Work package 1 (curriculum) is well under way. Sub-groups for R, Python and Git have been made and we are finishing up the personas, learning objectives and curriculum outlines together for the end of the month. 

Work package 2 (governance, business model) has started with OECD joining the Carpentries and experimenting their setting. It would be great if 1-2 other organisations would formally join the Carpentries to have more experience with the Carpentries governance.

Group and sub-groups are working on the document and on images that could help in completing the framework

Many discussions on the definitions, using also existing documents and standards to avoid overlapping and contradictions

There are advances in the three main sections of the document

May 3-4 Sprint meeting in Budapest, online and in person

• Hold a last development meeting (next week) before the summer period
• Set up a means to continue collaboration and communication during July and August
• Organize the sprint
• Announce the sprint
• Start combining the subgroup documents into a first draft

• Lack of in-person attendance at sprint; we need at least 12 participants in person

• Count on support from Executive Board members
• Setup virtual attendance

Progress is being made on the curriculum for R, Python and Git. The initial review and modification of existing content is on tract to be completed at the end of June

Work package 2 (governance, business model) has started with OECD joining the Carpentries and experimenting their setting (community support, governance, communications, participation in instructors' trainings...). It would be great if 1-2 other organisations would formally join the Carpentries to have more experience with the Carpentries governance. 

Finalize and integrate modified content with existing Carpentries material. We will be created the new chapters over the summer. 

Work Package 2 (governance, business model) is planned to progress in the second Semester. A webinar will be organised with interested organisations in the second week of July in order to take stock of the information gathered and discuss governance / business model options).

In May we had a fantastic Sprint in Budapest in hybrid mode; for those present the delicious hospitality of Zoltan (sigh!) and Andrea

In the Sprint the global design of the document has been thoroughly clarified and shared.

In the Sprint we decided also to ask Dan to write a Note on Interoperability: after a couple of weeks, the note was shared with the group and discussed.

Later we had good progresses in Chapter 1 (Introduction) and Chapter 3 (Tools).

Integrate the Dan's note with Chapter 2 (Interoperability)

Complete Chapter 1 and 3

Collect contents for Chapter 4 (Recommendations)

Some project subgroups have met and further developed their working documents. The most recent version of the five work documents is posted on the project's home wiki page. A meeting took place with SORS to prepare the sprint that will be taking place in Belgrade from September 12 to 14. The sprint will be attended by 18 project experts (12 in-person and 6 virtually; 3 non-response still). Accommodation options and other key information were distributed to all project experts. The sprint will include a webinar to introduce the project to a wider audience and seek their input. The webinar was announced on LinkedIn.

The bad news is that the project has lost two subgroup leaders (StatCan and ONS). A replacement was quickly identified (Ian Bale) who also volunteered to take the lead of a subgroup. The expert from the ONS is looking into finding a replacement. Both experts left for career opportunities in other government departments highlighting quite concretely the challenges of retaining people with a high level of Cloud expertise and experience.

Meetings to prepare for the sprint will be organized this week and next week.

The sprint will be held from September 12 to 14. Everything possible will be done to optimize the participation and collaboration of all.

The sprint will conclude with a discussion on possible extension. The outcome of this discussion will be communicated to the BSTN, hopefully on September 15.

Loss of expertise. Given that we are late in the year, there is not much we can do except hoping for replacements and integrating them as quickly as possible.

Lower attendance at the sprint. We appreciate all the support that the HLG-MOS committee and its Exec Board can provide to encourage and allow experts to attend.

WorkPackage 1: Work on WP1 of the Carpentries project is progressing but has been impacted by recent events. The departure of Kate Burnett-Isaacs from Statistics Canada means that others will need fill the gap. Currently there are three GitHub repositories and corresponding GitHub Page sites (on R, Python, and Git) under development, however all are at the pre-alpha stage and at various levels of completeness. One complication is that these lessons will need to be transitioned from their current format to a new Carpentries lesson format (tools to automate the transition process can be found here). Of the three lessons, while each has an overall structure in place, the Python lesson is by far the most advanced. Consequently, discussions have revolved around finalizing the Python lesson.

Work Package 2: after several months of experimenting the Carpentries governance, WP2 was kicked off in July - see presentation and meeting notes here: WP2 - Kick-off.  OECD reported on its experience with silver membership and certification of trainers. A discussion ensued on the governance, intellectual property and business model. Key questions were scoped that will be discussed with the Carpentries in a workshop planned end Sept. The proposed scenario for implementation could be (to be confirmed at the workshop):

"continue to experiment for 1-2 years under Governance Scenario 1(under Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry), which requires all participating organisations to become direct Carpentries members to have a pool of a few certified trainers per organisations (Cost 1), who develop lessons under existing Carpentries (Cost 2). For that to happen, we need to have satisfactory answers to all previous questions. Under the HLG-MOS, the HRMT (Human Resources Management and Training) group could naturally act as the coordination level, reporting to the HLG-MOS Executive Board. With this approach, the heavy burden of initiating a separate curriculum “ModernStats Carpentry” is pushed back until sufficient experience is gained by the community." (see meeting notes)

Work Package 1: set up a meeting with the Python lesson lead, consolidate comments to the lesson, and transition to new format.

