Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 24.8
Screenshot of Inkspot platform for collaborative cheminformatics
analyses.
24.5
MANAGING COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
We have provided a brief overview of various technologies that enable and
enhance collaborative projects in the fi eld of cheminformatics. Yet, one aspect
still remains open to discussion. While tools are available to share source code
and experimental data, how should such collaborative projects be managed?
When the collaboration is between two individuals, project management is not
a signifi cant problem, but it becomes much more problematic when the number
of collaborators grows larger.
The fi rst aspect is communication between members within the collabora-
tion. A number of mechanisms are available, including mailing lists and online
messaging systems. Both of these methods have a long history and mailing lists
are a useful way to broadcast messages to all members of a group [85]: By
sending an e-mail to the mailing list address it is automatically distributed
across all of the participants. This has an associated downside as members may
not desire such broadcasted messages which may not be relevant to them.
Furthermore, e-mail is relatively ineffi cient at handling multiple conversations,
though threading does alleviate this. Modern e-mail systems such as Google
Mail have provided a number of enhancements to improve the handling of
multiple conversations in a mailing list, such as automatic fi ltering of messages
to mailing lists directly into a folder, instead of the main inbox.
One important aspect of mailing lists is that they are not real time or inter-
active. On the other hand, messaging systems such as Internet Relay Chat
(IRC) [86] or instant messengers (Yahoo Chat, AOL, etc.) offer real-time
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