Carpentry Clippings, 21 November 2017
Highlights from the Software and Data Carpentry Community Calendar
Community News
OpenCon Work on Lat-Am Lessons
Ten people helped translate and tidy up existing translations of Carpentry lessons into Spanish during the Do-A-Thon at this November’s OpenCon in Berlin. The lessons translated so far are here. Fifteen pull requests were merged, the glossary was updated, and the group discussed the gender pronouns to be used in lesson translation. Contributors from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico helped with the work which was led by Paula Martinez (standing, right) and Rayna Harris (standing, left). You can join the Latin American Google Group here.
Workshop in Gabon
The international partnership known as the Central African Biodiversity (CAB) Alliance held a week-long bioinformatics workshop in Franceville, Gabon. One of our South African instructors, Samar Elsheikh, helped teach the workshop, which covered Carpentry materials alongside other topic-related content. Read more.
Apply to Maintain Lessons
Software and Data Carpentry are currently accepting applications to join the lesson Maintainer team. Carpentry Maintainers monitor their lesson repository, make sure that issues and pull requests are addressed in a timely manner, and participate in the lesson development cycle. You are likely to develop these skills, along others. Applications will be accepted until 22 November.
Green Sticky Party - You’re Invited!
When Carpentries staff score a win, we call it a #greensticky. Green stickies can be anything worth celebrating with a ‘Yay!’. Maybe a workshop you taught this year went super well. Or you got a paper published somewhere special. Or maybe you got your Instructor or Trainer badge. If you have good news, we want to hear and cheer about it. For our December 14 community call, we are throwing a Happy Holidays Green Sticky party where members of our community can celebrate all the wins they have had this year. Check local times. See you there!
Subcommittee Activity
Assessment
Kari Jordan provided the notes of the 17 November assessment network meeting which discussed core competencies and how best to assess data science. The next meeting will be in March, 2018. Kari also created some issues on the assessment repository. Interested in joining the discussion? Either respond directly to the issues or join the Google Group.
In April 2017, Data Carpentry began piloting a workshop survey that included skills-based questions. Feedback from instructors indicated that these generated learner anxiety, so they have been removed. After consultation with a focus group, the survey now focuses on measuring learner confidence and motivation to use the tools taught in workshops.
Collecting survey information can be challenging, so we have added email templates to our resources page to help instructors encourage workshop attendees to complete pre- and post-workshop surveys. We welcome feedback from the community about the adjustments we have made. Please submit an issue on the Carpentries assessment repo, or you can tweet us your thoughts using the hashtag #carpentriesassessment.
Infrastructure Committee
Spanish translation of lessons was recently discussed by the infrastructure committee with questions raised about how translated materials will be integrated into the current listings.
Mentoring Program
Kari Jordan held an online meeting on 9 November to brief volunteer mentors on how the mentorship program will run. There is lots of useful information on the etherpad, so if you are a mentor in this round, and couldn’t make the call, please check it out. Also have a look at the GitHub repo of resources provided for mentors.
Mentoring Co-Chair needed
A Mentoring Subcommittee co-chair position has recently become vacant. Co-chairs host monthly meetings of the committee, facilitate opportunities for building connections across our community to better serve our instructors, and manage the weekly instructor discussion sessions hosted on this etherpad. The commitment averages around 1.5 hours/week for what will be a year-long position (December 2017- December 2018).
To nominate, please fill out this short form by 4 December. The current mentoring subcommittee co-chairs will select a new co-chair from the applicant pool with input from the Carpentries staff liaison, and other members of the Carpentries community. Read more about the benefits of this role on our blog.
What you may have missed on the blog and mailing lists
Video Calls a Favorite Tool
Rayna Harris has nominated videoconferencing as the tool that has most boosted her research and networking over the years. By coincidence, we have recently posted some tips for making online meetings more effective. In other posts in the ‘My Favorite Tool’ series, RStudio has been nominated by Clifton Franklund and a strong case for using Emacs made by Francesco Montanari. Nominate your favorite tool and we will turn it into a blog post for you.
Steering Committee - Still Time to Nominate
There is still time to nominate for the 2018 Steering Committee of the new, merged Carpentries. Nominations close 1 December. Seven nominations have come in so far from Martin Callaghan, Auriel Fournier, Amy Hodge, Lex Nederbragt, Raniere Silva, Juan Steyn, and Elizabeth Wickes. Not sure if you are eligible to stand? To vote? Check out the logistics.
Highlights from Discuss
Other places to connect
If you can't get enough Software and Data Carpentry, here are some other places to connect with our community.
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