Kate Hertweck on The Carpentries

New book: Research Software Engineering with Python

Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Note: This blog post was updated in April 2024 to link to a new version of this book. The corresponding R version is no longer available.

A big part of the Carpentries success is the two-day workshop format, but that hasn’t stopped countless instructors over the years speculating about the great things we could teach if only we had more time. With an entire semester, for instance, you could take researchers through the entire lifecycle of a data analysis project, from the initial setup and code development through to a fully automated data processing pipeline and published software package. A small group of us decided to act on that speculation a few years ago, and set about writing Research Software Engineering with Python. It effectively represents our attempt at lesson materials for a Software Carpentry workshop that runs for the duration of a university semester course.

Announcing the 2020 Executive Council for The Carpentries

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce the results of the community and council elections for the 2020 Executive Council, which will assume responsibility of governance from the current Executive Council in February 2020.

Incoming community-elected members

Seven candidates stood for the community election held during the first week of December. Out of the 1248 ballots distributed to Voting Members, 419 ballots were cast (33.6% turnout). The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes and joining the Executive Council for two-year terms as community-elected Members are:

Election for the 2020 Executive Council

Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The election for Community-Elected members of the 2020 Executive Council is now open, and will close on Friday, December 6 Anywhere on Earth. If you are a Voting Member, you should receive an email with a ballot and voting instructions from The Carpentries via ElectionBuddy by the end of the day on Monday, December 2. For more information on the Executive Council and election process, please see the bylaws and this blog post. If you have questions or concerns about the election process, please contact Kate Hertweck at k8hertweck@gmail.com.

Announcing the 2019 Executive Council for The Carpentries

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Executive Council elections have concluded! Thanks to everyone who participated in the election as a candidate or voter. The Executive Council is the governance of The Carpentries, and we are fortunate to have so many people engaged in our community governance.. A summary of the results for both community-elected and council-elected seats are described below.

Incoming community-elected members

Out of the 981 ballots distributed to Voting Members, 247 ballots were cast (25% turnout).

Election for The Carpentries’ Vision and 2019 Executive Council

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Carpentries will hold an election from December 3-7 for both the 2019 Executive Council as well as The Carpentries’ vision.

The Carpentries Executive Council is hosting two Community Calls this week (on Thursday/Friday depending on your time zone) to discuss the election. Two sessions will be held to accommodate our global community. Connection details are in the etherpad; please sign in if you plan to attend. These community calls will provide an opportunity to ask questions about community governance and the election process, as well as learn more about the candidates for the community-elected Executive Council positions.

Help Shape the Governance of Our Community

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, the Executive Council announced an RFC for bylaws for The Carpentries. Bylaws traditionally describe the rules and regulations used to run an organization. As a fiscally sponsored organization, The Carpentries is not required to have formal (legally binding) bylaws. As an organization that is community-driven, though, these bylaws are important for describing the role of the community in governing and guiding the strategic direction of The Carpentries. We have tried to use plain language, rather than legal jargon, to make the document accessible for our diverse community members, while still attempting to provide clear expectations associated with the structure and governance of The Carpentries.

Mission, Vision, and Bylaws for the Carpentries

Mon, 16 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Following our in-person meeting in June, the Executive Council has been working on revising and solidifying the mission, vision, and bylaws for The Carpentries. These three pieces of writing represent the core values and goals of The Carpentries and the manner in which the organization is structured and led by both community and staff. We hope to reflect and honor both the cultures of Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry, as well as the larger, more diverse community which continues to develop.

Our 2017 Community Service Award winner: Anelda van der Walt

Wed, 13 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

The Carpentries are happy to honor Anelda van der Walt as our 2017 Community Service Award winner. We received seven independent nominations for Anelda this year, which is a testament to her commitment to both individual people and the broader community.

Starting from scratch, Anelda planted the tiny seed that has now become the phenomenal growth of Software and Data Carpentry in South Africa, not to mention its spread to an ever-growing list of other African countries, such as Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Gabon, Mauritius, and Ethiopia.

