2024-09-04 - these were agreed and the page was made public.
Conference was good. Angela is compiling feedback and will circulate when that is done. Angela to contact Christina for the financial report of this year's conference
Main focus is on new release of dsBase. There was a problem with the last DSI so needed to wait for that, so going to be a new dsBase testing soon. New version will be 6.3.1 - bug fixes only. Version 6.4 github branch has been created and people have started to contribute. Have been looking at getting into CRAN: the problem was a fairly complicated testing process which was beyond what CRAN could manage. dsBaseClient is likely to be more complicated... However, this requires a server-client architecture for testing, which is beyond what CRAN can provide. Looking at using DSLite to help mitigate this.
dsTidyVerse is separate - and is now in CRAN.
Looking at getting code coverage testing again
Trying to produce something to do with some report of process for certification of projects
Drop-in sessions have not picked up again after the conference. Need to figure out how to make them more enticing/helpful to them. One thought is that people are in steady-state of using DataSHIELD at the moment
Suggestions in the past for drop-in sessions:
In summary: any ideas for revitalising the drop-in sessions? Maybe having a theme for each session... Also maybe trying to move it around - are Wednesday mornings just not suitable for people? Could alternate mornings/afternoons.
dsTidyVerse is the big update - is now released and is on CRAN.
However, is not yet added to a project profile.
Theme meetings are restarting this week.
New version of Armadillo 4.11.1 has been released
Opal 5 is also available. This is being used for the dsBase testing.
Have found some weird behaviours in both softwares that can be improved in terms of performance so currently working on this.
Engagement in the Theme could be better,,,,
Meeting last Monday, discussed the following:
Meeting earlier this week. Various bits of work ongoing....
Several members not responded to emails/communications for a really long time:
Agreed we would try to contact the following and give them a 10 day warning about being removed:
Morris advised that we can removed Christian Hillbrands straight away as he has moved to another department and won't be working with DataSHIELD again.
The risk response policy was approved at conference this year. Now we (the SC) need to appoint a Risk Response Lead.
Post to be made in the forum asking for volunteers.
This lead to a discussion about email/DNS. If we can point the DNS appropriately, then there is a mailserver that can be used to provide aliases run by a group Andrei has connections with.
This is being discussed in Governance Theme as stated at Conference. The Theme has been preparing a page with some background info and research about this.
Simon had some additional tips about a German possibility: something called a 'gUG':
a gUG (provisional limited liability company: Unernehmergesellschaft = UG, gUG is just the non-profit version of that) does not have financial burden at start-up but 25% of finances (profits) go aside until you've collected enough to have a gGmbH.
In the UK, Stuart found out the most interesting equivalent organisation would be a community interest corporation - company's house have some good information about this.
Current thinking is that a Dutch 'Stichting' would be the most suitable format to use... More information will be on the Governance Theme page when that is prepared.
Noted some minor amendments to make for the Constitution:
Will be added to relevant wiki page...
New Theme Lead: Tim Cadman has replaced Juan Ramon Gonzales.
It's suggested that Juan becomes an observer and Tim comes onto SC given he's now the Theme Lead.
Andrei will contact Juan about this.
Two successful workshops at the conference: beginners and advanced users.
Feedback: is coming from Angela
Question: Is this focussed on the research being done by Liverpool, or on the community overall?
It's not clear at the moment what the purpose of the website is - a lot of (all) the work on the site has been done by Becca. The impression of Angela and Andrei is that it's a community website. However, others were less sure and have been surprised by unexpected changes - people were depending on the website and had numerous links to pages then these all disappeared without any warning: for example, people had been linking through to profile descriptions but they're not on the new website at all. It was suggested that website should be run by the Communications Theme so that it is a true community website.
Need to clarify purpose of the www.datashield.org website.
NB, we can also try to recuperate any old data that wasn't saved from versions archived on the Wayback Machine at https://archive.org
Make it more accessible to people to get involved / an account
Andrei said he will update something about this.
Going well, although attendance dropping off
Still have regular meetings
Could do a more seminar like thing once every X months, where people give a presentation on what's going on in their part of the eco-system
Have a meeting come up.
Meeting is next week - focus on terms of reference - would like people to contribute ideas for funding etc
Chase up members for bios
None.
Andrei will contact Juan and Tim about Education Theme Lead / position on SC.
Non-responding Voting Members to be contacted as follows:
Angela will finish collating conference feedback and is organising meeting with next year's convenors
Stuart and Morris will discuss drop-in sessions and technical theme meetings in Tech Core Group meeting this Friday.
Andrei will update requirements for the constitution
Paula will ask Becca to clarify purpose of website.
Paula will send around a doodle for some dates when Becca is free in January.