Your pull-requests are welcome.
Below you will find all the information that we thought might help you plan your trip to Johannesburg for CarpentryConnect Johannesburg 2018. Please send us an email if you have any specific questions - carpentryconnect-jhb-2018@googlegroups.com.
For those of you arriving at OR Tambo airport, please feel free to make use of the free shuttle that commutes between the hotel/venue and the airport. The shuttle schedule can be viewed online. {See "Shuttle" below for info about where to wait}
Many participants, instructors and helpers will already arrive on Sunday afternoon or evening and you may bump into each other in the lounge at dinner time.
For those arriving on Monday morning, please take note that the workshops will start at 9:00 am. We understand that traffic may be problematic, but we do hope that you will be able to join us on time.
For those arriving on Wednesday evening in time for the Train-the-Trainer event, please join us for the networking event on Wednesday evening if you can.
If you're arriving on Thursday morning for the Train-the-Trainer event, please remember that we'll start at 9:00 am sharp. We hope traffic will allow you to be on time, as we have a full and exciting schedule to work through.
If your accommodation is funded by SADiLaR or RCCPII it will be booked on a dinner, bed, and breakfast basis at the Birchwood Hotel, Viewpoint Road Bartlett,Boksburg.
If you are arranging your own accommodation, please feel free to make use of the special rates negotiated for the event at the Birchwood Hotel, Viewpoint Road Bartlett,Boksburg. You can contact the hotel directly and indicate that you are part of the CarpentryConnect group to access these rates.
An ally is someone who uses her/his/their societal privileges for supporting members of other identity groups. We would like to create an inclusive environment at CarpentryConnect Johannesburg and invite you to extend your support to others at this conference and beyond. You can learn through resources made available by Valerie Aurora.
Badges will be handed out with registration on Monday morning from 8:30 am in the room where your workshop will take place. Please wear your badge at all times to assist with security and also to help colleagues remember names.
The Carpentries (https://carpentries.org/), brings Software and Data Carpentry together under an umbrella to teach foundational computational, coding, and data science skills to researchers worldwide. We are a diverse, global community of volunteer Instructors, helpers, Trainers, Maintainers, champions, member organizations, supporters, and staffs.
CarpentryConnect Johannesburg 2018 will take place from 3 - 7 September 2018 at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre. This event will bring together over 100 librarians, academics, researchers, postgraduate students, IT staff members, and many more from 24 out of the 26 public universities in South Africa as well as several other institutions.
We have created this Cheatsheet to help answer all questions you may have about the event, logistics, contacts, etc.
As event participant, you are requested to familiarize yourself with The Carpentries' Code of Conduct.
Code of Conduct in Short: The Carpentries are dedicated to providing a welcoming and supportive environment for all people, regardless of background or identity. Enforcement of the Code of Conduct will be respectful and not include any harassing behaviors. Harassment in any form or behavior intended to exclude, intimidate, or cause discomfort is a violation of the Code of Conduct. If you believe someone is violating the Code of Conduct we ask that you report it to the CarpentryCon TaskForce members or the Code of Conduct committee members (Karin Lagesen, Kari Jordan and Malvika Sharan) at the conference in person, by email or on Slack, who will take the appropriate action to address the situation. You can also reach out to the Carpentries Policy Committee by emailing policy@carpentries.org.
Refreshment breaks will be held daily at the following times:
- 8:30 - 9:00 (Coffee/Tea)
- 10:30 - 11:00 (Coffee/Tea/Snacks)
- 12:30 - 13:30 (Lunch)
- 15:00 - 15:30 (Coffee/Tea/Snacks)
- 18:00 - 20:00 (Networking events on Tuesday and Wednesday)
- 18:00 - late (Dinner at the hotel for participants reserved in the hotel under Dinner, Bed & Breakfast arrangement - please refer to your conference confirmation letter to confirm whether you are eligible)
Refreshment breaks will be held jointly for all participants of the event to provide opportunity to network accross the workshops.
During the workshops you'll have loads of opportunities to meet instructors and helpers who've been part of the Carpentry Community for various amounts of times. Please ensure you take the opportunity to meet them, ask about their experiences, learn about the initiatives, and see how you and your institutions can benefit from becoming part of this solutions-driven community of practice around computational and digital skills and teaching.