Our 2017 Community Service Award winner: Anelda van der Walt

Wed, 13 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Announcing the 2018 Executive Council for the Carpentries

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

Voting in the election for community governance of the Carpentries (Executive Council, formerly named Steering Committee or Board of Directors) closed last week. Out of the 501 members eligible for voting, 147 ballots were cast (29% turnout).

We are pleased to announce the four newly elected members of the Executive Council:

Raniere and Lex received the highest number of votes and will serve two year terms; Amy and Elizabeth will serve one year terms.

Announcing the 2018 Executive Council for the Carpentries

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We are pleased to announce the four newly elected members of the Executive Council:

Raniere and Lex received the highest number of votes and will serve two year terms; Amy and Elizabeth will serve one year terms.

RFCs and lessons learned

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Thanks to everyone for sharing questions and comments on our recent Request for Comments regarding the upcoming merger of Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry. Now that the official response period for the RFCs has ended, the GitHub issues specific to the RFCs will be closed. We received comments from individuals across our community representing multiple stakeholders, including the Software Carpentry Advisory Council (representing member organizations) and the community at large (through the GitHub repository, private comments via the Google Form, and personal communication). Those of us working on the merger have been actively considering and discussing this valuable feedback and have been identifying areas requiring additional attention and clarification. We will be publishing blog posts over the next few weeks summarizing our thoughts and identifying future actions for each of the RFCs. You are welcome to continue communicating your questions or concerns to us through new issues in the GitHub repo. Below we describe the context behind a few themes and issues emerging from the RFC discussions which may not be immediately apparent but have factored heavily into our approach.

Request for Comment: Share your thoughts on the future of The Carpentries

Tue, 19 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We are now requesting comments on plans related to The Carpentries!

A blog post last week provided history and some context behind the planning still in progress for the eventual merger of Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry into a unified organization, tentatively called The Carpentries. An outline of the planned structure, roles, and responsibilities of The Carpentries is now available, and we request your feedback through a series of Requests for Comment and related GitHub issues by October 6, 2017.

Request for Comment: Share your thoughts on the future of The Carpentries

Tue, 19 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

We are now requesting comments on plans related to The Carpentries!

Publishing our lessons, Version 2017.08

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We are pleased to announce the latest publication of Software Carpentry lesson materials, from release Version 2017.08. Although most of our lessons are fairly mature, we had
almost 100 new contributors. We have used this opportunity to improve the process through which lessons are released, some parts of which were previewed in this blog post. This release includes linked ORCID identifiers (visible on the Zenodo page next to the author’s name) and has allowed for individuals to opt-out as contributors. You can learn about the release process on GitHub, and can view this and previous archived versions on the release page.

Credit for lesson contributors

Sun, 16 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

In 2016, Software Carpentry instituted a twice-yearly release schedule for our lessons (see here for previous releases). Lesson releases, representing a snapshot in time of the material’s development, are published through Zenodo and given a DOI for citation purposes. Releases serve a few purposes, primarily to provide a trackable record of the development of our materials and to allow attribution to community members who contribute to lessons. The lesson maintainers are included as editors, while all other contributors who have made changes (as tracked through GitHub) are represented as authors.

Steering Committee composition and operations

Sun, 25 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

You've hopefully seen [Belinda Weaver's post](https://software-carpentry.org/blog/2017/06/weaver_cdl.html) announcing her hire as Community Development Lead for Software and Data Carpentry, which also mentioned her stepping down from the Steering Committee. This means we (the Steering Committee) will continue our term of service with only six members. We are confident in our ability to continue our operations as normal despite this change. Thanks to Belinda for her service on the committee over the last year and a half, and we're looking forward to interacting with her in this new capacity.

Timeline for the Data Carpentry & Software Carpentry Reorganization

Sat, 17 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On Jun 8 & 9, we met in-person to continue discussing how to proceed with the merger of the Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry organizations to best achieve our strategic goals and serve our communities. We are happy to report that is was a very productive meeting.

