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Onboarding

Michael Koontz edited this page Apr 29, 2020 · 6 revisions

This page is aimed at onboarding new members of Earth Lab.

Getting started

Earth Lab advocates for open reproducible scientific research. As part of this mission, we have developed a set of research best practices to provide guidance on how to structure projects, manage computational workflows, and track the provenance of research products. As a member of Earth Lab you have access to a diverse range of resources to help you in your work.

Code of conduct

  • We are committed to providing a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, religion, or similar personal characteristic.
  • Please be kind and courteous. There’s no need to be mean or rude.
  • Code shaming is not helpful and will not be tolerated. Members of the Earth Lab community deserve a supportive learning environment to develop new skills.
  • Respect that people have differences of opinion and that every analysis, design, or implementation choice carries a trade-off and numerous costs.
  • We don’t tolerate behavior that excludes people in socially marginalized groups.
  • Please avoid using nicknames that might detract from a friendly, safe and welcoming environment for all.
  • Any spamming, trolling, flaming, baiting or other attention-stealing behavior are not welcome.

*Adapted from the rOpenSci CoC, adapted from the io.js CoC, adapted from the Rust CoC.

Getting help

Earth Lab and the Analytics Hub comprise a collaborative network of researchers that encompasses a wide variety of expertise. Chances are, if you're stuck and need help with something, there is someone in Earth Lab that can point you in the right direction. The following options are available to get help:

  • Ask on Slack for quick, informal help. See the channel #i-gotz-issuezzzz. To request access to the Earth Lab Slack workspace see: https://join.slack.com/t/cuearthlab/signup
  • Create an issue on GitHub and tag somebody with their GitHub user name e.g., @mbjoseph in the issue to send them a notification.
  • E-mail can also work, but is less desirable than opening an issue on GitHub.

Asking good questions

You can get help more quickly when your question is easy to understand, and the problem is easy to reproduce. See these guidelines on StackOverflow for guidance on how to ask a good question. If possible, point to a Docker image that you're using to ensure that your computational environment is reproducible. This will help to avoid situations where it works on one person's computer and not elsewhere.

Compute resources

Earth Lab uses cloud and high-performance computing resources to enable scalable scientific computing.

  • Cloud computing via Amazon Web Services
  • High performance computing via CU Boulder Research Computing

IT Support

Other useful resources