Tripoli receives NSF funding
Announcement and Call to Participate
PIs Noah McLean, Scott Burdick, and Jim Bowring (see About) have received a three-year NSF grant (see Abstract) to develop a new version of the software product Tripoli.
Tripoli Description
Tripoli imports raw mass spectrometer data files and supports interactive review and archiving of isotopic data. Tripoli facilitates visualization of temporal trends and scatter during measurement, statistically rigorous filtering of data, and calculation of statistical parameters.
Mission
Our mission is to develop the Tripoli software product collaboratively with the user community. One important goal is to create a culture and practice of sustainability to ensure a long life-span for Tripoli.
History
The original Tripoli dates from 2002 and is in wide use and is maintained.
See article for details.
Development Plan
We are implementing an agile development process to support collaboration:
1) We are hosting Tripoli development on GitHub at https://github.com/cirdles/Tripoli as an open source repository. This repository will house all artifacts including meeting agendas and minutes, requirements documents for functionality, data formats, tests, and UX design. It will contain the content of this website http://cirdles.org/Tripoli in the “docs” folder. The repository has additional support for projects, discussions, and a Wiki. In order to participate on GitHub, users will need to create a free account at GitHub.com.
2) We will maintain a website that provides timely updates and tutorials as we develop them. If you are reluctant to get a GitHub acount, this site is for you.
3) We will host regularly scheduled Zoom Workshops for collaboration among community members.
4) Agile development is iterative and driven by use cases and requests provided by the community. If you join GitHub, you will be able to start and join discussions. Here you can propose needed functionality or discuss current progress, etc.
5) Agile development is test-driven. This simply means that we should be able to think of a way to test any functionality that we want Tripoli to implement. So, in addition to describing the functionality, we write some test cases in natural language that provide both the inputs and the expected outcomes for each test.
6) We intend to follow the open source practice of “release early and often.”
7) Community members can contribute in many ways:
1) Join GitHub and participate in discussions.
2) Attend and contribute to team Zoom Workshops.
3) Download releases and provide evaluations and suggestions via GitHub Issues.
4) Contribute actual or synthetic data for testing.
5) Contribute to and maintain the Wiki and / or website.
6) Contribute tutorials about your related expertise and / or about using Tripoli as it matures.
7) Become and / or recruit people to inherit key roles in the development process.
8) Take a leading role in establishing our industrial-academic Oversight Board that is envisioned as a vehicle to establish sustainability and maintenance plans for the Tripoli product.