[OWW-SC] please sign steering committee letter of support for NSF BDI grant

[Reshma P. Shetty]

Hey all,

http://openwetware.org/wiki/OpenWetWare:Steering_committee/ 
Long_term_planning_discussion

As many of you know if you've seen the above page, several members of  
the steering committee have been considering how to ensure the long  
term sustainability of OpenWetWare.  Our working plan, is that the  
steering committee remains in place to ensure that OpenWetWare has an  
energized user community and that OpenWetWare itself meets user  
needs.  However, we'd like to transfer many of the administrative and  
technical burdens now being shouldered by the steering committee to a  
core team of 1-3 full or part-time personnel.  These folks would  
oversee maintenance of the site and be responsive to the steering  
committee's requests for new software and capabilities.

To help achieve this long term plan, we need funding.  We currently  
pursuing several options.  One option is an NSF biological databases  
and informatics grant application.  Our assumption is that even if  
the application itself goes unfunded we can use the document to  
pursue other funding sources.

As a part of this grant (which is being submitted by Drew Endy), the  
Steering Committee is drafting a letter of support for the grant to  
indicate our commitment to helping guide OpenWetWare in the future.

I've written this letter and posted it at

http://openwetware.org/wiki/OpenWetWare:Steering_committee/ 
NSF_BDI_Grant/Letter_of_support

If you feel comfortable and agree with the contents of the letter,  
please sign it (electronically) on the wiki page.  If you have  
suggestions for the letter, please post them on the talk page.

Apologies for not circulating a draft earlier for discussion and  
comment, we've been swamped with getting things done and only had a  
chance to draft it today.

The grant is being submitted tomorrow.  For more information or to  
leave comments, please see

http://openwetware.org/wiki/OpenWetWare:Steering_committee/NSF_BDI_Grant

Thanks,

Reshma