Announcing the Emerging Centers track!

The Emerging Centers track of the CaRCC People Network will bring together members of research computing departments/ aspiring centers that are just getting started at their institutions, research computing groups at smaller institutions, and folks who are new to the research computing community. The Emerging Centers track of CaRCC will discuss topics such as funding models, engaging with faculty and investigators, working with campus leadership, and developing research computing/data services (compute, storage, networks, training, applications and people) on campuses.

The first Emerging Centers call will take place September 18 at 12pm ET to introduce the initial members to each other and identify a list of topics for future discussion. In order to join the Emerging Centers track (via email list), fill out the Emerging Centers joining form, which will also collect information about your interest in potential discussion topics. For questions or details, contact track coordinators Jane Combs (combsje@ucmail.uc.edu) and Rich Knepper (rich.knepper@cornell.edu).

The CaRCC (Campus Research Computing Consortium) People Network, aims “to foster, build and grow an inclusive community (termed the “People Network”) for campus CI, research computing and data professionals.” If you would like to join other People Network tracks, too, which includes Data-facing, Researcher-facing, Systems-facing, and other tracks, please fill in the form at http://bit.ly/join_carcc_people_network.

Maturity Model for Research IT Workshop at EDUCAUSE

Research IT (computing, data, and related infrastructure and services) is changing at an accelerating rate, while the range of scientific fields and disciplines depending on research cyberinfrastructure is expanding and becoming increasingly diverse.

The Maturity Model for Research IT project is a collaborative effort by Internet2, the Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC), EDUCAUSE, The Quilt, and many higher education institutions, that identifies the range of relevant approaches to supporting research IT, for use by IT practitioners, researchers, and campus leadership. It includes a self-assessment tool that is designed for a school to explore different areas of maturity or capability for the support of researchers and research activities on their campus.

The upcoming full-day workshop at EDUCAUSE on Monday, October 14, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. will provide background on the project and introduce participants to the maturity model framework and how it can be applied to a range of different institutions. Participants will have an opportunity to fill out the questionnaire, discuss how it applies to their respective institutions, and discuss how the model could be used in strategic decision making by institutions.

End-of-Summer Updates: Website, Code of Conduct, Logo Voting

Website Updated; Submit Community Events!

Take some time to check out the CaRCC website, which has some recent design and content organization changes, in addition to a new event submission form for the community events calendar, where you can continue to find track calls for the People Network, explore other research CI-relevant events, and submit any events that might be missing!

Vote on CaRCC Logo Options!

Please help us select the CaRCC logo by voting on the designs you like the most by this Friday August 30. This final set has been narrowed down after an open call to designers from around the world!

Contribute Your Input to the Code of Conduct

The People Network coordinators are inviting input to a draft Code of Conduct (and response procedures) for CaRCC-related community gatherings, following input from community members and leaders of CaRCC working groups. See CaRCC’s recent email to the People Network inviting comments and suggested edits, via which the relevant document links were distributed.

CaRCC and Related Activities that Happened at PEARC19!

PEARC19 happened in Chicago July 28-August 1, 2019. There were a number of CaRCC and/or CaRCC related activities that took place and summaries of some of these may be of interest to the community (note that errors or omissions are the responsibility of tec3@utah.edu).

MATURITY MODEL – Leveraging a Research IT Maturity Model for Strategic Decision Making: For the past couple of years, a group of people from an Internet2 committee, EDUCAUSE, and CaRCC have had meetings and a workshop to develop a tool or spreadsheet that ranks maturity in many elements of the “facings” (researcher-facing, systems-facing, leadership-facing, etc) across various dimensions. The intent of this workshop is to introduce the maturity model and have participants go through parts of it as a beta test to help us evaluate and improve the tool. For more information about the workshop check out the PEARC19 submission (or e-mail interest to help@carcc.org)… And if interested in keeping up or volunteering or any other participation please fill in this interest form. An updated maturity model, based on comments from participants, will be available “soon” and beta’ed again at the EDUCAUSE meeting.
ECOSYSTEM OF RESEARCH COMPUTING AND DATA – A panel on defining and ultimately sustaining the ecosystem of research computing and data convened during the first plenary. The ecosystem of research computing and data is broad, hard to define, and expanding. Panelists from different organizations gave their perspective. A link to the presentation is here.
CI PROFESSIONALIZATION – A panel on Professionalization and Career Arcs for Roles Supporting Research IT/CI. Discussed were the job family matrix and a guide to the job family matrix. We will have a link to the presentation soon.
TOWN HALL – “CaRCC”, broadly defined, Futures and Sustainability Town Hall. A running note that came from the town hall is on Google.

NSF CI Coordination Workshop

The National CI Coordination workshop was held in June 2019 focusing on coordination of CI services, emerging CI, and workforce development. A summary of the major findings is in the workshop report.

December 2018 – news update

…from CaRCC Council Chair Thomas Cheatham and the leadership team:

Happy Holiday Season and winter from CaRCC! I am happy to see that CaRCC is making significant headway in its goals ranging from shoring up the internal workings and operations to significant progress with the various working groups. We have a better handle on document and meeting management, and are enabling the various working groups to more easily disseminate their information and get feedback. Feedback from some members of the larger ecosystem has people noting that they associate CaRCC with products for the community.