Involvement
Tripal is not just an open-source software package but also a community of users, developers, and stakeholders. Installing and maintaining a Tripal site automatically includes you in a community of other groups interested in promoting a set of tools that can reduce duplication of effort, assist others, and hence reduce costs. You can become involved with the Tripal in the following ways:
- Everyone:
- Add bug reports, ask questions and suggest features on Tripal's GitHub page.
- Join the Tripal Slack work space and ask questions.
- Learn to use the Tripal API to its fullest so your code can be shared with others!
- Everyone is welcome to contribute to the code base, review open PRs and answer questions on GitHub! For more details/guidance, see our contributors documentation.
- Join our weekly community meeting on Gathertown! It functions as a cofest and community forum. Come and code, ask questions or just chat with other Tripal developers. To join the group, please join the Tripal Slack work space and request the Gathertown link. There is no agenda and you are free to come and go as you have time!
- Stakeholders and Principal Investigators
- Communicate with the Tripal Advisory Committee if you plan to submit a grant to request funding that involves Tripal! You may find collaborators, or assistance supporting your efforts.
To promote long-term strategic development and quality code development, the Tripal community has two governing committees. The Tripal Project Management Committee and the Tripal Advisory Committee. Members serve for 2 or more years. Anyone is invited to engage with these committees and encouraged to participate!
For more detailed for how to become involved please see the online contribution guidelines and governance documents.
The Tripal Advisory Committee
The Tripal Advisory Committee (TAC) provides leadership, guidance, future planning, advocacy and coordination for Tripal. The TAC acts in an advisory capacity only by determining sets of recommendations for Tripal. All recommendations will be provided to the TPMC. Topics include recommended technologies, overall approach, software architecture, development priorities, timelines, funding strategies, best practices, support for a fair and focused open source development strategy. The following individuals serve on the TAC (in alphabetical order)
Dr Stephen Ficklin
Washington State University
Associate Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, a Tripal founder and core developer.
http://ficklinlab.cahnrs.wsu.edu/
Valentin Guignon
Bioversity International, CGIAR
Bioinformatics Specialist at Bioversity, banana resources using Tripal and Chado, including the Musa Germplasm Information System. He has contributed Tripal extension modules.
Dr Dorrie Main
Washington State University
Professor of Bioinformatics. Significant contribution to Tripal core. Project lead for GDR, CottonGen, CSFL, CGD and GDV databases
https://www.bioinfo.wsu.edu/
Dr Monica Poelchau
USDA-ARS
Geneticist at the National Agricultural Library, co-lead of the i5k Workspace@NAL
Dr Manuel Ruiz
CIRAD
Team leader at CIRAD in Montpellier, France. His team has developed Tripal genome hubs for several crop, including banana, coffee, cassava, and others.
Lacey-Anne Sanderson
University of Saskatchewan
Lead developer for KnowPulse, core Tripal developer and contributor of Tripal extension modules.
https://laceysanderson.github.io/
Dr Meg Staton
University of Tennesee
Associate Professor. Leads Hardwood Genomics, and a Tripal founder and contributor of Tripal extension modules.
https://epp.tennessee.edu/people/directory/dr-meg-staton/
Dr Jill Wegrzyn
University of Connecticut
TAC Chair. Associate Professor. Lead of the TreeGenes project
https://plantcompgenomics.com/
The Tripal Project Management Committee
The Tripal Project Management Committee (PMC) consists of experienced Tripal developers who ensure good practices for Tripal core code are followed. These individuals monitor the issue queue, resolve questions and work with the Tripal Advisory Committee to make decisions about inclusion of significant new features in the core Tripal codebase. The Tripal PMC members include:
Sean Buehler
University of Connecticut
TreeGenes and i5K Database Developer
http://plantcompgenomics.com/people-sean-buehler/
Dr Stephen Ficklin
Washington State University
Associate Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, a Tripal founder and core developer.
http://ficklinlab.cahnrs.wsu.edu/
Lacey-Anne Sanderson
University of Saskatchewan
Lead developer for KnowPulse, core Tripal developer and contributor of Tripal extension modules.
https://laceysanderson.github.io/