We spent most of the meeting discussing the structure of the future organizational leadership. We have drafted a number of motions that we will present to our respective steering committees for approval at our next meetings. Among the motions, we will propose that the combined Carpentries governing structure be made up of both appointed and elected members. Additionally, we propose that it is in the best interest of the organization to seed the future steering committee with bylaws, which will be enumerated, written, and approved in the coming months.

Timeline for the the Data Carpentry & Software Carpentry Reorganization

Sat, 17 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

Summary of May Community Call: Restructuring the Carpentries

Fri, 19 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Thanks to those of you who attended the May Community Calls, the topic of which was restructuring of Software Carpentry (SWC) and Data Carpentry (DC) into a single unified (umbrella) organization, with SWC and DC continuing as lesson organizations within the umbrella.

As the Chair of the SWC Steering Committee, I am one of the representatives from each organization tasked with developing a plan of action for how the restructuring will proceed over the next ca. six months. I am gratified by how much our community cares about its future, and what we (as community) believe is important to target as we proceed in planning. The following items highlight major discussion points synthesized from both community calls, and a complete set of notes is available on the etherpad.

May Community Call: Restructuring the Carpentries

Sun, 14 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Software Carpentry Steering Committee (SWC SC) announced back in February that we were initiating discussion with Data Carpentry about potentially merging into a single organization. Members from the SWC SC and the Data Carpentry Board have been meeting regularly since then, identifying the advantages and logistical challenges associated with a restructured organization. More recently, we passed a motion approving the following structure: “A Carpentry umbrella organization and a set of Lesson Carpentries. The umbrella organization is primarily responsible for finances, administration, and facilitating policy. Each Lesson Carpentry is primarily responsible for lesson development and maintenance.”

Software tools for unix shell: Survey and April community call

Fri, 14 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Software Carpentry Code of Conduct includes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek reference to nondiscrimination based on “choice of text editor.” While a choice of software may seem trivial, this particular discussion has led to more than one heated exchange among programmers. In fact, the Discuss list in March was very active concerning issues with the Windows installer, which provides access to the nano text editor through Git for Windows (used in both the Software Carpentry Shell and Git lessons). That discussion eventually transitioned to consideration of alternative software tools we might consider using and moved over to GitHub, where you can read more about the opinions and options voiced by participants.

Beginning the conversation: Potential merger with Data Carpentry

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Newcomers to our community frequently request clarification regarding the distinction between Software Carpentry (SWC) and Data Carpentry (DC). SWC and DC are two independently established and operated organizations that share a common goal of promoting education in reproducible science skills, both in data literacy (DC) and software development (SWC).

Despite our separate organizational structures, SWC and DC maintain close ties, and have begun moving over the last year or so towards increased connectivity. Staff interact with leadership and members of both communities, and are sometimes shared hires between both groups. We offer joint institutional memberships. We’ve worked together to implement shared policies, and have released statements which reflect our commitment to shared values.

2017 Election: Kate Hertweck

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I am excited to stand for election for the 2017 Software Carpentry Steering Committee (SWC SC). I hope you’ll consider supporting me in this year’s election so I may continue to serve our community.

Previous experience with Software Carpentry:

Some folks might consider it insanity for a tenure-track assistant professor to volunteer so much energy to the Carpentries, but in reality, the time I’ve spent on the SWC SC has been essential to my development of an effective model of leadership. The following points highlight my contributions to our community:

Don't forget to submit your post to stand for the 2017 Steering Committee

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

If you’ve considered running for the 2017 Software Carpentry Steering Committee, please submit your blog post announcing your intentions by December 23. More information about what to include in your post can be found in the original announcement.

Call for Candidates for the 2017 Steering Committee

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Software Carpentry will hold its annual election for the Steering Committee of The Software Carpentry Foundation on January 23-27, 2017. Please consider standing for this election to help shape the future direction for our commmunity. The roles and responsibilities of members of the Steering Committee are available here.

If you are a qualified instructor who has taught at least twice in the past two years, or have done non-teaching work for the community, you can both stand for election and vote. Please visit the list of current members to see who is eligible to stand and vote in our election. If you believe you qualify as a member but are not listed there, please contact us as soon as possible.

