Challenge: Data Integration
Integrating evolutionary data
Improving our understanding of evolution of life requires combining data sets from a wide variety of disparate sources. Thus, data integration poses a serious challenge for evolutionary research.
The iEvoBio meeting is holding a competition to create a new software tool, or add a new feature to an existing platform. Entries for the 2011 iEvoBio challenge must enable new approaches to data interoperability or represent an exceptional example of integrating existing sources of data.
Cash prizes will be awarded for first place ($1,000) and runner-up entries. The winning entries will be selected by a vote of the iEvoBio meeting participants. Participants will be asked to vote for the entry which best enhances evolutionary research by enabling new forms of data integration. An eligible contribution could be a new approach to publishing data or a new tool for "consuming" data from a variety of sources. For example, a data-providing entry might consist of a new service that uses Linked Data principles to enable richer interactions with an existing database. A “mash-up” of several (at least 3) different data sources to enable a new evolutionary analysis would be an example of an eligible entry that acts as consumer of data.
Entries should be previously unpublished or very recently published (< 1 year), and consist of open-source* software. Adding a new feature to an existing framework qualifies as an eligible entry. However, meeting participants will be asked to base their vote only on the newly added functionality. Thus, any such entry must be easily recognizable as a contribution distinct from the previously existing architecture.
Abstracts and screenshots and/or URLs need to be submitted by June 13, 2011, to chal...@ievobio.org (your submission is only received when acknowledged by a reply email). Selected candidates will make a short oral presentation to demonstrate their data integration in a "Challenge session" at the conference.
(*) To meet the open-source eligibility criteria, the software must be downloadable at the latest by the time of the conference under an OSI-approved open-source license (see compliant licenses).
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