Organization team (so far)

• Gary Bader
• Chris Workman
• Francis Ouellette

2008 retreat theme: community outreach - developers and users

Logistics

• Retreat will be held July 16-19
• Location: Toronto, CCBR building, University of Toronto
• Main room: Red Room - capacity:~90 people (max 100 if needed)
• Breakout room 1/lunch room: Black Room - capacity:~20 people + conference table
• Breakout room 2: 6th floor conference room - capacity: ~20 people + conference table

Schedule DRAFT

Technical session

• July 15 (Tuesday)
  • Pre-meeting core developer Cytoscape 3.0 design discussions (if necessary)
  • Social event in evening for early arrivals (A)
• July 16 (Wednesday)
  • Audience: Mainly Cytoscape software developers
  • Technical brainstorm, software design session
  • Dinner event (B)

User session

• July 17 (Thursday)
  • Audience: All Cytoscape users and developers
  • Application showcase day.
    • Developers will showcase interesting new features they are building for Cytoscape
    • Users will present interesting new uses of Cytoscape
  • User community dinner (C)
• July 18 (Friday)
  • Audience: All Cytoscape users and developers
  • User tutorial (morning parallel session)
  • Developer tutorials (morning parallel session)
  • User brainstorm and user meeting
    • Identify usability issues, request new features
  • Wine and cheese (D)
  • Social event e.g. city tour, museum (E)
• July 19 (Saturday)
  • Audience: Users and developers interested in Cytoscape development
  • Feature prioritization for Cytoscape 3.0.
    • Expect lots of technical discussion.
  • Dinner on own (core developer dinner event) (F)

TODO

• Finalize CCBR room booking (done)
• Decide on registration fee (free for students) and set up eventbrite.
  • Proposal: $75
• Advertise retreat dates
• Develop funding request package and approach potential funders
• Create schedule
  • Cytoscape 3.0 design discussions
  • Application/plugin showcase day
  • User/developer tutorial
• Get information about meals
• Plan social events
• Wireless internet access in all rooms
• Submit demo and BOF request to ISMB organizers
  • BOF: Network and pathway visualization and analysis
• Solicit showcase day presentations - enough material to create abstract book online

Survey results

• 31 respondents
• Dates favored for the event:
  • 73% July 16-19
  • 30% July 23-26
  • 20% July 19-22
• Event content requests:
  • 87% requested an application/plugin showcase day
  • 74% user discussion sessions to identify and prioritize desired Cytoscape features
  • 71% developer tutorials
  • 58% social activities for community building
  • 36% user tutorial part of ISMB
  • 19% user tutorial not part of ISMB
• Respondent comments:
  • Prioritization after application showcase day;
  • Discuss systems for profiling usage patterns and collecting user feedback;
  • BOF discussion at ISMB in addition to retreat;
  • One core developer discussion day not public;
  • Formal usability studies;
  • Usage showcase - more than a basic tutorial, presenting a complete workflow and not by plugin developers;
  • cyto3.0 design discussions;
  • Code sprints to focus development on needed areas;
  • Would be nice if developer events were contiguous instead of being split around the application showcase