Building stronger communities
Community Discovery Day
The formation of the Society of Research Software Engineering was driven by a community-led campaign. We look to support everyone in the RSE community, whether they are members of the Society or not, and we are delighted to be able to showcase some of the emerging communities as part of the Community Discovery Day at RSECon24.
Building stronger communities in research software
The third and final day of the conference will spotlight the society's ongoing efforts to unite communities through special interest groups (SIGs) and other community activities. This day will provide attendees with an opportunity to engage with new groups that share common interests, and gain insights into the value of collaboration, knowledge exchange and peer support when building communities of practice within areas of research software.
Through a series of informative and interactive sessions, participants will learn about the motivation behind the society's work to create new groups, the process of forming new groups, and ways to access funding for events and activities. The success and rapid growth of the RSE movement has been driven by the enthusiasm and inclusivity of its vibrant community. This final day of the conference will give an opportunity to explore emerging groups, and take a deeper dive into popular topics of shared interest. Whether you're seeking to deepen your involvement in existing communities, initiate a new group, or network with peers interested in related topics, this day will offer a platform for discovery, collaboration, and meaningful engagement.
Agenda for Thursday 5th September
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PANEL
09:00-09:30
Building stronger communities in research software
In this short panel discussion we will explore the impact of community development in research software, and better understand what is being done to better support established and emerging communities. The panel will be hosted by the RSECon24 Programme Chair, David Horsfall, with the following panelists:
- Kirsty Pringle, Project Manager, Software Sustainability Institute
- Andrew Turner, Principal Architect, EPCC, The University of Edinburgh
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DISCOVER
09:30-15:15
Discover and connect with communities
Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions are informal gatherings of individuals who share a common interest. The term comes from the saying "birds of a feather flock together" and is aimed at bringing together communities around specific topics in research software. These sessions are designed to help you discover and engage with like-minded communities.
Topic Session Title Explainer Time High Performance Computing (HPC) HPCRSE@RSECon24: 3rd annual meeting of the HPC RSE community 
09:30
Room G.41Worldwide Communities RSE Worldwide: Opportunities to Strengthen the Global RSE Community 
09:30
Room G.56Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) Intersectional EDIA and Allies: celebrating the highs and weathering the lows 
09:30
Room G.06Training & Development RSE training and professional development BoF 
09:30
Room 1.17Enviromental Impact Green RSEs? Building a community to reduce the environmental impacts of research software 
11:00
Room G.56Weather & Climate Modelling Finding the Weather and Climate RSE Community - knowledge exchange and the next steps for the flock 
11:00
Room 1.17R Language R Development Hackathon 11:00
Room 2.16Project Management Project Management in Research Software - People and Processes 14:00
Room G.41The Carpentries Software Carpentry (SWC) and the Community 
14:00
Room G.06 -
CREATE
09:30-15:15
If you have an idea for a new community, we are hosting an unconference session that provides an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals who share your interest. An unconference session is a participant-driven format where the agenda is created on the spot by the attendees, rather than being pre-planned by organizers. The session will begin in room 2.16 at 09:30 on Thursday, 5th September. If you're still engaged in your conversation when the session ends at 10:45, we encourage you to continue your discussion in other areas of the conference venue, where there is plenty of seating available in the public spaces.
If you have an idea for a new community, please join the Slack channel #unconference-create-new-communities to propose and discuss your idea with others. At 3:00 PM on the day before the unconference session (Wednesday, 4th September), we will open a poll in the Slack channel so that participants can vote for their favorite unconference ideas. The most popular topics will be selected for discussion.
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CLOSING
15:20-15:30
Feedback, reflections and outcomes
We will close the day with feedback and reflections from the Bird of a Feather sessions, and also from new communities discussed in the unconference session.
Financial support for new communities
Over the past year, the Society has reinvested more of the surplus accumulated from conferences to increase the Society's support for the community - increasing spending on grants made via the Events and Initiatives scheme, expanding the mentoring scheme significantly, supporting a hybrid conference experience, and significantly increasing the number of attendance bursaries for RSECon24.
The Society is looking at additional options for investing more of the Society's accumulated surplus to further broaden the range of financial support it provides to the community, including looking at how it might better support community organised activity such as that organised by Regional RSE and Special Interest groups. The trustees will share an update on this at the AGM at RSECon24.