Community
This week has been a tremendous confluence of concepts and ideas around community. Not that I'd expect anyone else to notice, but it really kept building towards a common theme.
The first was just a community of co-workers. Last week, my lab went out to celebrate a lab-mate's successful defense of her thesis (Congrats, Dr. Sleumer!). During the second round of drinks (Undrinkable dirty martinis), several of us had a half hour conversation on the best way to desalinate an over-salty martini. As weird as it sounds, it was an interesting and fun conversation, which I just can't imagine having with too many people. (By the way, I think Obi's suggestion wins: distillation.) This is not a group of people you want to take for granted!
The second community related event was an invitation to move my blog over to a larger community of bloggers. While I've temporarily declined, it raised the question of what kind of community I have while I keep my blog on my own server. In some ways, it leaves me isolated, although it does provide a "distinct" source of information, easily distinguishable from other people's blogs. (One of the reasons for not moving the larger community is the lack of distinguishing marks - I don't want to sink into a "borg" experience with other bloggers and just become assimilated entirely.) Is it worth moving over to reduce the isolation and become part of a bigger community, even if it means losing some of my identity?
The third event was a talk I gave this morning. I spent a lot of time trying to put together a coherent presentation - and ended talking about my experiences without discussing the actual focus of my research. Instead, it was on the topic of "successes and failures in developing an open source community" as applied to the Vancouver Short Read Analysis Package. Yes, I'm happy there is a (small) community around it, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Anyhow, at the risk of babbling on too much, what I really wanted to say is that communities are all around us, and we have to seriously consider our impact on them, and the impact they have on us - not to mention how we integrate into them, both in our work and outside. If you can't maximize your ability to motivate them (or their ability to motivate you), then you're at a serious disadvantage. How we balance all of that is an open question, and one I'm still working hard at answering.
I've attached my presentation from this morning, just in case anyone is interested. (I've decorated it with pictures from the South Pacific, in case all of the plain text is too boring to keep you awake.)
Here it is (it's about 7Mb.)
The first was just a community of co-workers. Last week, my lab went out to celebrate a lab-mate's successful defense of her thesis (Congrats, Dr. Sleumer!). During the second round of drinks (Undrinkable dirty martinis), several of us had a half hour conversation on the best way to desalinate an over-salty martini. As weird as it sounds, it was an interesting and fun conversation, which I just can't imagine having with too many people. (By the way, I think Obi's suggestion wins: distillation.) This is not a group of people you want to take for granted!
The second community related event was an invitation to move my blog over to a larger community of bloggers. While I've temporarily declined, it raised the question of what kind of community I have while I keep my blog on my own server. In some ways, it leaves me isolated, although it does provide a "distinct" source of information, easily distinguishable from other people's blogs. (One of the reasons for not moving the larger community is the lack of distinguishing marks - I don't want to sink into a "borg" experience with other bloggers and just become assimilated entirely.) Is it worth moving over to reduce the isolation and become part of a bigger community, even if it means losing some of my identity?
The third event was a talk I gave this morning. I spent a lot of time trying to put together a coherent presentation - and ended talking about my experiences without discussing the actual focus of my research. Instead, it was on the topic of "successes and failures in developing an open source community" as applied to the Vancouver Short Read Analysis Package. Yes, I'm happy there is a (small) community around it, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Anyhow, at the risk of babbling on too much, what I really wanted to say is that communities are all around us, and we have to seriously consider our impact on them, and the impact they have on us - not to mention how we integrate into them, both in our work and outside. If you can't maximize your ability to motivate them (or their ability to motivate you), then you're at a serious disadvantage. How we balance all of that is an open question, and one I'm still working hard at answering.
I've attached my presentation from this morning, just in case anyone is interested. (I've decorated it with pictures from the South Pacific, in case all of the plain text is too boring to keep you awake.)
Here it is (it's about 7Mb.)
Labels: application development, Bioinformatics, Blog, Code planning, documentation, FindPeaks, rant, Talks, Vancouver Short Read Analysis Package
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