TL;DR -- please register:

• Study meetings
• Joanne Cheng's Geography talk

But the details below are important :).

We've recently discussed our plans to organize a study group of the new fundamental layers of Clojure infrastructure as a way of preparing for the new phase the ecosystem is entering.

There is still a lot to think about, but as a first step, we are having a couple of study meetings on the weekend of November 20-22 -- not to be confused with the mid-November ML study meetings, which take place one week earlier.

We will have two standalone, independent, and similar 2-hour study sessions about dtype-next, and probably about one of the main libraries based on it: tech.ml.dataset. Between the study sessions, we will have a 45-minutes planning chat to discuss our expectations and the plans for the study group.

Another thing that is happening on that weekend, not directly related to the "fundamentals study group", but very much exciting to us, is Joanne Cheng's talk about drawing geographical maps with Clojure. This will be an extended version of Joanne's talk at :clojureD. It will happen immediately after the planning chat, and you are all invited to stay, listen & discuss.

Here is the timeline for that weekend:

• Two 2-hour study sessions about dtype-next (self-contained and similar):
  • 18:00 20 Nov 2020 in UTC
  • 15:00 22 Nov 2020 in UTC
• A 45-minutes chat about the expectations and the plan for the "fundamentals" study group:
  • 15:00 21 Nov 2020 in UTC -- just before Joanne's talk
• A talk by Joanne Cheng: Drawing geographical maps with Clojure
  • 16:00 21 Nov 2020 in UTC

Please register in advance as much as possible, and let us know if anything changes about your plans. This will help a lot in the preparations.

See you there!

Jake Nylund, Daniel Slutsky

Q: Can I go to any of the meetings?

A: Yes. Each of the meetings is self-contained. The two dtype-next study sessions will be similar and may overlap in content. You may join one or of the meetings. If you are interested in the longer term, it would be great to arrive at the planning chat -- we hope to have everybody there together.

Q: What should I do to participate?

A:

• For the study meetings and planning chat, please fill in the registration form a few days in advance. Please let us know about any changes in your plans.
• For Joanne Cheng's talk, please use this form.
• Please join the #data-science stream of the Clojurians Zulip and follow the updates there towards the meetings. Please present yourself at the 'hello' topic thread.

Q: Are the meetings beginner-friendly?

A:

• The study sessions will not be beginner-friendly.
• The fundamentals group will is relatively advanced. We are studying tools and libraries which are still changing and breaking. Sometimes, they are not completely documented. Looking into them may require an open mind and might not be easy.
• However, we do assume that nobody in the meetings is an expert. We will seek clarity and will make an effort to help each other.
• We are planning to organize other study groups in the future that will be more beginner-friendly.

Q: What knowledge will be assumed?

A:

• We will assume decent knowledge of Clojure and Java.

Q: What platform will we use for the meetings?

A:

• We will use Zoom for video meetings. You will get a calendar invitation with a Zoom link after registration.
• We will use the Clojurians Zulip chat for our notes and textual discussions. Here is some recommended background about our use of Zulip: https://scicloj.github.io/pages/chat_streams/

Q: How can I prepare for the meeting?

A:

• We recommend trying out dtype-next and tech.ml.dataset, playing with them, and discussing what you find at Zulip.
• We will share some recommended materials towards the meetings. Please follow the Zulip conversations.