In parallel, I’ve recently been thinking about exploring outsourcing as an option for software development. First off, to be 100% clear, outsourcing will not be replacing our local development team for the long foreseeable future. In an application as complex as BioGPS, our daily and informal interactions among the developer team are essential to our success. When we’re trying to push the envelope of useful biomedical tools, teleconferences and emails are not sufficient.

Yet, it would be irresponsible to completely ignore the potential advantages of outsourced software development. Clearly the cost savings could be substantial. Perhaps even more importantly, there could be a substantial efficiency savings by freeing up our local developers to work on those innovative features that require local development.

The iPhone app offered us a perfect opportunity to test the oursourcing model. Consider the following criteria:

• The specs are very well defined and there is a clear deliverable
• We are intimately aware of our users’ use cases and workflows, and thus can document them clearly
• The iPhone is an unfamiliar development platform for us, but very well understood in the field

In choosing with an outsourcing partner, we went with the Optra Systems, a company based in India. Atul Butte always speaks very highly of his interactions with the Optra team, so that seemed like a solid starting point for us. Our goal is to have a new-and-improved iPhone app done within the next few months. For existing (or interested) iPhone users, feel free to spell out your wish list in the comments section.

Since I’m guessing that outsourcing is something that others have contemplated at some level before, we’ll document our experience here as it evolves. We’ve just exchanged some initial mockups and started our weekly teleconferences. We’ll be posting progress here on the blog as things start moving along.

User accounts that have not been migrated are now disabled. If you still want to re-enable your existing account, please email us  (helpbiogpsorg)   and we will help you out. Alternatively, you can always just sign up for a new account with BioGPS.

If you encounter any issues with our new site, feel free to let us know  (helpbiogpsorg)  .

We’ve also timed the server migration to coincide with our user account migration. We sent out emails two weeks ago to all of our registered users with instructions on how to migrate their accounts, and many of our users have already done so. For those who haven’t, it’s still not too late. Just log in to BioGPS — all it takes is two clicks and one minute. On June 23, all accounts that have not been migrated will be deleted.

Stay tuned for more updates!

First, we’ve completed the first phase of migrating our user accounts. Existing BioGPS users previously agreed to a Terms of Use agreement with GNF. Since lawyers enjoy creating long legal documents, we now have a new Terms of Use corresponding to our new home at Scripps. In order to keep your BioGPS account, you must accept these new Terms of Use. All existing users should have received an email on how to migrate your account, or just log in to BioGPS to complete the process. Accounts not migrated by June 23 will automatically be deleted.

Second, we’ve migrated our blog to its new home at sulab.org/blog. Feel free to sign up for updates via RSS or email. SuLab.org will also be the future home of our lab website, so feel free to browse around.

Stay tuned for more updates on the migration in the coming weeks!

I (Andrew Su, the PI behind the BioGPS and Gene Wiki projects) have decided to move back to academia. Beginning July 1, I will be joining the Scripps Research Institute where I will be an associate professor in the department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine. My lab’s research will continue to pursue a blend of biomedical tools development and biomedical discovery. More details on that to come.

For those who aren’t familiar with Scripps, it’s one of the world’s largest private, non-profit research institutions. Scripps focuses on basic biomedical research, employing over 3000 employees at the main campus in La Jolla, CA and the new addition on the Jupiter, FL campus. It has an amazing graduate program in biology and chemistry (send your talented students our way!). In short, we’re lucky to be joining such a research powerhouse.

GNF has been home to BioGPS for the last three years (and home to me for the last nine). It has been and will continue to be an amazing place for biomedical research and drug discovery. The only negative aspect of this move is the team of fantastic colleagues and exciting projects that we’ll be leaving behind.

For our loyal band of BioGPS users, you can be assured that we have a migration plan in place that will ensure a seamless transition and uninterrupted access. We’ll post details of that plan here in the next two weeks.

Looking ahead, the future of BioGPS is as bright as ever. Many members of the BioGPS development team will be transitioning to Scripps with me. And after the migration is complete, we have an exciting line up of new features in various stages of development that we’ll be working hard to release.

More details in the coming weeks!