Notes from Group 2 on Working Groups, day 3

[gregtucker]

[gregtucker]

Notes:

• Lots of orgs exist in similar business, like IEEE. Their methods could be usefully adopted. NCASI (?) similar. ISSS is a bit different, uses SIGS (special integration groups that work on a topical area but also bring it together in meta; challenge that there's a strong tendency to form silos)

• Integration across knowledge domains is important.

• Tendency toward silo-ism. Even terminology is a barrier, cross-field communication. Specialization.

• Having different versions come out too quickly can be a problem. OpenMI 2.0 stable now since 2012. That stability is really important. "Standards orgs move at the speed of a glacier"...and they should.

• Separating concept from technical implementation. Write the concept so that anyone can understand it---i.e., make it understandable. Make sure the overall idea is clear.

• Uptake can be limited... hard problem.

• Challenge of people coming from diverse backgrounds. Ex., NCASI (?) Model-Based Design WG, hard to resolve communications problems. Whereas IEEE has a top-notch gov structure, because more homogeneous within committees. Rigorous process. ACM is another.

• Learning CS skills: using github in these workshops is an interesting example of teaching domain scholars new techniques. Templates can be helpful for introducing (e.g., PR templates). Version Control especially is important. Recommended basic CS skills could be a kind of standard.

• Beyond just recommendations, OMF could provide some examples of "best practice", for people teaching. Teaching the teachers.