Galaxy Australia team helping to lead a truly global research activity
The successful mature research software infrastructure project that is Galaxy has evolved over many years, and has benefited from the participation of thousands of people around the world. The Galaxy Community is made up of the passionate people who constantly improve and expand on what Galaxy does, plus its diversifying and exponentially growing user base. Responding to the increasing complexity that comes with a rapidly growing audience and to fully engage the international Galaxy Community, a range of new governance structures have been formed. Aussies are well represented in many of these new community groups, reflecting the truly global collaboration and the esteem earned over the years of Galaxy Australia contributions.
The Galaxy Executive Board has members from Europe, USA and Australia, including Andrew Lonie (Director, Galaxy Australia). The Board has drawn together the Global Galaxy Steering Committee to represent community interests and has Ross Lazarus as its Chair and Maria Doyle (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre) and Simon Gladman (Melbourne Bioinformatics, Galaxy Australia) in its ranks.
Simon’s various roles showcase the complexity of what's required behind the scenes of Galaxy’s sophisticated offering. In addition to participating in the Global Galaxy Steering Committee, he’s a contributor to the Intergalactic Utilities Commission, the Intergalactic (Reference) Data Commission and the Galaxy Training Network. To share his skills with the community he regularly leads Global Admin Training, and also offers local training workshops via Melbourne Bioinformatics and national events via Australian BioCommons. Simon contributes to the Galaxy Admins working group, which is one of a raft of small community-led working groups that manage different aspects of the Galaxy ecosystem.
Growing the Galaxy community in our region, Christina Hall (BioCommons) and Anna Syme (Melbourne Bioinformatics) participate in the Outreach and Training working group, and Christina forms part of the Global Outreach and Communications Committee.
Simon, Christina and Gareth Price (Galaxy Australia’s Service Manager) helped to organise last year’s international Bioinformatics Community Conference which was a great way to network with Galaxy community members in friendly timezones. The publications from that event can be found at Galaxy’s F1000 Gateway where community members continue to submit their work for peer review by a Galaxy community panel that includes Gareth. Gareth and Simon will again offer their expertise as part of the Organising Committee of the upcoming Global Galaxy Community Conference 2021.
As the capabilities and capacities of Galaxy rapidly grow, the Galaxy community continues to reach out and welcome newcomers, and it is hoped that this new governance framework will enable Galaxy to build its truly global community.