Meeting on 2023-01-18 0800 AEDT

[carlhiggs]

Attendees: Carl, Eugen, Jonathan, Shirley
Apologies: Geoff, Vuokko
Minutes: Carl

What we've been doing

• I made some big updates updating/simplifying the Docker image and integrating report generation.
• However ideally, and moving forwards, we all agree that updates should be incremental; need to be disciplined to make small changes that are readily review-able. This approach is more fruitful, as per updated Docker image conda environment.yml for osmnx=1.3.*  #180 (thanks for feedback Geoff)

What we need to do

Training materials is the main thing we discussed, but I'll list two other tangential aspects so they remain on the agenda:

Validation (medium priority)

Currently, validation for users is diy. Our phase 1 (qualitative) and phase 2 (quantitative) validation code from the 25 city study is no longer current and needs updating. We agreed this should support integrated reporting on these aspects. In principle this could be incorporated in the 'generate reports' step, using particular validation templates.

Testing

Need to incorporate unit testing (unittest?) and functional testing. I am not sure on the best way to retrospectively introduce this; if anyone has thoughts/experience would be great to hear your advice! (@gboeing ?)

Training materials and understanding user needs for these (high priority)

We agreed on the need to

• Identify/recruit some users to test the process and provide feedback
  • We proposed an international feedback/training session on Wednesday 8 February (7am AEDT for 1 hour, since we have 1000 city challenge meeting at 8am), or Tuesday 7 February (7am AEDT for 2 hours?)
  • possible list of attendees (approx. 8? plus those of us who will attend) and time zones:
    • UTC+11 0700 Melbourne : Carl, Jonathan, Ken (Kuen Hee Lee; RA applying process to Harbin, China), Irene Gomez Varo (visiting PhD planning student from Barcelona, co-supervised by Xavier Delclos Alio; others?)
    • UTC+1 2100 Barcelona: Xavier Delclos Ali / Marc Domínguez (Xavi's RA)
    • UTC+1 2100 Switzerland?: Esra Suel (proposes to analyse UK cities)
    • UTC-3 1800 Santiago de Chile: Marianela Castillo (PhD student; associated w/ SALURBAL, co-supervised by Olga Sarmiento in Colombia)
    • UTC-6 1500? Mexico City UTC-6: Eugen, researchers TBA
    • UTC-6 1500 Minnesota UTC-6: Shirley
    • UTC-8 1200 Los Angeles: Geoff
  • The idea is, these people are using our process and this will be an interactive opportunity to gather user feedback and identify needs for additional documentation/clarity
  • The recording may serve as a training resource (could index w/ chapters to skip time on youtube?)
  • Refine details for feedback session and invite proposed attendees Action: @global-healthy-liveable-cities/software-spatial
• Draft a hierarchical list of concepts for running our software process with high-level and granular components (Action: @carlhiggs)
  • We can then use this to plan and develop written and video training materials
  • High level view is important to make accessible
  • For detailed aspects, a granular focus is important as implementation may change over time; so a short video or short bit of prose is easier to replace
  • Videos could be organised in playlists, and may be switched out - e.g. like these music software training videos perhaps
  • We'll draft a markdown version in first instance (eg like a simple gitpage with contents)
    • This will provide a prototype of FAQ page we discussed previously
  • If we have a draft agreed to be ready before feedback session, we could send link to attendees and gather feedback
• Need to identify assumed knowledge (YAML, Docker, Python) and make this clear on Github page
• Our Github page has too many levels -- process directions should be on front page perhaps? (should the software be launched from main folder too?)
• Testing out and taking notes on process Action: @eugenrb @global-healthy-liveable-cities/software-spatial

I think the above captures most of the gist of our discussion (other than Jonathan's nascent brewery, and Eugen's beer can packaging enterprise!)

[carlhiggs]

Hi @global-healthy-liveable-cities/software-spatial - here is a draft hierarchy of concepts for running our software process with high-level and granular components. We can flesh this out later, eg as an FAQ page perhaps. Its meant as a start towards that:
https://github.com/global-healthy-liveable-cities/global-indicators/blob/main/documentation/ghscic_process.md