Community of Communities: A Working Group Enhancing Interactions Between Organizations and Projects Supporting RC Professionals

Currently, there are many Research Computing (RC) communities that support RC professionals by providing opportunities for connecting and collaborating with peers, sharing information, and developing professional skills. However, the RC landscape is vast, and a newcomer to the RC profession can easily become lost trying to understand where s/he best fits. The Community of Communities (CoCo) is a working group whose purpose is to act as a bridge connecting these RC communities, and so provide RC professionals with a map for navigating the RC landscape. CoCo includes representatives from across the RC landscape, including individuals that participate in the Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI), the NSF Center of Excellence for Science Gateways (SGX3), ACCESS, the US Research Software Engineer Association (US-RSE), Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC), Virtual Residency, Campus Champions, The Carpentries, the Workflows Community Initiative and more. This paper introduces CoCo and provides a brief overview of its history, goals, and activities, and extends an invitation to other RC communities and RC professionals to participate in CoCo and take advantage of CoCo services.