Sharing knowledge through the Fred Hutch Biomedical Data Science Wiki

Written by: The Coop Team - Fred Hutch Bioinformatics & Data Science Cooperative

Fred Hutch includes a large and diverse community of researchers engaged in data-intensive science. Keeping track of best practices and resources among this community is a challenging task! A dedicated group of researchers and staff created the Fred Hutch Biomedical Data Science Wiki in spring 2018 to address this challenge. The Wiki is a collaborative and curated collection of resources about data generation and scientific computing. It features both standard articles as well as tutorials on common data-related tasks, created by and for our Fred Hutch research community.

Next time you’re looking for information on data-intensive research at Fred Hutch, we hope you’ll consider looking in the Wiki. We’re committed to maintaining and developing this online resource, and this work wouldn’t be possible without a community willing to share knowledge. To facilitate the continued growth of the Wiki, we’re pleased to accept applications for the Wiki Writer-Editor program. This program enables Fred Hutch researchers to write and edit content in their areas of expertise. If selected, Wiki Writer-Editors commit to and are paid for three hours of work for three months.

Why should you apply to the Wiki Writer-Editor program? Here are a few reasons past participants have valued the experience:

• Share knowledge: Are you interested in learning more about the data science resources on campus, but haven’t made time to check out the Wiki? Do your colleagues ask you for advice on data generation or computing, and you’d like an easier way to answer those questions? The Wiki Writer-Editor program is a great way to accomplish one or both of these tasks, by dedicating time to work with our team to improve our Wiki content.
• Professional experience: Contributors to the Wiki have evidence of experience in scientific communication and technical writing, and are able to list themselves on our contributor page here. The Wiki is public-facing, meaning you can include a citation (and links to your contributions) on your CV.
• Improve proficiency with GitHub: The Wiki is hosted on GitHub, which is a public code repository built on git version control, a common tool in data science. If you’re interested in learning more about collaboration using this tool, this is a great way to gain experience. Never used GitHub? No problem, our program includes onboarding and training.
• Get paid! We offer a stipend of $500 for three months of work (~12 hours per month or ~3 hours per week). You’ll meet weekly with the team as well as work independently to write new content and edit existing resources.

Interested in contributing to the Data Science Wiki? Please review the responsibilities in detail along with the requirements and send your application materials to coophelp at fredhutch.org. We are currently accepting applications on a rolling basis, and are happy to answer any questions.