Work Package 2: organisation of a workshop with Carpentries representative towards the end of Sept, to review all key questions raised in the area of IP, governance and business model. Based on their answers, the preferred scenario will be fleshed out, and presented as part of the report to HLG-MOS meeting in Nov.

In July hybrid in Ottawa (ISI)

Meetings even during the holiday period

Advancements for the document's Chapters 1, 2 and 3

Complete revision for chapters 1 and 2

Complete first draft for chapter 3

Detail structure of chapter 4 and start drafting

The project held a sprint meeting in Belgrade from September 12-14. Leaders or experts of each subgroup theme were present. Other project experts participated online throughout the sprint, some at very early or late hours. Much collaboration, exchanges and progress were made. The sprint concluded with a webinar. Its objectives was to introduce the project, provide an overview on each of its five theme and leave much time for questions, opinions, experiences and other relevant information from the audience. The webinar was attended by 40 persons.

A main draft document was created. Each subgroup has inserted their respective documents in it and are now working from the main draft. Formatting and editing the document has started. The draft document is due to be completed by November 1st.

• Complete the draft document on November 1st
• Deliver a webinar to present the content of the document. It will be delivered on November 16 at 12:00 (CET). An announcement will soon be sent. We hope to have many members of the HLG-MOS community present!
• Finalize the document in December.

Future of collaboration and sharing on the adoption of cloud,

At this point, we do not see the need to extend the project with a commitment to deliver other documents. However, we plan to conclude the project by determining if there is a need and commitment in continuing to share adoption experiences among statistical organisations. If so, the current project could setup the main parameters of this cloud adoption community (how, who, main topics, frequency, etc.)

• The idea of setting up a cloud adoption community will be presented and discussed at the webinar and the HLG-MOS workshop
• This community will need more organisations than currently collaborating on the project

Work Package 1: Following Kate's departure from Statistics Canada, UNECE Andrew Tait has taken over the coordination  As part of WP1, the Python curriculum is nearly final (see  Python for Official Statistics) and the contributors believe completion is achievable by year end pending final review. The other envisaged curricula (R for Official Statistics, Git for Official Statistics) are less advanced and would require a project extension for being delivered. As part of the closure workshop (see WP2), WP1 outcomes were presented to Carpentries representatives.

Work Package 2: A closure workshop was organised with the Carpentries in October, with the participation of WP2 and WP1 contributors. The workshop was organised around 5 questions formulated in July by the WP2 contributors:

• Question 1: How can we incentivise trainers to fully embrace the framework?
• Question 2: Is the Carpentries IP model acceptable for public sector statistical organisations?
• Question 3: How does the governance of the Data and Software Carpentries work?
• Question 4: Are we comfortable becoming direct members of the Carpentries?
• Question 5: Do we all agree on the preferred, most realistic approach? Open discussion on next steps in 2024-25.

The summary record from the workshop is being finalised.

The information harvested will be formatted into the final report for the HLG-MOS meeting in November. It appears that the one realistic scenario could be to create an "Official Statistics" curriculum under the Data Carpentry, as an intermediate step before creating a full fledge "ModernStats Carpentry". This could be materialised with a the 3 envisaged curricula (Python, R and Git) going through the Data Carpentry curation procedure (starting with the Lesson Incubation stage).

Going through that process and delivering an "Official Statistics" curriculum under the Data Carpentry, could be the scope for a 2024 project. But that would require an organisation stepping up to take over the lead / coordination by Statistics Canada on WP1 in 2023.

The WP1 Lessons are all still incomplete, with only the Python lesson scheduled for progression to Alpha stage by year’s end. The lessons

Additionally, WP2 topics could use further investigation.

Jonathan Wylie of StatCan has been taking up Kate’s work and is currently bringing himself up to speed with the Carpentries project.

Stéphane Dufour will contact him regarding further collaboration on the project.

The final document is almost completed: chapters 1 and 2 need only a final editing, chapter 3 will be soon be aligned to 1-2. We have still 2 meetings to finalize chapter 4 on Recommendations and to prepare a version presentable at the workshop

Final editing for chapters 1-3, completion of chapter 4 in time for the workshop

Find a way to discuss the document inside the Community (webinar?)

Verify connections with any future activity on CSDA