A few notes on the work behind the conversion of the EBI Biosamples Database data into Linked Data.
Adventures with Biological Samples and Linked DataRead More »
Author: Marco Brandizi
Cambridge (UK), 19/11/2013
A: Preside del liceo 'Mattioli' di Vasto, rappresentanti dei genitori, studenti, a chiunque vorrà leggere questa lettera aperta
Oggetto: Fate un favore ai Vostri ragazzi, non offrite una cattedra a Vannoni
Gentili Signori,
chi vi scrive (di getto) non è nessuno. Solo un anonimo cittadino, che cerca di informarsi su come va il mondo e, in questo mondo, di viverci, pensando anche agli altri e non esclusivamente pensando agli affari propri. Sono anche uno sviluppatore software, lavoro e conduco ricerca applicata nel campo della bioinformatica, che si occupa di far avanzare la biologia e la medicina con i computer. Deve essere per questo mio lavoro che mi ha molto colpito la notizia [1] che il vostro liceo sta per ospitare una conferenza del dottor Davide Vannoni, esperto in psicologia e comunicazione, recentemente assurto alla ribalta della cronaca, grazie ad una incredibile battaglia mediatica, capitanata dalla trasmissione 'Le Iene' e chissà da quanti altri dietro le quinte, che si sono assunti la responsabilità di porre la salute delle persone sotto i riflettori e trasformarla in una questione di tifoseria.
Fate un favore ai Vostri ragazzi, non offrite una cattedra a Vannoni [Italian]Read More »
![[Idea light with world drawn upon, courtesy of http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/Big-Idea.jpg]](http://localhost:8080/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/big_idea.jpg)
DEADLINE IS NOW EXTENDED TO March, 14th.
Internet and the World Wide Web have made possible unimaginable levels of information sharing and collaboration in science, as well as in other human activities. In life science, software-based collaboration occurs at different scale levels, from small collocated scientific groups to large international communities. It also happens in various ways, from tight-interaction in ontology design to crowd-sourced data annotation and analysis. The idea of the web of data has been particularly successful in the biomedical field, given its potential to ease integration and exploration of large, complex, and heterogeneous data sets. Advanced knowledge representation and data exchange standards have been widely used for such purpose. These same approaches are applied in developing collaboration models and software to support such models.
![[Dublin Rugby Stadium, SEMIC 2013 Venue]](http://localhost:8080/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/semic2013_venue.png)
A few notes from the SEMIC 2013 conference that I've recent attended, which happended the same days of the Open Data Charts release, by the G8.
Open Data during the G8 Week: the SEMIC 2013 ConferenceRead More »
A few notes here about the UK Ontology Network Meeting I’ve attended today. PDF available too. As their site says: The UK Ontology Network is an informal and voluntary coordination between people based in the United Kingdom and working in the area of ontology and ontology related technology. Members of the network include people from […]
![[Dilbert on Software Versions, courtesy of dilbert.com]](http://localhost:8080/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/version_dilbert.gif)
Maven has several nice plug-ins to automate almost all the stages of a release process. Whether it is changing your POM with a new version number, tagging your SCM or updating references in other POMs, you can do it by just a few command lines. Even better, you can put Maven goals into a continuous integration software and release with just a few clicks.
![[The Others Are You, Source: http://churchm.ag/sermon-illustration-love-your-neighbor-as-yourself/]](/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/the_others_are_u_0.jpg "[The Others Are You, Source: http://churchm.ag/sermon-illustration-love-your-neighbor-as-yourself/]")
…comunque c’è un noi è c’è un loro. E non è facile capire che chi siano esattamente noi e chi siano loro dipende dalla parte in cui ci si trova. Non è facile capire che per capire meglio bisogna fare lo sforzo di mettersi dall’altra parte. Non è facile capire che fare lo sforzo di capirsi conviene a tutti, può rendere migliore la vita di tutti. Non è facile rendersi conto che la storia del mondo, soprattutto dell’Europa, è in gran parte storia di migrazioni, le quali, al di là di inevitabili problemi, hanno prodotto evoluzione e progresso immensi. Non è facile ricordarsi che le migrazioni sono forze inarrestabili, che sono parte della nostra vita, a prescindere da come si sceglie di affrontarle, se assecondando le paure e l’ignoranza, oppure sforzandosi di capire e di mettersi nei panni degli altri…
![[Young Worker With his Toolbox - courtesy of http://www.joli-petite.com]](http://localhost:8080/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/baby_toolbox.jpg)
My personal lib of utils is now a quite public project, jUtils (part of ISA-Tools) and the code in it doesn't come from myself only any more. In this post, I'd like to give a brief overview of what it offers. Who knows, that bit you were about to code yourself might be described in the next paragraphs.
![[Drupal Faces, courtesy of http://www.dawhb.com/drupal-how-many-faces/]](http://localhost:8080/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/drupal-faces.png "[Drupal Faces, courtesy of http://www.dawhb.com/drupal-how-many-faces/]")
WOW! This is the first (real) post on my site, after three (three!) years of stop. A lot of things to do, personal up and downs. But here I'd like to talk about another serious reasons why I haven't worked to this site for such a long time: I wanted to upgrade the version of Drupal, the CMS both this new and the old site were based on. Still at Drupal 4.7 version, the fact that they have come at 7 (and almost 8), started making me feel like I was walking over eggs (and you should feel the same in similar cyrcumstances).
I already expected this to be painful, so I've waited until I had some time and was inspired enough. And yes, first thing to say about is that Drupal has pros and cons and, among them, the upgrade process, despite significant improvement, is still a big thumb down. It took me several months of spare time to face it and below you find some account of this little adventure.
Disclaimer: this is going to be rather technical and if you want to embark on a similar experience, you'll do it at your own risk. If you don't even know what Drupal is (or a CMS), don't bother reading on…
![[Visual Graph of Growth History]](/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/growth_history.gif)