Binder/BinderHub Workshops -- Help Wanted!

community
#1

Hey all,

Please see the below message from @KirstieJane, we’d be very grateful if anyone would be available to help us out!

Hi binder folks!! We’d like to run a couple of binder workshops in the UK in February and March. We can pay for instructor and TA travel - is there anyone in the community who would like to come and help us out?
We’re inspired by @betatim’s Build a Binder workshops (https://build-a-binder.github.io) last year.
Plan is to have 2 for general researchers and 1 specifically aimed at people who want to host their own binder hub.

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#2

Hi @sgibson91 / @KirstieJane

I might be able to help out at the general events helping folk work through Binderising repos depending on when the events are.

Do you also intend to cover using Binderised repos in association with things like Thebelab/juniper/nbinteract/voila (I’ve only actually properly played with the first of those so far)?

–tony

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#3

Whoah I didn’t know about Voila, super cool!

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#4

Hi @KristieJane. Can you provide some more detail on the “host your own binderhub” workshop? I suspect there may be some Pangeo folks in this topic.

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#5

Heya @jhamman! So the idea is that if IT teams or research software engineering teams host a local binder hub then users (members of the department, research group, etc) could a) use private code/data b) have more computational power etc (deep learning for example).

@sgibson91 is currently doing exactly that at the Turing Institute but it isn’t super easy, so the workshop should focus on answering questions about how to get started across different systems.

This is definitely the space where we most need folks who can help out. We’ll probably have a very collaborative focus…but still it would be great to have people with experience in the room!

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#6

The build-a-binder workshops were about getting your repo to run on an existing BinderHub that someone else deployed/operated. The people who attended often didn’t have an interest in running their own BinderHUb There were however questions from others related to hosting your own BinderHub at those events. As in a subset of attendees were also interested in running a hub.

-> It would be great to have operate-a-binderhub workshops which are the complement to build-a-binder :+1:

Unfortunately I won’t have time to go/take part in the February/March time frame.

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#7

Hi @KirstieJane, the Software Sustainability Institute would like to help depending of the days and our staff availability. Do you already have days for the workshops?

We are running Collaborations Workshop from Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd April 2019 at Loughborough University in the West Park Teaching Hub, Loughborough. I think it will be a great place for a train the trainers on Binder/BinderHub kind of activity. Please let me know if you or someone is available to lead that one.

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#8

Thanks @psychemedia!! I’ll reply properly when I’m not on my phone with our brainstormed agenda. To be honest, I don’t know any of the additional tools/plugins that you mention and so I was imagining it would be more intro level!

Having said that, one of the things we would SO LOVE is to have people in the room who DO know more expert stuff (or wizard level fun additions) so that in the open discussion parts they (you!) can respond to the participants’ needs!

If you have strong recommendations on what to include though, please let me know :smiley_cat:

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#9

Hey @rgaiacs! Our plan is to launch the BOOK that we’re writing at the collaborations workshop so I don’t think we can also commit to running specific binder workshops at CW19. Obviously delighted to chat but not on the schedule!

[EDIT] and we would LOVE SSI support for the scheduled workshops…I’ll grab the dates when I’m not on my phone :grimacing:

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#10

Just to clarify - our idea is to have 2 build a binder style workshops (as @betatim described) and 1 specifically on building a binder HUB. The plan is to be very clear about how these are appropriate for very different audiences.

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#11

I may be able to help out; I don’t know Binder super well, but I’ve hopefully got a reasonable overview of the Jupyter ecosystem if that’s useful. I’m based in Edinburgh.

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#12

I might be able to help too depending on the dates as I have some free time towards mid/late February

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#13

Here is our issue detailing our plans for the Workshops, including dates!

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#14

Hi, thanks for all of your offers of help!

We are looking at:
Binderhub for RSEs/IT teams, 18 March 2019, 9am - 5pm, University of Sheffield
Build a Binder Workshop for researchers, 1st March 2019, 9am - 5pm, University of Manchester
Build a Binder Workshop for researchers, 12th March 2019, 9am - 5pm, Alan Turing Institute

Help at any of these workshops would be great, but we’re particularly keen to get help with the one for RSEs/IT teams if anyone can do that date?

Thanks!

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#15

If anyone is keen to help out at these workshops or come along as a participant then the sign up pages are now live here:

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#16
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#17

Hi @takluyver & @rgaiacs, so what do you say? Can any of you make it to Sheffield on the 18th of March and help out? Funding available for travel :slight_smile:

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#18

I’ve missed the recent conversation here but we may be able to contribute some man power for the Sheffield workshop if there is still a need. A bit of background.

  • I work on the Pangeo project which focuses on big-data approaches in the geosciences (and related disciplines)
  • We built https://binder.pangeo.io to serve big-data workflows using binder. Some docs here and a blog post describing the deployment here.

I’m not sure the March dates will work for me just yet, and I’m pretty far from Sheffield, but would be keen to talk to the organizers offline to see if there is a way to contribute in one form or another. Perhaps an offline conversation would be of use? If so, just send me a DM and we can go from there.

Cheers!

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#19

I am happy to help out if you are still on the look for volunteers. Currently based in Scotland but willing to travel if travel can be covered

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#20

Sorry about the badly delayed response. :frowning: I could still make it to any of the workshops if anyone needs another helper. I’d probably need one night’s accommodation covered for any of them, because I’d be travelling down the evening before.

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