NWB Workshops and Hackathons
Welcome to the 2022 NWB Docathon!
- Survey
- Dates and Location
- Overview
- Registration
- Logistics
- Organizing Committee
- Resources
- How to prepare?
- Projects
- Objective
- Agenda
- Code of Conduct
Survey
Let us know about your experience with the NWB documentation and on how we can improve your experience with NWB by completing the NWB Documentation Survey. Please complete the survey even if you are unable to participate in the Docathon. The survey is a great way to give back by helping us better understand your experience with the NWB documentation.
Dates and Location
- Dates: March 10-11, 2022
- Location: Anywhere with an internet connection
Overview
The workshop will focus primarily on improving documentation and tutorials for the NWB APIs, schema, and community tools that use NWB.
Registration
Please complete the registration form to attend the event.
In addition, please also consider participating in the NWB Documentation Survey to help us prepare for the event and help us improve our documentation.
Logistics
We will be using the Gather spatial chat platform for most of the meeting. We will be using the Zoom videoconferencing platform for the breakout sessions. We will send an email in the week before the workshop with the meeting links.
Gather Platform
In Gather, you control a video-game-like avatar with your arrow keys. When your avatar is near another attendee’s avatar, their video will appear and you will be able to speak with them. This platform allows for many small-group or one-on-one conversations to occur simultaneously and spontaneously. We hope that Gather will emulate the free-flowing social interactions of an in-person hackathon better than having everyone in a single Zoom meeting or messaging over Slack.
We have a few tips for using Gather, especially if it is your first time:
- Sign in to the space before the meeting and practice using the controls.
- Use a desktop/laptop computer, not a mobile device. Chrome seems to works best. The desktop app also works.
- This is not a 20+ person Zoom call. You can “walk” up to different people and communicate with only the people within a few tiles from your avatar.
- Shaded areas are “private spaces” - only people inside the private space can see and hear you. There are private spaces for each breakout room, each table/desk, and the main stage area.
- While you are hacking, we recommend that you keep Gather open in the background with your speakers/audio on, so that others can more easily reach you. This will help us better emulate an in-person hackathon where everyone is approachable. Feel free to mute yourself and turn off your video when you are not interacting with anyone.
- Click on a name in the People panel (bottom-left button) to send them a message or locate them.
- We recommend that you keep the Chat panel on the left open in case someone messages you.
- If you are leaving your computer for a prolonged period, please close the browser to make your avatar leave the space.
- You can click the arrow icon in the top right of the video feed to make everyone’s videos bigger. You can also click your name at the bottom of the screen, User/Video preferences, and Use HD Video Quality for better video.
Zoom Platform
It is possible to use Zoom from the browser, but we recommend you install the Zoom app on your computer. See installation instructions here.
Organizing Committee
Program chairs: Oliver Ruebel, Benjamin Dichter, Ryan Ly, and Matthew Avaylon
Additional organizational support is provided by the Kavli Foundation.
Resources
Recorded talks will be uploaded after the talks are given.
How to prepare?
Install the Python or MATLAB software for NWB:
- PyNWB (Python): https://pynwb.readthedocs.io/en/stable/install_users.html
- MatNWB (MATLAB): https://neurodatawithoutborders.github.io/matnwb/#setup
Projects
During the event, attendees will
Please create a project page with a description of the goals of your project. See the instructions here to create a project page. We will use these pages to connect people who are working on similar projects (e.g. converting data from the same acquisition system) and follow your progress.
Projects
The list below provides an overview of workshop projects that a participant has signed up to contribute to. If you are attending the workshop and are interested in participating in any of the existing projects, then please contact the team listed on the project page.
Objective
The Neurodata Without Borders project (NWB, https://www.nwb.org/) is an effort to standardize the description and storage of neurophysiology data and metadata. NWB enables data sharing and reuse and reduces the energy barrier to applying data analysis both within and across labs. Several laboratories, including the Allen Institute for Brain Science, have wholeheartedly adopted NWB. The community needs to join forces to achieve data standardization in neurophysiology.
The purpose of the NWB Docathon to bring users and developers of the experimental neurophysiology community together to improve documentation and tutorials for the NWB APIs, schema, and community tools that use NWB.
Agenda
All times are in Pacific Standard Time (PST; UTC-8)
All breakout sessions will be held in Room 1 of the Gather space unless noted otherwise.
| Day 1 | Thursday, March 10 | |
|---|---|---|
| 8:50 - 9am |
 Log in to Gather, learn controls, and explore the space |
|
| 9 - 9:15am |
 Welcome and Overiew (Main Stage) |
|
| 9:15 - 9:30am |
 Project presentations (2-3 min presentation each) (Main Stage)
|
|
| 9:30 - 10:00am |
 Breakout: NWB Documention Gap Analysis
|
 Open Hacking
|
| 10:00 - 10:30am |
Breakout: NWB Documentation Organization
|
|
| 10:30 - 3pm |
|
|
| Day 1 | Thursday, March 10 | |
|---|---|---|
| 8:50 - 9am |
Log in to Gather, learn controls, and explore the space |
|
| 9 - 9:20am |
Morning SCRUM (Main Stage) |
|
| 9:20 - 2pm |
Open Hacking
|
|
| 2:00 - 3pm | Closing Disussions (Review progress and future needs) | |
Code of Conduct
We are dedicated to providing a harassment-free event experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks. event participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event without a refund at the discretion of the event organizers.
Harassment includes, but is not limited to:
Verbal comments that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age or religion. Sexual images in public spaces Deliberate intimidation, stalking, or following Harassing photography or recording Sustained disruption of talks or other events Inappropriate physical contact Unwelcome sexual attention Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behaviour Enforcement Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately.
Organizers and presenters are also subject to the anti-harassment policy. In particular, they should not use sexualized images, activities, or other material.
Event organisers may take action to redress anything designed to, or with the clear impact of, disrupting the event or making the environment hostile for any participants.
If a participant engages in harassing behaviour, event organisers have the responsibility to remind the offender about our Code of Conduct, and warn them that repeated inappropriate, uncivil, threatening, offensive, or harmful behavior can lead to a temporary or permanent ban from the event with no refund. The offending person(s) may also see affected their participation in future NWB and DANDI events.
We expect participants to follow these rules at all event venues and event-related social activities. We think people should follow these rules outside event activities too!
Reporting
If someone makes you or anyone else feel unsafe or unwelcome, please report it as soon as possible to the events organizers. Harassment and other code of conduct violations reduce the value of our event for everyone. We want you to be happy at our event. People like you make our event a better place.
You can make a report either with your personal email or using an anonymous email.
NWB Contributor Code of Conduct
When directly contributing to the NWB project, contributors are expected to follow the NWB Contributor Code of Conduct
Credit
This hackathon code of conduct is adapted from the Brainhack Code of Conduct.
Disclaimer
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