Lettertray

Day 2 at the SEASR Workshop focused more on potential implementations of SEASR tools in existing projects (e.g., MONK, DISCUS, Vue, etc.).  Most of the presentations were short on particulars, but talked a lot about expanding on current & planned functionality with SEASR tools.  To SEASR’s credit, none of the speculative talk seemed far-fetched - a lot of big ideas suddenly seem much closer to realization.  But, the strength of SEASR lies in the ability to share code (’components’, in SEASR lingo), and the ability to share is contingent on the emergence of a lively community around these tools.  The SEASR folks reported on a Community hub initiative, though it wasn’t ready.

There has been a lot of discussion among the participants about whether SEASR does anything that other pipeline languages/java/frameworks don’t already do.  And I think there is more to hear from the SEASR folks regarding why they developed yet another framework and language to support the real meat of the project: the repository of shared DH-centric code.  Some participants voiced concerns and/or hopes that Mellon will mutate SEASR into the as-of-yet unrealized software layer for the Bamboo Project.  Whether or not this happens, there is a solid sandbox here, and if the SEASR folks maintain some momentum with more forthcoming workshops, actively making their team available to practitioners, and making their support for an active user community paramount, there is a ton of potential here.