The Carpentries is a community of volunteer instructors, helpers, Trainers, Maintainers, champions, member organisations, supporters, and staff, of diverse background, nationality, ethnicity, gender and various identity groups. We are working hard to ensure that everyone feels welcome at CarpentryCon. Feel free to reach out to the organizers and staff if they can improve your experience as a member at The Carpentries and CarpentryCon. Attendees must be prepared to abide by our Code of Conduct (see Allies, Carpentries, Code of Conduct, Inclusion, Emergency).
Data Carpentry (DC) provides researchers high-quality, domain-specific training covering the full lifecycle of data-driven research. There will be an information desk where you can collect information on DC team, their work, workshops and various ways to get involved with their activities. Additionally, several DC members will be attending CarpentryCon (you can identify them by their badge), giving participants an opportunity for face-to-face networking.
The Carpentries is governed by the newly formed Executive Council, to whom the Executive Director reports. The Council comprises nine members, four elected by the community, and five appointed from the former Steering Committees of Software and Data Carpentry. Find out more about the council and their work.
In case of emergencies please contact:
- Anelda van der Walt: +27 (0)72 838-6969
We like to work collaboratively and use Etherpad for organizing our communication in different Carpentries channels.
The etherpads for the respective workshops at CarpentryConnect is availble at:
- Software Carpentry: https://pad.carpentries.org/2018-09-03-CarpentryConnect-JHB-SWC
- Data Carpentry for Social Sciences: https://pad.carpentries.org/2018-09-03-CarpentryConnect-JHB-Social-Sciences
- Library Carpentry/Digital Humanities: http://pad.software-carpentry.org/2018-09-03-CarpentryConnect-JHB-LC
- Instructor Training: https://pad.carpentries.org/2018-09-06-ttt-CarpentryConnect-JHB
Networking events are planned as follows:
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Tuesday, 4 September 2018 (18:00 - 20:00) ** Please register if you have not yet indicated your interest to join us for this event (email carpentryconnect-jhb-2018@googlegroups.com) ** The event will kick off with a short presentation about RCCPII and SADiLaR ** Dinner (a buffet) and softdrinks are included
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Wednesday, 5 September 2018 (18:00 - 20:00) ** Please register if you have not yet indicated your interest to join us for this event (email carpentryconnect-jhb-2018@googlegroups.com) ** The event will kick off with a short presentation ** A cocktail dinner and softdrinks are included
Please check your Registration Confirmation letter to confirm if you have registered for the networking events on Tuesday and/or Wednesday.
Helpers are volunteers from the community who join our workshops and circulate between participants to ensure everyone follows the hands-on sessions and are assisted when technical difficulty arrise. Helpers are critical allies of the instructors and ensure challenges experienced in the classroom are relayed back to the instructor in a timeous manner. A Carpentry workshop is heavily dependent on our helpers, just as much as our instructors.
We will not have an official helpdesk at the event, but you can get assistance in the workshops from instructors and helpers. Every workshop has at least 4 - 6 or more instructors and helpers who will be introduced at the beginning of the event. Please ensure you know who they are and feel free to ask them for help with anything you may need during the event.
Alternatively, please contact the conference organisers at carpentryconnect-jhb-2018@googlegroups.com.
Each workshop's instructors and helpers will help workshop participants to meet others in the room through group work early on in the workshop. Everybody at the event has a lot in common in terms of challenges to learn and teach computational and digital skills. We hope that the breaks will provide you with opportunities to meet colleagues from other institutions to grow your own network.
We want to create an inclusive and welcoming environment at the conference. We are providing travel assistance to facilitate attendance from as wide a group as possible. We are collecting full details to identify needs for mobility, accessibility and dietary preferences during registration. Feel free to reach out to the organizers and staff if they can improve your participation at CarpentryCon. (see Allies, Carpentries, Code of Conduct, Diversity, Emergency)
There are several ways to become a member of The Carpentries community and support its work. At CarpentryConnect, there will be opportunities to meet volunteers from the community to learn more about it. See here for more detail.
This event is slightly different from your typical conference as it will consist of full-day, hands-on workshops rather than talks and presentations.
