Science Library Pad

Event: The rise of Open Science in Canada

Unlocking Science: The rise of Open Science in Canada - Perspectives from Early Career Researchers

June 2, 2022
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EDT

In this cafe, we will hear from two guest speakers about the importance and practice of open science, followed by small group discussion in break-out rooms to discuss how early career researchers can move open science forward. We will be discussing open science recommendations in the context of UNESCO’s open science framework.

Featuring:

• Dr. Masha Cemma, a policy advisor to the Chief Science Advisor of Canada
• Dylan Roskams-Edris, JD, Open Science Alliance Officer for the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute

Microsoft Dev Box cloud-based development environments

Microsoft Dev Box, a new cloud service that provides developers with secure, ready-to-code developer workstations for hybrid teams of any size. Microsoft Dev Box empowers developers to focus on the code only they can write, making it easy for them to access the tools and resources they need without worrying about workstation configuration and maintenance. Dev teams preconfigure Dev Boxes for specific projects and tasks, enabling devs to get started quickly with an environment that’s ready to build and run their app in minutes. At the same time, Microsoft Dev Box ensures unified management, security, and compliance stay in the hands of IT by leveraging Windows 365 to integrate Dev Boxes with Intune and Microsoft Endpoint Manager.

from Microsoft Tech Community - Azure Developer Community Blog - Introducing Microsoft Dev Box - May 24, 2022

Blog post covered e.g. in Ars Technica - Microsoft Dev Box will virtualize your Windows development PC in a browser window - May 25, 2022

I've written before that just getting a development environment set up with all the necessary supporting libraries and dependencies sorted out is a major barrier to casual development these days, and that language-specific cloud services such as Google Colaboratory for Jupyter Notebooks help address this.

Additionally in a corporate environment there are often rights restrictions that limit the end-user's ability to install and manage software, which can make it difficult to maintain a complex software development environment. 

Pre-packaged virtual machines in the cloud offer a potential quick path to productive development environments.

This may also help scientific researchers who may want to do software development but have neither the time nor expertise to install and configure a complete environment themselves.
Additionally as MS indicates, this means access to a full Microsoft development environment even if your underlying platform is macOS or Linux.

because Microsoft Dev Boxes are hosted in the Microsoft cloud, you can access them from anywhere: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, or your web browser

Microsoft Dev Box has Microsoft 365 integration (unsurprisingly) which may also make it an easier fit for corporate environments.

Currently in private preview, public preview coming "in the next few months".

FeedBlitz email list restarted

FeedBlitz apparently puts mailing lists on hold if the blog has been inactive.  I have now restarted the email list.

You should now get emails for new blog posts.  If you had long ago forgotten that you were a subscriber, the email should also give you the ability to unsubscribe.

(If you have this FeedBlitz on hold issue for your own blog, login to FeedBlitz, go to your FeedBlitz dashboard, click on Mailing Lists, then click on Restart.)

Departmental Open Science Plans for the Government of Canada

Government of Canada science departments are to create Open Science Plans, per the Chief Science Advisor's Roadmap for Open Science.

These plans are linked on the Government's science.gc.ca site:

Departmental Open Science Action Plans

Automatic posting to Twitter

A reminder that new posts are automatically tweeted on Twitter account @scilibfeed

The link to Twitter was broken for a while but should be fixed now.