A Life Change for Medha

Medha Devare, our National Outreach Coordinator, has accepted another position which will take her away from VIVO. From Medha:

“Although I am really sad to leave VIVO and the wonderful people associated with it, Cornell, and Ithaca, I will be returning to my first love--international agriculture and development. I am taking on a Scientist position at the International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat (CIMMYT), which is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) of the UN. CIMMYT is one of several such commodity or ecosystem-based centers worldwide. My husband and I will be based in Nepal at one of their regional offices. It is a huge step, but Andy and I did our PhD research in Nepal, and were delighted at the prospect of returning. I'm also pleased to take my little boy back to the general region of the world I grew up in, and also be close to my mother who is 75 now. Despite having been a research physicist and traveling widely, she now has a hard time with cultural differences when she visits us here. I am relieved that I will be able to have her stay with me in Kathmandu without asking her to make sea changes in her understanding of how things work. I have loved working with Jon and the rest of the VIVO team at Cornell—and now beyond Cornell—and want to thank you, Mike, and everyone else for the very supportive, collegial atmosphere that surrounds this project. I wish you all the very best, and will be watching your progress with great interest!”

Medha will continue in her VIVO roles (so many!) through May 15. She and I are discussing how the various outreach activities will continue in the future. All the team work will continue. If you have thoughts about outreach activities or any activity related to getting the word out about VIVO and VIVO’s place in the world of science, please let me know.

Medha is one of the true spirits and leaders of VIVO since its inception. I will miss her greatly. Please join me in expressing our gratitude for her remarkable service.

Release 1 Version 1.0 Available

VIVO celebrates another milestone – the release of version 1.0! This version emphasizes Linked Open Data (http://www.linkeddata.org) – a major technology enabling the National Network of Scientists. Additional improvements include editing enhancements and improving upgrades from previous versions. The teams are also improving the VIVO release and testing processes to ensure a high quality product.

The software is available as open source download at http://vivoweb.org. This is a very “big first” for the VIVO project. We are now an official open source project. Now any school can download VIVO.

In addition to the software, the version 1.0 ontology is available on the web, along with documentation. This is another giant step forward in building community and sustainability around VIVO and the national network.

Additional documentation is also available.

Listening

We gathered quite a bit of feedback from the team members in preparation for the 6-month review. I enjoy unfiltered feedback. Thank you for taking the time to submit your comments and ideas. I know for some of you, a five hour meeting is a long time, so we’ll fine tune the next agenda to make it a better experience for you.

Eight challenges were identified in the 6-month evaluation survey. We made some progress on understanding the bigger picture – I know there is more to do. We started the user scenario effort (see below) to help us gather and structure ideas regarding VIVO features and the future of VIVO and the project. We producing talking points and a “Key FAQ” to address some of the major questions repeatedly asked about VIVO.

There is much more to do to improve communication, balance needs and expectations, understand the ontology, coordinate efforts across the teams, improve our access to data for our implementations, communicate VIVO effectively across the country and improve team and cross-team work. We received several solutions from the team to help address these challenges, and I look forward to improving the project together. Please continue to submit your ideas and constructive criticism. I am happy to report that we lowered the VIVO conference registration fee to $350. A registration fee of $850 was just too high. I hope this lower registration fee means more VIVO team members can attend. This is sure to be an exciting first conference you don’t want to miss!

User Scenario Development

Thanks to the team’s incredible response and creativity, we are well on our way to finalizing the VIVO User Scenarios.
We now have over 100 user scenarios. These will be reviewed and we will add more (!) in the coming week. Look for a message from Elly this week calling for your review and additional ideas.

This week, the emphasis remains on generating new scenarios – do you have more ideas? Or maybe you thought about submitting but didn’t have the chance? Well, now is your chance. Take a look at the scenarios. Ask questions about the scenarios. We want to hear from you. Please send your scenarios, preferably in STAR format, to Elly. Elly will add them to the list.

Please provide your new scenarios and comments to Elly (elly.cramer@cornell.edu) by close of business on Wednesday, April 28.Upcoming VIVO Presentationsh1. Katy Borner and Mike Conlon are both presenting at the Science of Team Science Conference at Northwestern later this week (http://scienceofteamscience.northwestern.edu/). Mike Conlon, Medha Devare, Kristi Holmes and Sara Russell Gonzalez co-authored a poster (miniature version below) for presentation at the conference as well.

Feedback==
Have an idea, question, or comment about VIVO? Pass along your thoughts to your team lead. We are always looking for good ideas!