September 6, 2016

Now Announcing the OpenWorm Open House

OpenWorm Browser. Courtesy Christian Grove, WormBase and Caltech.

About two years ago, I announced the start of the DevoWorm project to the OpenWorm community. Now both OpenWorm and DevoWorm have grown up a bit, with the former (OpenWorm) now being a Foundation and the latter (DevoWorm) resulting in multiple publications. Now we will be celebrating all of the projects that make up the OpenWorm Foundation in an Open House format, taking place in cyberspace and tentatively scheduled for October.

Image courtesy Matteo Farinella: http://matteofarinella.com/Open-Worm. These posters are the outcome of an OpenWorm Kickstarter campaign several years ago.

The details of the schedule are still being worked out, but the format is to include both short, 5-minute talks (Ignite-style) and longer tutorials (45-60 minutes, plus questions). The short talks will highlight the various ongoing projects within OpenWorm, while the tutorials will focus on specific methods or procedures employed by the projects. If you happen to be a project leader or major contributor, I have probably already asked you for content. Interested in either contributing content or attending? Please let me know

Dr. Stephen Larson (pre-PhD), discussing the connection between Lt. Data and C. elegans at Ignite San Diego.

I have also been involved in committee work for the OpenWorm foundation. One of the initiatives we are in the process of establishing is the OpenWorm badge system, which is being spearheaded by Dr. Chee-Wai Lee. Currently trendy in the online learning world, this is an experiment in open learning that provides micro-credentials to a global community. Badges are a great way to learn new skills, as well as a means to motivate people's contributions to different projects within OpenWorm. Currently, OpenWorm is offering tutorials on the Hodgkin-Huxley model, the Muscle Model builder, and the Muscle Model explorer. If there are any tutorials you would like to see us offer, or if you think there is a need for a particular skill to be highlighted, please let me know.

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