computer science

Open Bioinformatics Foundation

Open Bioinformatics Foundation is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Open Bioinformatics Foundation rather than just read about it. In short: The Open Bioinformatics Foundation is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization focused on supporting open source programming in bioinformatics. The mission of the foundation is to support the development of open source toolkits for bioinformatics, organise developer-centric hackathon events and generally assist in the development and promotion of open source software development in the life sciences.

Key takeaways

Open Bioinformatics Foundation belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Open Bioinformatics Foundation to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Open Bioinformatics Foundation from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Open Bioinformatics Foundation is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization focused on supporting open source programming in bioinformatics. The mission of the foundation is to support the development of open source toolkits for bioinformatics, organise developer-centric hackathon events and generally assist in the development and promotion of open source software development in the life sciences. The foundation also organises and runs the annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference, a satellite meeting of the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology conference. The foundation regularly participates in the Google Summer of Code, acting as an umbrella organisation for individual bioinformatics-related projects. It also runs an "Event Fellowship" program to support researchers to attend in-person or online events. The program is particularly focused on enabling attendance for researchers from underrepresented groups. The Open Bioinformatics Foundation was started in 2001, arising from the BioJava, BioPerl and BioPython projects. A formal membership for the foundation was created in 2005. In October 2012, the foundation began an association with Software in the Public Interest (SPI), a US-based non-profit which aids other organizations in the creation and distribution of free and open-source software. The association with SPI allows financial donations to the foundation (these are 501(c)3 tax-exempt in the US). The foundation is governed by a board of directors, representing various Bio* projects. As of 2019, the OBF President is Peter Cock (BioPython). Previous OBF presidents include Ewan Birney and Hilmar Lapp (NESCent), previous Board members include Steven E. Brenner.

Projects The foundation hosts servers for mailing lists, websites, and code repositories for a number of bioinformatics-related open source projects, including:

BioJava – Java toolkit BioMOBY – Data and application execution through web services BioPerl – Perl toolkit BioPython – Python toolkit BioRuby – Ruby toolkit BioPHP EMBOSS – Sequence analysis toolkit.

See also List of open-source bioinformatics software Generic Model Organism Database

References

External links Open Bioinformatics Foundation website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Open Bioinformatics Foundation

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Open Bioinformatics Foundation claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Open Bioinformatics Foundation before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Open Bioinformatics Foundation ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Open Bioinformatics Foundation

In research: Open Bioinformatics Foundation appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Open Bioinformatics Foundation in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Open Bioinformatics Foundation is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bioinformatics organizations, Free software project foundations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Open Bioinformatics Foundation outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Open Bioinformatics Foundation in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Open Bioinformatics Foundation means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Open Bioinformatics Foundation out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Open Bioinformatics Foundation in simple terms?

Why does Open Bioinformatics Foundation matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Open Bioinformatics Foundation?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Open Bioinformatics Foundation.