About caBIG®

Mission, Goals, and Principles

The mission of caBIG^® is to develop a collaborative information network that accelerates the discovery of new approaches for the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer. caBIG^® is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and administered by the National Cancer Institute Center for Bioinformatics and Information Technology (NCI-CBIIT). Anyone can participate in caBIG^® and there is no cost to join. The community includes Cancer Centers, other NCI-supported research endeavors, and a variety of federal, academic, not-for profit and industry organizations.

The goals of caBIG^® are to:

• Connect scientists and practitioners through a shareable and interoperable infrastructure
• Develop standard rules and a common language to more easily share information
• Build or adapt tools for collecting, analyzing, integrating, and disseminating information associated with cancer research and care.

Since its start, caBIG^® has committed to the following principles:

• Federated: caBIG^® software and resources are widely distributed, interlinked, and available to everyone in the cancer research community, but institutions maintain local control over their own resources and data.
• Open-development: caBIG^® tools and infrastructure are being developed through an open, participatory process. caBIG^® leverages existing resources whenever possible, rather than building new tools in every case.
• Open-access: caBIG^® resources are freely obtainable by the cancer community to ensure broad data-sharing and collaboration.
• Open-source:The caBIG^® source code is available to view, alter, and redistribute.

This caBIG^® Community Website is for people who are participating in caBIG^® or accessing its resources. For people interested in a higher level overview, we recommend visiting the caBIG^® Public Information Site, accessing the caBIG^®caBIG^®Fact Sheet, or browsing the caBIG^®Links Monthly Newsletter.

Interacting with caBIG^®

caBIG^®community members interact in a variety of ways, including:

• caBIG^® Workspaces: Many caBIG^® activities take place within workspaces, virtual teams of funded and volunteer community members that develop technologies, white papers, guidance, and other deliverables, and help shape the workspace's strategic direction. Visit the caBIG^® Workspaces. Each workspace holds regular teleconference calls and periodic face-to-face meetings, open to anyone with interest.
• LISTSERVS - Workspaces and project teams maintain LISTSERVS to announce upcoming events, meetings and new products and information. Visit the caBIG^® Announce Listserv to sign up for general announcements.
• Knowledge Centers – For questions about a specific caBIG^® tool or domain, browse and post to bulletin boards managed by the caBIG^® Knowledge Centers. There is also a General Forum for questions that do not fit into a Knowledge Center or that are cross-cutting in nature. Visit Knowledge Center Forums to access the bulletin board forums. Note: When you visit the Knowledge Centers, you leave this Web site and enter the caBIG^® Knowledge Center Web site.The menus will look different, but you are still on a caBIG^® site.
• Annual Meetings The caBIG^® community gathers annually to celebrate successes, address caBIG^®-wide and cross-workspace topics, and demonstrate emerging and available products, including software tools, databases, prototypes, white papers, and developmental models. Special sessions are also offered for those new to caBIG^®. There is no charge for the meeting. Visit Annual Meetings for more.