Abstract
Software is essential for data science. However, several software tools remain out of reach for many users due to a lack of documentation, thus limiting progress in the field. Tutorial development by authors and users can greatly improve a tool's accessibility and accelerate its adoption. In this article, we explore hackathons such as hackseq as a venue for authors and users to develop tutorials to address the lack of documented software. We describe four advantages of hackathon-driven tutorial development as well as three challenges that we faced. We also discuss our experience with remote participation. In short, if properly prepared, hackathons can provide a productive venue for assembling a group of passionate people, including remote participants, to develop a suite of related tutorials and address the growing need for accessible software.
Highlights
In the case of software packages, minimal documentation consists of describing inputs and outputs for individual functions
The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) is the de facto package repository for the R programming language and requires that submitted packages at least include this degree of documentation
Vignettes are required for submission to Bioconductor, a package repository geared towards computational biology
Summary
CRAN offers a framework for package developers to include additional documentation in the form of vignettes, which typically demonstrate real-world use cases. The authors experimented with tutorial development in a hackathon project at hackseq 20172. We explore the benefits and challenges associated with hackathon-driven tutorial development, including the trade-offs of remote hackathon participation. We believe that hackathons are an excellent venue for tutorial development and are suitable for remote participation.
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