Neuroimaging Tools and Resources Clearinghouse

1. Neuroimaging Tools and Resources Clearinghouse Funded by the NIH Blueprint for Neurosciences Research

2. Meet The Technical & Customer Support Team • First Tier Support • Christian Haselgrove, NITRC Administrator/Moderator • David Kennedy, NITRC Customer Liaison • Second & Third Tier Support • Turner Consulting (TCG) • Robert Buccigrossi, Technical Lead • Kent Reynolds, Programmer • Keith Wagner, Programmer • Kimberly Pohland, Documentation • Nina Preuss, Project Manager • Maureen Sullivan, UI Interface and Testing • UCSD/BIRN • Mark Ellisman, NITRC Strategic Advisor • Jeffrey Grethe, Rotating System Administrator, System Administration • Maryann Martone, Ontology

3. What are NITRC’s Goals? • Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse • “The goal of the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is to provide scientists with new tools, resources, and training opportunities through collaborations and pooled resources,” said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. “By building upon significant investments already made in the informatics area, the Neuroimaging Informatics Tools and Resources Clearinghouse will provide a coordinated, coherent resource for the neuroimaging research community. (NIH Press Release, Oct. 5, 2006) • NITRC Contract Goals • Identify fMRI tools and resources for the neuroimaging community • Provide information about these tools and access to them in a common format • Facilitate community interaction to make them more usable by a broader research community • Facilitate neuroimaging science and neuroinformatics collaboration and education

4. What Did Major Release 1.0 Start Out With? • User Functionality • Select among neuroimaging tools • Use a rating system • View statistics on download, rating, reviews, overall ease of use • View comparative matrices of tools • Secure license information, tutorials, documentation • Check for updates, access old versions and data sets • Monitor bugs and feature sets • Discuss tools/resources in forums and mailing lists • Developer Functionality • Register and categorize tools • Publish detailed and summary descriptions • Easily provide new releases • Provide documentation and tutorials • Provide data sets • Automated interactions through Web services • Receive and track bug and feature requests

5. We Listen To The Community, So Now… • With Major Release 1.1, NITRC Provides • Full search using Google to find content on all NITRC web page content • “View By Topic” using a dynamic tool tree viewer • Lists all tools/resources at once • Offers improved tool/resource comparison functionality via tables • With Major Release 1.2, NITRC Will • Replace PHPWiki with Mediawiki • Provide a one-click virtual machine backup • Include more help text via “i” pop-ups and on the page itself • Display non-standard license information and more…

6. Concerned About Your Tool’s Safety & Future? • Funding & Transition Concerns • NITRC is fully funded until Oct. 2011 • In 2010, Structured Technology Solutions, Inc. will conduct Independent Verification and Validation to confirm all processes and documentation are in place for contract transition • Environments • Production environment with nightly back-ups to remote location • Separately housed stage environment with current code • Functionality in Major Release 1.2 (Oct. ’08) • Ability to download a virtual machine of your tool/resource on a weekly basis (not to be stood up while NITRC is in operation…) • Instruction for standing up a virtual machine for your tool will be published as part of contract transition

7. How NITRC Can Help You • Ways the Site Can Help You Improve Your Tool/Resource • Secure support from the NITRC development team and the neuroimaging community to improve your tool or resource via: • Discussion groups and survey capabilities • Ratings and reviews comments provide valuable input from the community • Use all or a portion of NITRC functionality to manage your tool/resource • House your tool/resource on NITRC or link externally to your Web site • Utilize NITRC’s documentation management, mailing lists, survey, wiki and task, feature request and bug tracking functionality • Ways the NITRC Team Can Help You • NITRC Marketing and Outreach Plan • Continued outreach to 80+ fMRI tool developers • Email, phone, and this year, on-site presentations to research laboratories • Promoting the tools and resources at major neuroscience conferences • Booth: SfN, HBM, CNS • Posters/Electronic Demos: ISMRM, SBP, AMIA • NITRC Technical and Customer Support Plan • Batch uploading of archived forums and other transition support

8. NITRC Activities • Marketing and Outreach • Ontology/Vocabulary • NITRC topic tree categories include165 ontology terms • These categories are what most registered users use to initially find and compare tools so it is important that all NITRC tools are categorized • Ontology discussion group project administered by Maryann Martone and David Kennedy • On-Going Coordination With BIRNLEX and NCBC Ontology Initiatives • Web Site Development • Of 393 feature requests, over 1/3 have already been developed (138) • All priority 5 and 4, and the majority of 3 will be implemented • Change Control Board directs the priorities of implementation • Positions on CCB rotate so there are opportunities to serve • Annual Independent Verification & Validation Review • STSI is contracted to annually review NITRC’s project management and web development to verify whether we meet the contract requirements and have quality processes in place

9. Functionality That You May Be Unaware Of…

10. You Can Link Inside NITRC To External Pages • Use NITRC’s external linking functionalityto link to your own web site • Thelinks will be displayed alphabetically on the left menu bar

11. Forums, Mailing Lists Can Get You Answers • The NITRC team hasmigratedpre-existingforums and mailing lists to NITRC successfully • Use NITRC’s Community forums to generate interest on a topic that is not tool/resource specific,or use your own tool/resourceforum for specific discussions

12. By Sharing Code, Others Can Improve It • If you want the neuroscience community to apply its creative resources to your source code, you can upload it so that others and improve upon it • The users who improve the code need to be members of your project to reload it

13. Better Recognition Via Screen Shots • Youcan upload up to six images, such as screen shots, your laboratory logo, or even pictures of members of your team • This new capability can help tool and laboratory recognition

14. Open Discussion: Are We Accomplishing Our Goals? • Scope • All fMRI and associated structural tools and resources available to the community • Serve • fMRI tools and resources users • fMRI tools and resources developers • Provide • Information about tools and resources • Access to these tools and resources through downloads and links • Community-based tool and resource reviews • A controlled vocabulary for resource description to promote easy searching and comparison • A user-friendly venue where developers can share tools or resources • Assistance and advice from the community and the NITRC team for improvements and enhancements • Outreach at major conferences to develop community awareness

15. Tell Us What We Need To Do Via NITRC • Use the NITRC Community bug and feature request tracker to communicate needed development to the NITRC team • Always feel free to contact anyone from the NITRC if you have issues or concerns