--- tags: obf --- _Having trouble viewing this email or looking for a permalink? [View this newsletter in your browser](https://github.com/OBF/newsletter/blob/master/newsletters/2019-01.md)._ _This email was sent to the email to the [bosc-announce](http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/bosc-announce/) and [open-bio-l](http://mailman.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/open-bio-l/) lists._ # OBF Newsletter Jan 2019 ## OBF News ### OBF Founder named Commander of the British Empire Ewan Birney, one of the founders of the OBF and OBF President until 2005, has been awarded the title "Commander of the British Empire" (CBE) in service to genomics and the life sciences. [Read the EMBL-EBI press release](https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/press-releases/ewan-birney-CBE). ### We have a new logo! ![OBF logo - unlocked padlock surrounded by a circular DNA helix](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OBF/obf-docs/master/logos/obf_logo_text_circle.png) ### OBF redesigns #### Logo In the [first issue of our newsletter](https://github.com/OBF/newsletter/blob/master/newsletters/2018-07.md), we encouraged you to vote in the OBF logo redesign competition. The winning logo, designed by [Aleix Lafita](https://github.com/lafita), is shown above. #### Website During late 2018 and early 2019, our [Outreachy](https://www.outreachy.org/) intern [Deepashree Deshmukh](https://github.com/kushinauwu) will be redesigning the OBF website, with the goal of creating a unified community hub for the OBF. [More on our blog](https://news.open-bio.org/2018/11/19/updates-are-coming/). ### OBF Travel Fellowships The [OBF travel fellowships](https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/blob/master/Travel_fellowships.md) offer up to $1000 USD for conference travel and accommodation. Awardees from the last round [Anisha Keshevan](https://github.com/akeshavan), [Tendai Mutangadura](https://news.open-bio.org/2018/08/29/the-color-of-bioinformatics/), and [Farah Zaib Khan](https://news.open-bio.org/2018/08/18/city-of-roses-they-call-it-portland-oregon-usa/) shared their experiences as fellowship recipients on the OBF blog. We're particularly keen to offer these fellowships to people from underrepresented groups, including applicants outside Europe and the USA - please share with friends and acquaintances. The next **deadline to [apply](https://github.com/OBF/obf-docs/blob/master/Travel_fellowships.md) is the 15th of April**. ### BOSC 2019 will be in Basel, Switzerland with ISMB After 2018's great success [combining BOSC with the Galaxy Community Conference](https://news.open-bio.org/2018/07/27/gccbosc-2018-post-meeting-report/), we're [hoping to alternate years](https://news.open-bio.org/2018/08/02/taking-turns/) between [ISMB](https://www.iscb.org/ismbeccb2019) and GCC. In 2019, [BOSC](https://www.open-bio.org/wiki/BOSC_2019) will be held at ISMB in Basel, Switzerland on the 24th and 25th of July (with the Codefest the following days). ### GCCBOSC 2018 Videos Videos from our combined "Bioinformatics Community Conference" [GCCBOSC 2018](https://gccbosc2018.sched.com) are now up! The BOSC videos can be found on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLir-OOQiOhXaHvCY_KYshsOMULuXDqvh7). ### Google Summer of Code The Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a three-month paid internship opportunity for students around the globe to learn about contributing to open source. The OBF typically acts as an umbrella organisation, allowing member projects and affiliated projects to take on GSoC students. In 2018, students worked on projects for [BioJS, BioNode, CobraPy, NextFlow, and OpenMS](https://news.open-bio.org/2018/04/24/welcome-to-our-google-summer-of-code-2018-students/). If you have an open source project idea, consider mentoring as part of the OBF! It's a great two-way exchange - students get paid to get open source experience, while projects get three months of dedicated work. If you're interested, visit the [OBF GSoC site to learn more](https://obf.github.io/GSoC/) - project ideas are due in late January, so now's the time to start thinking! [Tweet - OBF mentors at the 2018 GSoC mentor summit](https://twitter.com/thejmazz/status/1053037514037088257) ## Community updates - People who use NextFlow workflows might be interested in [nf-core](https://nf-co.re/) - a curated set of high-quality re-usable analysis pipelines with good documentation. - Do you edit common biological file formats like `fasta`, `sam`, or `pdb`? [BioSyntax](https://github.com/bioSyntax/bioSyntax) is an open source plugin that provides syntax highlighting for [multiple file formats](https://biosyntax.org/man#supported-file-formats) in vim, less, gedit, & sublime. ### Galaxy Training CoFest The Galaxy Training Network has developed an infrastructure to deliver interactive training based on Galaxy: one central place (https://training.galaxyproject.org) to aggregate training materials covering many current research topics. Each topic is supported by tutorials developed and maintained by the community via a GitHub repository: https://github.com/galaxyproject/training-material. To support the community and this project, the Galaxy Training Network is organizing regular online CoFests (Collaboration/Contribution Fests) once every 3 months on the 3rd Thursday for a day of the collaborative work on the training content. The last one was on the 15th of November and the next one will be on the **21st of February**. More information can found on [GitHub](https://github.com/galaxyproject/training-material/issues/1152). ## Interesting links - Have you ever had cause to feel unsafe online as a researcher who works openly? The GitBook [Digital Safety for Open Researchers](https://digital-safety-for-open-research.gitbook.io/project/introduction/untitled) might be worth a read. - Do you support credit for academic code authors, code review for scientific software, and open peer review? The Journal of Open Source Software ([JOSS](https://joss.theoj.org/)) has an [open call for editors](http://blog.joss.theoj.org/2018/12/call-for-editors) (apply by Jan 18th), and/or [sign up to review software in your area of expertise](http://joss.theoj.org/reviewer-signup.html) (sign up anytime). - Do you present training webinars? [Ten simple rules for delivering live distance training in bioinformatics across the globe using webinars](https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006419) is both interesting and informative! ### Your content needed for the next issue! Tell us about the things that catch your attention in the open source bioinformatics world! If you have an exciting project update, request for feedback, or interesting link, [feel free to share it with us on GitHub](https://github.com/OBF/newsletter/issues/8), or discuss it offline if you're not sure whether or not your content is suitable - we're looking for content that's primarily open source / science related.