October 2016 Maintainers' Meeting

Thu, 13 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

This week’s meeting of our lesson maintainers made some great progress in streamlining our decision-making process, and we hope to begin implementing some of the changes discussed in the next few weeks. The major highlights are:

Creation of a developers’ subcommittee: We’re creating a new subcommittee that will be in charge of decision-making for template and style changes common to all lessons. Each maintainer will still be responsible for PRs/issues specific to their lesson. I will contact folks who indicated interest in participating, and am pleased we have folks from both SWC and DC; if anyone not currently acting as a maintainer would like to take part, please contact Kate Hertweck.

Vote Next Week to Amend Steering Committee Election Procedures

Mon, 10 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Last month, the Steering Committee announced a special election to amend the procedure for Steering Committee elections. The election itself will take place next week (Oct 17-21, 2016). All members will receive a ballot via email to cast their vote regarding this revision via electionbuddy. Please take a moment to check the current membership list and contact us by email to let us know of any omissions. As per our bylaws, our membership includes any certified instructor who has taught at least twice in the past two years (i.e., since October 2014) or has made other significant contributions to Software Carpentry in the opinion of the Steering Committee.

September Carpentries Community Call

Mon, 12 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

Our next Carpentries Community Call (formerly called Lab Meeting or Town Hall meeting) will be Thursday, September 15 (September 16 Aus/NZ). These meetings will now be monthly on the third Thursday of every month. It would be great to see instructors there! These calls are a great chance to connect with other Carpentry instructors and get updates and information on important and interesting topics for the community.

September Carpentries Community Call

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Election Announcement: Amending Steering Committee election procedures

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Steering Committee will be holding a special election on October 10-14 regarding the following amendment to Steering Committee elections:

“Following an election, the new Steering Committee will meet jointly with the previous Steering Committee for no less than 60 days. For meetings during the first 30 first days, the new SC will not have voting privileges. After 30 days, voting privileges are transferred to the new SC.”

2016 Election: Kate Hertweck

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Hello fellow educators and coding enthusiasts! I’m terribly excited to offer myself as a candidate for the Software Carpentry Steering Committee. See below for answers to a few questions you might have about whether I’d be a good fit.

Who are you?

I’m an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Tyler in small but diverse Biology Department. My position is officially described as bioinformaticist, but I specialize in comparative genomics and collaborate on many different types of biological data analysis. I teach graduate and undergraduate classes in bioinformatics, genomics, and plant taxonomy.

Pre-workshop help sessions for 2016

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Are you preparing to teach a workshop in a few months? Have you been trained as an instructor but are hesitant to sign up to teach? Has it been awhile since you taught and are interested in learning what’s new in a lesson? Are you thinking about teaching a new (or just new-to-you) lesson?

The mentoring subcommittee is pleased to announce the institution of regularly scheduled help sessions for folks who are interested in feedback on their workshop plans. The first hangouts of 2016 are planned for Wednesday, January 20 at 10:00 and 19:00 EST and are open to the entire community. You can view possible topics for discussion and sign up to attend on the etherpads for the morning and evening sessions. These discussions are planned for every two weeks and will be included on the community calendar.

2016 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 01

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On January 11, 2016 we ran the 1st round of post-workshop instructor debriefing of the calendar year! The mentoring committee ran 22 debriefing session in 2015, and we are exciting about continuing to host and improve these sessions this year.

Interestingly, all instructors present participated in 3-day format Software Carpentry workshops. Read on to find out more about the changes made, what worked well, and what didn’t.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 22

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

There were relatively few attendees at the 22nd round of debriefing for instructors on November 10, but we thought we'd include a few quick notes about two specific topics: using Software and Data Carpentry workshops to reach out to potential users of high-performance computing (HPC) resources, and exploring new lesson materials related to databases.

