to add *one* test to an old piece of code (my code) but it's resulted in over an hour of frantic and frustrated hacking!
* Sam: on video calls almost all of the working day, but trying to squeeze some work in on [Fortran mapping for the Basic Model Interface](https://github.com/mcflugen/bmi-map/pull/19) in the gaps
* 
* Jyoti Bhogal, going through research papers to extract certain data 
* 
* Alessandro: also tired, and trying to finish stuff up before the much needed break :) 
* 
* Eli: I am proofreading technical documents (boring) but I got some lovely comments from a colleague this morning so I am in a good mood :)
* Phil: I am preparing a user requirements meeting and its activities for an OSCARS EU project.
* 
* James: marking, bureaucracy, the usual
* Sangeeta: I am trying to make copilot work with Emacs! Looking forward to setting up my Christmas tree this weekend.
* Catherine: feeling a bit chilly today (cold feet working at home!); trying to tie up a few ends before the Christmas holidays; looking forward to my daughter's school show this evening - a twist on a Christmas Carol!
* Rosa Filgueira: Learning about RAG for semantic searches
* 
* Laura Shemilt, Head of RSE at The Rosalind Franklin Instiute, hoping nothing catastrophic will happen on the infrastructure before Christmas! Our work Xmas party tonight and I am quizmaster :smiling_imp: 
* 
* 
* Melissa: I'm very well if tired | working on ethics reviews for the ERC this week / i would welcome advice on Python courses. 
* 
* 
* Arielle: working on a post-event blog post, then the Turing Way Community Forum and some final conversations before Christmas
* 
* Robert Chisholm: Tidying up commit history, and other closedown on a project that wraps next week.
* Deborah: I am currently fighting my internet and hoping for the best. :-) I have created a PR which no one except the creator. So, I'm working on figuring out the sorcery that's at work.


## 1. Welcome - 5 min [12:00 - 12:05]

### General Guidance

* 🤝 Please follow the [Code of Conduct](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eQu4EKHKbL-EMCwbwy7F_YGCOFhBcpBbwsET7QAvA1U/edit?usp=sharing), report any issues to [Shoaib](mailto:shoaib.sufi@software.ac.uk), [Oscar](mailto:oscar.seip@manchester.ac.uk) or [Catherine](mailto:c.inglis@epcc.ed.ac.uk).
* 📹 The Fellows updates are being recorded and the videos will be made available on the [SSI YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/SoftwareSaved) after the call. 
* 📝 This document is for SSI Fellows only, so please do not share the link publicly. Feel free to take notes, ask questions, add friendly comments, +1, etc. 
    * Outputs such as blog posts or guides may result from the discussions and shared insights. We will not share any personal information, but if you would like to be contacted and included as a contributing author on any outputs, please include your full name as part of any shared insights.


### Goals of these Community Calls
* Facilitate community building and encourage collaboration within the SSI Fellows community.
* Check in with the Fellows and community care - What are the Fellows up to? How can we support them?
* Provide a welcoming and inclusive space for Fellows to share and explore topics of interest and network with others.

### Breakout room discussion topics 
Feel free to add your own and include your name:
1. 
2. 
3. 
4.
5. 



## 2. Fellows’ updates - 20 min [12:05 - 12:25]
_This is an opportunity for Fellows to share/show and tell during our community calls. During each call, we can accommodate 2 Fellows who will each have 7 min (+ 3 min Q&A) to introduce themselves and share any updates to the network, such as:_
* _Your Fellowship plans, demos of projects, upcoming events or other activities_
* _Projects for which you are seeking support or collaboration_
* _Life after the Fellowship and how the Fellowship impacted your career_

Timer for speakers: [https://cuckoo.team/ssi-fellows-community-call](https://cuckoo.team/ssi-fellows-community-call) 



### `Name` (`Cohort year`)
* Useful links:
    * 
* Notes:
    * 
* Questions:
    * 

### `Name` (`Cohort year`)
* Useful links:
    * 
* Notes:
    * 
* Questions:
    * 

### `Name` (`Cohort year`)
* Useful links:
    * 
* Notes:
    * 
* Questions:
    * 


## 3. Breakout room discussions - 15 min [12:25 - 12:45]
_[Choose one topic from the list of suggested breakout room topics](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PWqDXjRHN-oX1ZsossmgH0CKzLZJ-LJujH2AxuJTy-o/edit?usp=sharing)._ _Please take notes of your discussion while you are in your breakout rooms in the relevant section below for others to catch up with._

### Main room: hangout
* Participants:
    * 
* Notes: 
    * 

### Breakout Room 1: `Project management pitfalls: How to turn smooth sailing into a stormy disaster` (`Discussion Lead`)
* Participants:
    * Saranjeet Kaur
    * Sam Harrison
    * Rosa Filgueira
    * Arielle Bennett
    * Catherine Inglis
* Notes:
    * Not having a proper plan
    * Lack of communication - maybe leading to lack of understanding of tasks
    * Not using good project management software (that everyone uses)
    * Good PM tools: Trello, MS tools, GitHub projects
    * Unrealistic expectations around timing

