01 Call Digest [ 2022-noaa-swfsc-pifsc-fall ]

[stefaniebutland]

Hi All,

Thanks for a great first session! We introduced a lot of concepts and we LOVED your enthusiasm for contributing to our Agenda Google doc with your reflections and recognizing shared perspectives; we are excited to explore them more together in the next sessions. Below is a light digest of Call 01, including a reminder about your Seaside Chat to think through your Pathway trailhead.

Many folks are wondering about teams. They are meant primarily to be peer-learning groups and reinforce that you're not alone. We've added a note from Eli Holmes (NWFSC) at the bottom of the Digest to help folks think through this.

We have a variety of coworking opportunities to help you think through your Pathways and connect with and work alongside your peers in your own Cohort and across all four Fall NMFS Cohorts. Right now, that might feel like too many calendar and chat forum invites; these are optional and we hope you'll join the ones that help you get your own work done. For us, coworking involves doing our own work at the same time together with opportunities to check in, and sometimes screenshare to get feedback or solve a problem. Seeing how other people work is a big part of this transition to working more openly and collaboratively.

Have a good week,

Stef, Julie, Amanda, Kevin, Juliette

Digest: Cohort Call 01 [ 2022-noaa-swfsc-pifsc-fall ]

Cohort Google Drive folder - contains agendas, video recordings, slides, pathways folder

openscapes.github.io/2022-noaa-swfsc-pifsc-fall - cohort webpage

 

Goals: We started working towards a common understanding of the Openscapes mindset and what your pathway forward looks like for your team.

Task: please see the Agenda doc (under Closing) for more details

1. Have a Seaside Chat & start your Pathway

2. Create GitHub usernames - NOAA guidance: from NMFS FIT, NMFS R UG. Add your username to Participants Spreadsheet (don't color the cell; we do that).

3. (optional) Say hello in SWFSC-PIFSC Google Space / join Openscapes Slack (we'll send you an invite; orientation details below)

4. (optional) Attend Coworking

   1. With our Cohort; we've sent a calendar invite for Wed Oct 12, 1:00 - 2:00 pm PT. Come prepared to get your own work done, ask questions, or listen in to other conversations and screensharing.

   2. Cross-cohort, led by  Eli Holmes (NWFSC); we've sent a calendar invite for Tues Oct 11, 1:00 - 2:30 pm PT. Don't know where to start with a Pathway? Come to this session and talk it out with your peers. Eli's intro will be recorded and put in our Cohort Folder.

Slide Decks:

• Openscapes mindset (slides)

• Story, Seaside Chats, Pathways aka "Better science in less time" (slides)*Note that these slides have been iterated from your questions throughout the week

 

A few lines from shared notes in the Agenda doc, excerpted from all 4 NMFS Cohorts:

What are you already doing that aligns with the Openscapes Mindset?

• Work & philosophy of work aligns with openscapes but I'm not using formal pathways like Git, etc so looking forward to it +1

• Going forward, I am trying to "open" up everything that I am doing, even in small ways. I am trying to be better (and braver) about asking for help and being vulnerable about all that I don't know (so hard). 

• I am on Twitter with the sole purpose of following Rusers for info on how they use packages, new tips/tricks they've figured out, and borrowing other people's open code for cool visualizations +1+1

• I start each project assuming I am going to learn something (about programming, code sharing, data analysis) that I didn't know before.

• I am working toward collaborating and sharing with colleagues, so the idea is there but not quite where I would like it to be +1 +1 +1 +1+1+1

• Automating creation of repetitive analyses and reports with inputs from area leads to save our whole team time +8! 🦖 🥳

What goals do you have for streamlining data workflows and collaboration?

• Less guilt about vacations disrupting entire team's progress... +1+1

• The project I've just joined is already using Git, R, and Quarto; I have no experience in any of these, so I've got some learning to do! +1 +1 +1

• Big shift in mindset to be "open" about what I don't know how to do, talking with team members about this

• Minor thing that is a big pain point: need to work with csv (version control) and don't have good way to work with them. Excel alters them in destructive ways. Csv file doesn't come with versioning. Fine if it were only me using the files but team uses them. Solving this seemingly minor thing would be actually be a big plus.

Discuss your space and place

• dealing with old, handwritten data sources and are in the process of converting to a modern data storage framework.  one of the challenges is in how to catalog/store imagery

• We shouldn't assume everyone is R-centric; some folks use Python (GIS, oceanography) so languages can be 'cultural' - make sure we're working on solutions that have applicability across languages +1

•  We already use github and put our code publicly in repositories. However, we all use github in different ways and not everyone uses the same subset of tools on github (plus, github is always changing, so it's a lot to keep up with)! This makes it easy to share work with others and be more "community taught" rather than "self taught" +1 🦖

•  I'm also aware its not a great system. Folks have left, another person coming. Regional network office drive, but can't connect w Science Center Drive. "Bus Factor" - stressful. What happens if I wasn't here\

<end of Digest>

Team formation time!

Your Openscapes team is a "peer group" where you can talk about your Pathway (as it relates to your data/analysis/communication cycle) together. Some Openscapes teams are centered around a particular product (e.g. CCIEA or Salmonid Status Reviews) but others are more high-level (data-wrangling or Rmarkdown/Quarto reports or how to develop a lab/team onboarding/offboarding manual).

Now that we have had our first session, it is time to find your "peer learning" group for fall. You'll have 4 Seaside Chats together to talk about Pathways during Openscapes. Pathways = what are we/I doing now?, where do I want to get to? what can I do to go in that direction? You'll develop this over the next 10 weeks. Some teams/individuals will use the next 10 weeks to also connect and make progress on a specific task or goal. That's up to you. This is your space/time to reflect and work on whatever is meaningful to you.

You can use your Cohort Google Space or Openscapes Slack to pitch ideas! Don't be shy. Everyone self-selected to be here and has similar interest in Open Science, reproducibility tools, etc. You'll find some peers with similar interests. We've created a Team Formation tab in our Participants Spreadsheet; please share about your teams/interests as they form.

Slack orientation

You'll soon receive an email-invitation to join Openscapes Slack as a way to connect with other Openscapes Champions. You will automatically land in several channels plus a private nmfs-champions channel that includes people from all 4 NMFS Fall 2022 Cohorts. People are invariably friendly and open to asking and answering questions. You should be able to get a feel for how things work by "listening" to the discussions. 

New to Slack? See Getting started for new members and Quick start guide.

The #welcome channel is a place for new members to introduce themselves and for the rest of us to help them feel welcome by adding an emoji or saying "I work on sea turtles too!". Short read on The Value of #Welcome.