High Performance Computing

University of Manitoba hosted a Software Carpentry workshop at the end of October in conjunction with Compute Canada. In addition to the normal half-day lessons in Unix shell, Git, and intro to Python, this workshop featured an introduction to using WestGrid/Compute Canada resources on the afternoon of the second day. The instructor for this workshop, Hossein Pourreza, said that this last lesson module was used as a capstone for helping reinforce and integrate material from the previous lessons, and appeared well-received by the students. Given that there are few training opportunities for using the cluster, this appears to be a great way to introduce new potential users to the basic tools they'll need to get started with larger-scale analysis.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 21

Fri, 13 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The mentoring subcommittee held the 21st round of debriefing for instructors on October 27. We had some great discussions with a few instructors about recent workshops and their experiences with implementing a module on imposter syndrome and methods for integrating lessons throughout the workshop.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 20

Sun, 01 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On October 13th, the mentoring subcommittee held the 20th round of debriefing for instructors. At this round, we have a great discussion text editors, workshop organization and challenges for learners.

Adrianna Pińska wrote a great post about the workshop in Johannesburg that you should check out.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 17

Wed, 09 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The mentorship committee held their latest round of debriefing for instructors of recent workshops on Tuesday, September 1. Then, on Friday September 4th mentorship committee met for a regular bi-weekly meeting. Some comments from the committee meeting have made their way into this debriefing post.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 16 (morning)

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The mentorship committee held their latest round of debriefing for instructors of recent workshops on Tuesday, August 18. This post highlights the themes discussed in both the morning and evening sessions. Our participants included multiple levels of experience, including new instructors and experienced instructors who were preparing to teach again soon. The most difficult aspects of their experiences are described below, as well as things that work well and may assist in ameliorating problems.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 15

Fri, 07 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The most recent installation of instructor debriefings by the mentoring subcommittee was held on August 4 to discuss recently completed workshops. We were joined by new instructors as well as a number of very experienced instructors (some of whom also maintain lesson repos), who all taught recently or are preparing to teach workshops. We highlight below a few of the main points from our discussions, including interesting new ideas, things that worked well, and things that were difficult.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 12

Fri, 26 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The mentoring subcommmittee hosted instructor debriefings on 23 June 2015 to discuss recently completed workshops. We are delighted that so many new instructors are joining us at these sessions as a way to prepare for upcoming workshops, and welcome anyone else interested to attend as well. Below we highlight a few discussion points from our sessions, including issues with lesson pacing and Python installation, as well as tips on using the etherpad and GitHub organizations. A more in-depth synopsis of a recent workshop can be found in this fantastic post on Raniere Silva's blog.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 11

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We held our 11th round of instructor debriefing last week where we discussed the Software Carpentry workshops held at the University of Oslo, University of Connecticut, University of Campinas, University of the Basque Country, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Berkeley Institute for Data Science, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, and Oklahoma State University, as well as a Data Carpentry workshop at the National Data Integrity Conference at Colorado State University. At this debriefing we also had 3 new instructors join us (who have yet to teach a workshop but will be teaching one in the near future) to gain an insight about what works (and what doesn't) at our workshops out in the wild.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 9

Wed, 13 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

This week the mentorship team ran the 9th round of instructor debriefing session. Thanks to Andrew MacDonald, Doug Latornell, Evan Morien, Ewan Barr, Isabell Kiral-Kornek, Jackie Milhans, Kara Woo, Karl Broman and Tiffany Timbers for the great feedback of the workshops at Northwestern University, Simon Fraser University, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Melbourne and Washington State University.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 8

Fri, 08 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The mentorship team met last week for a discussion with instructors who recently taught, including workshops at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and University of Texas at Arlington (the latter of which was taught by both authors of this post). Three important issues emerged during our discussion: recording the instructor's shell code, using example scripts to model increasing complexity in coding, and preparing instructors/helpers with answers to challenges.

2015 Post-Workshop Instructor Debriefing, Round 7

Tue, 14 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The mentorship team held our latest round of post-workshop debriefing sessions for instructors who taught recently. Instructors from workshops at Clemson University, University of Miami, University of Melbourne, University of Oklahoma Libraries, Harvard School of Public Health, and Weill Cornell Medical College joined us for our discussions, as well as a few new instructors who will be teaching in coming weeks. Here's a recap of common themes and highlights: