So you have decided to create a new Special Interest Group (SIG)!

Do you need to make a SIG?

Before you make a SIG, make sure that you have learned the basics about Galaxy. Start with our dedicated Get Started page to get a head-start of what Galaxy is about.

Comment

You’ll find all the necessary resources and you could even participate in the Galaxy Mentorship Network to get started with the help of a Galaxy Mentor.

Starting and running a SIG takes time and effort, so it’s a good idea to make sure that:

1. You have a buddy Do you already have someone who wants to join this community and help build it with you? There’s no sense in starting a SIG of one!
2. You are committed We have resources to help you and are constantly trying to make running a SIG easier, but it nevertheless takes time. You don’t want to start a SIG and then fail to maintain it.

Warning: Do not contribute to software smog!

Do not create a SIG that you cannot sustain! Do not create a SIG that already exists!

Saying that, running a SIG can be deeply rewarding when you see people coming together across disciplines, institutes, and more to find synergy and make cool things happen together.

Let’s walk you through making a new Galaxy SIG.

Agenda

In this tutorial, we will cover:

1. Do you need to make a SIG?
2. Requirements of a Special Interest Group (SIG)
3. Creating a new SIG
4. Sustainability
   1. Ending a SIG
5. Conclusion

Requirements of a Special Interest Group (SIG)

Before starting a SIG, it’s important to be aware of the (rather low) requirements for being a SIG:

• Must have 2 or more members
• Must maintain a page on the Community Hub with at least:
  • A description of the purpose of the SIG.
  • A clear explanation of how individuals can join and maintain membership.
  • Details of access to the SIG’s communication channels.
  • The current contact/email address for the nominated Galaxy Community Board representative
• Must manage membership and internal communication for itself.
• Must use at least one public Matrix channel under the Galaxy Matrix space.
• Must allow participation across different timezones (with the exception of Regional Communities).

Tip: How can I plan meetings across timezones?

1. Go to a timezone website to see equivalent times across the globe.
2. Select multiple times that capture at least 2/3 of the globe (we recommend three timezones)
3. Alternate meetings across those timezones to enable global participation.
4. Share your meeting time by going to this timezone website and inputting your timezone and meeting time. This will give you a URL you can link to any communications that will automatically convert that time to the local time of anyone opening the URL. You can also include your meeting notes link there for ease.

Time-saving tip: If you meet every 2 months, you can set up 3 recurring calendar events for each time chosen to recur every 6 months. It’s automatic, it’s inclusive, and it’s less effort!

Details: What is the Galaxy Governance Structure?

Galaxy Governance consists of a Galaxy Executive Board that provides global direction, working with a Galaxy Technical Board that represents Working Groups and a Galaxy Community Board that represents Special Interest Groups.

Creating a new SIG

Hands-on: Create a SIG

1. Copy an updated SIG page (there’s a Template in that folder, work in progress!) from the Galaxy Community Hub github folder. We suggest looking through the different SIG pages to see which one has the type of content you would like and copying that one.
2. Update the text to suit your new SIG
3. Create a Matrix group within the Galaxy Matrix chat forum space.
   • Consider making a bridge to a Slack chat if you want to talk with users!
4. (Optional): Create a mailing list for your SIG: https://lists.galaxyproject.org/lists/
5. Add your SIG & any relevant links to the SIG directory

6. Send someone to join the Galaxy Community Board, which has tons of resources to support you and also a chat forum on Matrix.

   Details: What's the Galaxy Community Board?

   The Galaxy Community Board provides a supportive virtual forum for the exchange of ideas, and a governance body to represent Special Interest Groups (SIGs) in Galaxy.

   The goals of the GCB are to:

   • share resources, tips & best practices to make running SIGs easier;
   • discuss scientist (user) feedback to help guide Galaxy platform development;
   • communicate scientist (user) needs to the Galaxy Governance structure; and
   • develop proposals to advance scientist (user) goals in the Galaxy community.

   Tip: How do I join the Galaxy Community Board?

   SIG representatives should join our:

   • 📪 Mailing list
   • 📝 Rolling meeting notes
   • ☕ Chatroom
   • 🗓️Community Board Google-Calendar
   • 🗓️Community Board iCalendar
   • 📁Googlefolder of useful docs

Remember that SIGs vary hugely. Some SIGs meet and collaborate frequently, while others use their SIG to simply provide a key contact individual to represent their group in the Galaxy community. You don’t need every link, widget or calendar we create to run a good SIG. Just make what fits your group’s needs. Above all, think sustainably - someone has to keep things updated, and that someone likely starts with you!