### Breakout Room 2: `Project management pitfalls: How to turn smooth sailing into a stormy disaster.`
* Participants:
    * Robert Chisholm
    * Dominic Orchard
    * Hui Ling Wong
    * Deborah Udoh
* Notes:
    * The shared principle? Keep it simple!
    * We have all resorted to using to-do lists to track taks, either in Google Docs or in a private GitHub Project Board. 
    * Context switching makes things difficult which is where project management can be useful
    * Other recommended tools include Notion calendar and Obsidian.
    * Don't overengineer it.

### Breakout Room 3: freeform discussion
* Participants:
    * Jack
    * Laura
    * Eli
    * Nicky
    * Mike
* Notes:
    * talks on "things that went wrong" or "what not to do" at conferences can be quite fun and also useful (and nice to not only see the things that work)
    * appreciation of Coding Confessions (and some of our own)
    * "wiggly"/non-traditional career paths (e.g. DJ in China -> data scientist)
    * open source governance
    * other topics I already forgot... but it was fun!
    * 

## Breakout Room 4: Team's choice: How to best alienate your collaborators.
* Participants:
    * Ella
    * Jyoti
    * Kathleen
    * Patricia
    * Joseph
* Notes:
    * Make sure this is no clear objective or goal
    * Never assign specific tasks
    * 10% of the people speaking 90% of the time
    * Time zones should not be considered
    * Critize other people's suggestions without providing alternatives
    * Do not use shared notes or documentation
    * Abbreviate everything!
    * Use as much jargon as possible
    * Do not show up to meetings or reply to emails 
    * Pay no need to inclusivity or accessibility
    * Have no agenda for meetings
    * Be generally rude and disagreeble
    * Have no Code of Conduct (formal or informal)
    * If there is an action list it absolutely should never be checked.
    * Where possible, actions should be ambiguous and/or contradictory.
    * Never pay any heed to budgetary constraints
    * Have only in-person metings
    * Meetings that could have been emails.
    * Emails that should have been meetings.


### Breakout Room 5: `Topic 14: Guides no one reads: Collecting dust on sustainable and FAIR practices since forever.`
* Participants:
    * Phil Reed
    * Melissa Nolas
    * Milena Dobreva
    * Sarah Jaffa
    * Alessandro Felder
* Notes:
    * Could have waxed lyrical on most of these topics!
    * Also talked about common interests in images, archives, [machine learinsng](https://carpentries-incubator.github.io/machine-learning-librarians-archivists/)
    * 
    * 

### Breakout Room 6: `Discussion Topic` (`Discussion Lead`)
* Participants:
    * Colin
    * Sarah
    * James
    * Shoaib

* Topic
    * Data visualisation: Making simple things complicated: The opposite of clear communication.

* Notes:
    * ![Screenshot 2024-12-12 at 12.35.06](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/H1_cdLONJg.png)

    * Pi Charts not adding up to 100% https://hachyderm.io/@djnavarro/113619324191748509
    * https://www.reddit.com/r/badUIbattles/?rdt=46615
    * Cars - touch screen or not - and press down to open fuel/power ports and Tesla glove box and frozen handles - Tesla not a single women in the design team
    * Apps for washing machines
    * Violin plots
     
### Breakout Room 7: `Discussion Topic` (`Discussion Lead`)
* Participants:
    * Aleks
    * Olexandr
    * Sangeeta
    * Riva
* Notes:
    * 
    * 
    * 
    * 

## 4. Q&A + Closing - 20 min [12:45 - 13:00]

### Next call: TBC
* Likely to be in February, as we have the Inaugural Meeting at the end of January.
* Sign-up/register your interest to speak on a future call: https://forms.gle/4YpTTAFUNuA2XyZEA

### Upcoming events / calls
_Event name / date, time & venue / website / description_

* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 

### Requests for peer assists, collaboration and/or support

* I've recently moved up north to Manchester and don't have much social network outside work yet so if anyone wants to go for a coffee/chat, drop me a line! sarah.jaffa@manchester.ac.uk +1
* 
* 
* 
* 

*Note that there is a channel in the Fellows slack workspace called #collaboration (another is #peer-review). This is a place to ‘find your people’ and support each other, so please join the channels, and make the most of them!*

### Other updates, shares and shout-outs
_Please feel free to add any updates or thank-yous that you wish to share with the community._

* 
* 
* 
* 
* 
* 


### Feedback

* What did you enjoy about this call? What worked well?
    * 
    * 
    * 
    * 
    * 
* What could be improved? What did not work well?
    * 
    * 
    * 
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* What topics would you like to explore on future calls?
    * 
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    * 