We don't have keynote speakers, but we do have over 20 instructors and helpers. You can learn more about our instructors' and helpers' backgrounds and experience on the CarpentryConnect website under Trainers.
We are privileged to have a very diverse group of participants, instructors and helpers at CarpentryConnect. Please take the opportunity to learn from each other. If you need a breakout room on Thursday morning (not participating in the instructor training) or on Wednesday afternoon, to discuss specific topics in small groups, please contact Anelda van der Walt as soon as possible to arrange.
Library Carpentry, is made by librarians, for librarians to help you automate repetitive, boring, error-prone tasks, create, maintain and analyse sustainable and reusable data, work effectively with IT and systems colleagues, better understand the use of software in research and much more. Library Carpentry introduces you to the fundamentals of computing and provides you with a platform for further self-directed learning. See here for more detail.
Please remember to bring along your laptop and charger for the laptop as well as adaptors should you have non-South African plugs. The workshops are hands-on and everyone needs to work on their own computer although we will have plenty of opportunity for peer-instruction and collaboration.
If you are unable to bring along a laptop (no restrictions on the operating system - we accept Windows, Mac, and Linux), please contact the organisers urgently. A tablet will not be sufficient to work along.
Too be completed shortly
Mentorship is an important part of the Carpentry experience. As Instructors, we both teach and mentor our Learners. We also mentor each other as Instructors, learning something new from each other every time we teach and interact with one another. The Mentoring Subcommittee offers guidance to new and continuing Instructors through weekly discussion sessions, where Instructors from the global Carpentry community gather to share their experiences and learn from each other. This is a fantastic opportunity to interact with other Carpentry Instructors from around the world. (Read more on the The Carpentries Blog1 and Blog2) and Blog3.
Are you new to The Carpentries? Do you want to learn more about the organization and how you can support it? CarpentryConnect Johannesburg is the place for you. Actually a better start for you than the rest of us had, as you will have an opportunity for face-to-face networking and interaction. We understand that it could be frightening if you don't know anyone, but the community has a history of being very friendly and inclusive, so don't be afraid to say 'Hi' and introduce yourself. You will be surprised how many lasting collaborations you will make at the conference.
Name tags are a great way for participants to strike up conversations with other participants or volunteers. You can collect your name tag at the registration desk at your workshop room (don't forget to bring your registration confirmation letter).
Please follow the link to your workshop website where you will find more information about the workshop schedule, contents, and preparations.
All workshop websites have a list of software that should be installed prior to the start of the workshop (excluding the Train-the-Trainer event). The software names and installation instructions can be found at the bottom of the workshop website under "SETUP". If you have any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact us at carpentryconnect-jhb-2018@googlegroups.com.
Help with software installations will also be available on site at the workshops on Sunday evening from 18:00 - 19:00. The venue will be confirmed. Support will also be available from 8:00 - 9:00 on Monday 3 September at the workshop venues.
Information about how to prepare for the instructor training event is available at the CarpentryConnect Train-the-Trainer website.
We would like to take photos during the course of CarpentryConnect to use in future reports, blog posts, and on Social Media. Please let Anelda van der Walt or Juan Steyn know if you would prefer not to be included in photos.
Free parking is available at the venue and hotel at Birchwood Hotel & Conference Centre.
Questions can be addressed to carpentryconnect-jhb-2018@googlegroups.com or to Anelda van der Walt (anelda.vdwalt@gmail.com) - 072 838-6969 or Juan Steyn (juan.steyn@nwu.ac.za).
Registration will take place on Monday morning from 8:30 - 9:00 at the room where your workshop will be conducted. Train-the-Trainer registration will take place on Thursday morning from 8:30 - 9:00 at the instructor training venue.
Please remember to bring along your registration confirmation letter that was emailed to you.
We love sticky notes! No Carpentries workshop is possible without the sticky notes. See Greg's collection of tips and techniques for teaching with sticky notes to learn the various reasons it makes learning and teaching easier. Therefore, we will be using (even over-using!) these during the skill-up sessions, workshops and wherever possible.
We want to assist you in all possible ways to make your participation at CarpentryConnect enjoyable and stress-free. Please contact the organisers with any requests for special needs so that we can make arrangements before your arrival. Do not hesitate to contact us during the meeting for any help.