Sustainability

Remember that if you make a SIG, you are responsible for maintaining that SIG.

This at a minimum includes:

1. A section on the SIG Directory on the Hub
2. Your individual SIG page from the Hub that is linked from that directory

This may also include:

1. Your SIG Training page
2. Mailing list

Ending a SIG

If you collectively decide that the SIG is no more, please end your SIG.

Hands-on: End a SIG

1. Update the SIG Directory on the Hub
2. Remove your individual SIG page from the Hub
3. Notify the Galaxy Community Board, ideally via their chat channel

Conclusion

Did you make a SIG? congratulations Congratulations! Being a part of a SIG is one of the best bits of working with Galaxy, so well done you for enabling that for like-minded scientists!

Or did you realise that you didn’t need to make a SIG? congratulations Congratulations to you as well, for preventing the software smog of creating unneeded webpages.

You've Finished the Tutorial

Please also consider filling out the Feedback Form as well!

Key points

• Special Interest Groups are a commitment to create and sustain.

• There are centralised resources to help support running a Special Interest Group.

• SIGs are joyous places for like-minded scientists to interact and share expertise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary

CoP

Community of Practice

GCB

Galaxy Community Board

GEB

Galaxy Executive Board

GTB

Galaxy Technical Board

SIG

Special Interest Group

WG

Working Groups

Feedback

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Citing this Tutorial

1. Wendi Bacon, Creating a Special Interest Group (Galaxy Training Materials). https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/community/tutorials/sig_create/tutorial.html Online; accessed TODAY
2. Hiltemann, Saskia, Rasche, Helena et al., 2023 Galaxy Training: A Powerful Framework for Teaching! PLOS Computational Biology 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010752
3. Batut et al., 2018 Community-Driven Data Analysis Training for Biology Cell Systems 10.1016/j.cels.2018.05.012

BibTeX

@misc{community-sig_create,
author = "Wendi Bacon",
	title = "Creating a Special Interest Group (Galaxy Training Materials)",
	year = "",
	month = "",
	day = ""
	url = "\url{https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/community/tutorials/sig_create/tutorial.html}",
	note = "[Online; accessed TODAY]"
}
@article{Hiltemann_2023,
	doi = {10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010752},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1010752},
	year = 2023,
	month = {jan},
	publisher = {Public Library of Science ({PLoS})},
	volume = {19},
	number = {1},
	pages = {e1010752},
	author = {Saskia Hiltemann and Helena Rasche and Simon Gladman and Hans-Rudolf Hotz and Delphine Larivi{\`{e}}re and Daniel Blankenberg and Pratik D. Jagtap and Thomas Wollmann and Anthony Bretaudeau and Nadia Gou{\'{e}} and Timothy J. Griffin and Coline Royaux and Yvan Le Bras and Subina Mehta and Anna Syme and Frederik Coppens and Bert Droesbeke and Nicola Soranzo and Wendi Bacon and Fotis Psomopoulos and Crist{\'{o}}bal Gallardo-Alba and John Davis and Melanie Christine Föll and Matthias Fahrner and Maria A. Doyle and Beatriz Serrano-Solano and Anne Claire Fouilloux and Peter van Heusden and Wolfgang Maier and Dave Clements and Florian Heyl and Björn Grüning and B{\'{e}}r{\'{e}}nice Batut and},
	editor = {Francis Ouellette},
	title = {Galaxy Training: A powerful framework for teaching!},
	journal = {PLoS Comput Biol} Computational Biology}
}

                   

Funding

These individuals or organisations provided funding support for the development of this resource

Galaxy Administrators: Install the missing tools

You can use Ephemeris's shed-tools install command to install the tools used in this tutorial.

shed-tools install [-g GALAXY] [-a API_KEY] -t <(curl https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/api/topics/community/tutorials/sig_create/tutorial.json | jq .admin_install_yaml -r)

Alternatively you can copy and paste the following YAML

---
install_tool_dependencies: true
install_repository_dependencies: true
install_resolver_dependencies: true
tools: []

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