BOSC 2017

The 18th Annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC 2017) will take place July 22-23, 2017 in Prague as part of the new combined ISMB/ECCB meeting to be held July 21-25, 2017.

Overview

The Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC) is organized by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF), a non-profit group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of open source software development and open science within the biological research community. Since its inception in 2000, BOSC has provided a forum for developers and users to interact and share research results and ideas in open source bioinformatics. BOSC’s broad spectrum of topics includes practical techniques for solving bioinformatics problems; software development practices; standards and ontologies; approaches that promote open science and sharing of data, results and software; and ways to grow open source communities while promoting diversity within them.

We also organize a Codefest, a two-day community development session, usually just before or after BOSC. This is an opportunity for anyone interested in open science, biology and programming to meet, discuss and work collaboratively. Everyone is welcome to attend Codefest 2017 (whether or not you attend BOSC).

Please spread the word about BOSC--all are welcome. On Twitter, follow @OBF_BOSC and use hash tag #bosc2017.

Important Dates

Note this year all the SIG/COSI meetings at ISMB/ECCB are trying to use consistent abstract deadlines dates, and these have yet to be confirmed.

• April 3, 2017: ISMB/ECCB online registration opens (see notes below)
• April 13, 2017: Deadline for submitting abstracts for full talks (there will be a later deadline for late-breaking lightning talks and posters)
• April 15, 2017: Deadline for applying for OBF travel fellowship
• July 20-21, 2017: Codefest 2017, Brmlab, Prague (a non-profit, community-run hackerspace)
• July 21-25: Combined ISMB/ECCB meeting
• July 22-23, 2017: BOSC 2017, Prague

Session Topics

We welcome submissions relating to all aspects of bioinformatics and open science software, including (but not limited to):

• Open Science and Reproducible Research
• Open Biomedical Data
• Citizen/Participatory Science
• Standards and Interoperability
• Data Science
• Workflows
• Visualization
• Medical and Translational Bioinformatics
• Developer Tools and Libraries
• Bioinformatics Open Source Project Progress Reports
• PANEL: Open Data--Standards, Opportunities and Challenges

Keynote Speakers

This year's keynote speakers will be Dawn Field (Göteborg University), known for her work on open data and interoperability, and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham), a vocal proponent of open genomic data in healthcare who heads the Zibra project.

More information about BOSC 2017 Keynote Speakers

Registration

BOSC 2017 registration is via ISMB/ECCB 2017. In the past, BOSC has taken place the two days before ISMB as a Special Interest Group (SIG). This year, ISMB is trying a new structure: the SIGs (now called Communities of Special Interest, or COSIs) are integrated into the main ISMB meeting. BOSC will take place the first two full days of ISMB (July 22-23). Attendees will have the option to register for the full ISMB/ECCB meeting (July 21-25) or for just two days (there is no single-day registration option this year). Note that the pricing structure is designed to encourage participants to join ISCB, as this saves you money overall.

If you choose the July 22-23 option, this will include BOSC (as well as allowing you to move freely between the other COSIs that are scheduled for those two days) and also the opening ISMB reception and keynote the evening of July 21.

Sponsors

BOSC is organised by the Open Bioinformatics Foundation, a non-profit, volunteer-run group dedicated to promoting the practice and philosophy of Open Source software development and Open Science within the biological research community.

We gratefully accept sponsorships from relevant private companies. These sponsorships enable us to offer free registration to some BOSC speakers to help increase diversity at our meeting.

If you would like to be a sponsor of BOSC, please contact us at bosc@open-bio.org.

Organizing Committee

Chair

• Nomi L. Harris (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Members

• Brad Chapman (Biopython developer; Harvard School of Public Health)
• Peter Cock (Biopython developer; James Hutton Institute)
• Christopher Fields (National Center for Supercomputing Applications)
• Bastian Greshake (OpenSNP)
• Karsten Hokamp (Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
• Hilmar Lapp (Center for Genomic and Computational Biology (GCB), Duke University)
• Mónica Muñoz-Torres (Berkeley Bioinformatics Open Source Projects)
• Heather Wiencko (PlusVital)

Previous BOSCs

• BOSC has been held yearly since 2000.
• BOSC 2016 took place July 8-9, 2016 in Orlando, Florida, right before ISMB 2016.
  • Check out the complete schedule with links to slides, posters and videos - mostly on our F1000 Research BOSC Channel, with the videos on the BOSC YouTube.
  • Read the BOSC 2016 Summary Report, also on F1000.
• Information about the first 17 BOSC conferences

Contact Us

• Follow BOSC on Twitter: @OBF_BOSC, #bosc2017
• If you'd like to join the mailing list for BOSC-related announcements, including the call for abstracts and deadline reminders, please subscribe to bosc-announce. This list has low traffic, and your address will be kept private.
• If you have questions about the conference, or would like to volunteer to help out, please contact the organizers at bosc@open-bio.org.

ISMB Code of Conduct

In March 2015, ISMB published a Code of Conduct that applies to SIGs (including BOSC) as well as the main ISMB/ECCB meeting.