To be added shortly
CarpentryConnect Johannesburg 2018 is co-funded by the:
- Rural Campuses Connection Project II (RCCPII), a DHET funded project administered by Universities South Africa (USAF) and implemented by The Tertiary Education and Research Network (TENET) AND
- South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR), a DST funded project that forms part of the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR).
The Software Carpentry Foundation and its sibling project, Data Carpentry, have merged to become The Carpentries. Since 1998, Software Carpentry has been teaching researchers the computing skills they need to get more done in less time and with less pain. Our volunteer instructors have run hundreds of events for more than 34,000 researchers since 2012. All of our lesson materials are freely reusable under the Creative Commons - Attribution license.
Like Data Carpentry, we will have a desk at the conference where you can learn more about this project.
The free airport shuttle that runs between OR Tambo airport and the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre runs at the times specified in the schedule that can be downloaded here. All workshops will take place at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre which is also where accommodation has been booked for those funded through RCCPII/SADiLaR. No extra transport should be required once you are at the venue/hotel.
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International Arrivals: Exit the doors from International Arrivals. From the greeting area, look for the signs to car hire and the bus terminal. Continue straight, towards the street, exit the terminal building. Cross the road, following the signs to the bus terminal. The Birchwood OR Tambo shuttle departs at 10 past the hour from the bus terminal. There is a Birchwood guest lounge where you enjoy free WiFi and coffee while you wait at our Airport Guest Lounge.
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Domestic Arrivals: Exit the doors from the OR Tambo Airport Domestic Arrivals. From the greeting area, head right towards International Arrivals. Passing International Arrivals (on your right), look for the signs to car hire and the bus terminal. Bearing left, towards the street, exit the terminal building. Cross the road, following the signs to the bus terminal.
The Birchwood OR Tambo Airport shuttle departs at 10 past the hour from the bus terminal. There is a Birchwood guest lounge where you enjoy free WiFi and coffee while you wait at our Airport Guest Lounge.
The African Carpentries Task Force was established late in 2017 to help grow the Carpentries in Africa through mentorship and support for local instructors.
The Carpentries can be followed on Twitter at @TheCarpentries](https://twitter.com/thecarpentries) whereas the individual lesson organisations, Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry, as well as Library Carpentry, can be followed respectively at https://twitter.com/swcarpentry, https://twitter.com/datacarpentry, and https://twitter.com/LibCarpentry.
We'll do our best to provide technical support during the workshop in collaboration with our helpers, and the conference venue staff. Please approach a helper if you have any technical challenges. Helpers will be introduced at the beginning of the workshops.
Travel should be arranged by you or your institution. Conference organisers are not liable for making any transport arrangements.
It is advised to fly to OR Tambo rather than Lanseria Airport as the venue is only a few minutes away from OR Tambo and a free shuttle run between OR Tambo and the venue/hotel daily.
The venue is Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre.
It seems like the weather in Johannesburg will be lovely during CarpentryConnect. Please remember that we'll be indoors most of the day and that airconditioned climates may be much cooler than expected. Remember a jersey or jacket for the unpredictable.
More information about the various workshops that will run during the week is available at the respective websites:
- Software Carpentry - 3 - 5 September
- Data Carpentry for Social Sciences - 3 - 5 September
- Library Carpentry/Digital Humanities - 3 - 5 September
- Train-the-Trainer (Carpentries instructor training) - 6 & 7 September
Wireless internet will be available at the event venue.
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Software Carpentry: Barcelona
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Data Carpentry for Social Sciences: Lanseria
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Library Carpentry/Digital Humanities: Heathrow
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Train-the-Trainer: Heathrow ** Break away rooms: *** Prague *** Charles de Gaulle
We can't emphasize this enough!
The globally diverse community of The Carpentries provides equal opportunities to everyone irrespective of their background (both technical and non-technical). We will maintain the same ethics at CarpentryConnect Johannesburg and would request all our participants to familiarize themselves with our Code of Conduct.
Discrimination in any form, including behavior or remarks against any nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, religious and cultural belief, will not be tolerated! (also see Allies, Code of Conduct, Diversity, Inclusion)
This event is for you. The success of this event will be measured by what you gain here and afterward in terms of skills, knowledge, and networking.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to CapentryConnect Johannesburg 2018!