Genomic Standards Consortium

The Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC) is an open-membership working body formed in September 2005. The aim of the GSC is making genomic data discoverable. The GSC enables genomic data integration, discovery and comparison through international community-driven standards.

This project is maintained by GenomicsStandardsConsortium

Genomic Standards Consortium



Compliance and Interoperability Working Group GSC Project

1. Project Title Compliance and Interoperability Working Group (merger of developer and compliance groups)

2. Project Leads

3. **Team members
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4. Elevator pitch The role of this group is to maintain GSC standards and GSC contributions to other standardization projects, as well as push forward GSC projects, and GSC related projects, through technical discussions of the best solutions for implementation. It also works to bring together experts in development and biocuration in the GSC.

5. Summary The aim of the Compliance and Interoperability Working Group is to maintain and promote MIxS and other GSC standards. The group provides a knowledge reservoir to answer curation and compliance questions and provides a primary contact point for non-GSC software developers seeking support in adopting and using GSC standards and tools. The group provides venues (teleconferences and hackathons) for technical discussions related to standards and implementation.

The group maintains and enhances GSC standards by undertaking curation of MIxS, by promoting the use of ontologies in the support of MIxS and by discussing community driven curation and compliance issues. It is expected that those working on extensions to MIxS will be working group members. The group is also responsible for providing training and outreach materials on the use of the standards.

This group provides a platform for software developers within or associated with the GSC and works to facilitate experience and knowledge exchange about issues and progress in individual software projects related to the GSC. Working group members include those developers involved in GSC core projects and the group serves as an incubator for new project ideas. The group will provide a mechanism to shepherd both internal and outside projects through the process of seeking formal GSC recognition. These projects will normally be in-line with three key concepts: “pre-competitive”, “neutral” and “non-application software”.

6. Project initiation date The group was formally launched at GSC 10. On 20 October 2011, the Developer group formally merged with the Compliance group to reflect their co-dependencies and it was renamed the Compliance and Interoperability Group.

7. What will this project aim to contribute to the GSC? The working group will contribute developer and curation power to GSC’s sequence data standardization mission. For example, the developers within the group will be responsible for developing tools for aiding in standards compliant submissions, while the curators will deal with less computational aspects of compliance.

8. Have you spoken about the project already within GSC? The working group was announced at the GSC12 meeting in 2011. Before and after this date, the working group (or its predecessors) have been presenting at GSC meetings, as well as regular telecons.

9. Which existing projects, if any, does this one replace/complement/ subsume/expand? This working group merges and replaces Developers and MIxS Compliance working groups. The missions of these two previous working groups were similar and overlapping, and with the merged working group we hope to initiate more productive discussions.

10. How does this project fit into GSC’s mission statement ? The working group aims to fulfill GSC’s standardized and better description of sequence metadata by providing both software solutions and guidance for compliance with GSC’s MIxS standards.

11. Will you start a GSC working group ? The working group already exists.

12. How do you wish to further engage the GSC? Membership in this group is defined by participation. The group communicates through its own mailing list and meets using telecons based on demand.

13. Do you already have a website or do you wish to create a home page for the project in the GSC website ?

Please see: http://wiki.gensc.org/index.php?title=Compliance_and_Interoperability_Working_Group

14. What other resources might you like from what the GSC can offer (mailing lists, etc) ? The resources already offered by GSC are sufficient.

15. What kind of timeline are you working to for building consensus, releasing a first version, etc. We expect this to be a permanent working group. Some projects within this working group are expected to have defined lifespans.

16. How is this work currently funded? The launch of the GSC and the predecessors of MIxS compliance and interoperability working group was originally funded by NERC. Currently, activities within the working group are done on a volunteer basis by team members at GSC meetings and on regular telecons.

17. What resources will be required for completion ? This question also depends on the individual projects within the working group, and will be defined in each project description.

18. What are your current plans for publishing/promoting the project? As the projects within this group mature, they will be published and/or promoted using appropriate mediums (journals, meetings, telecons).

19. References or relevant websites