This talk will introduce the Common Workflow Language (CWL) project. In July 2016 the CWL team released standards that enable the portable, interoperable, and executable description of command line data analysis tools and workflow made from those tools. These descriptions are enhanced by CWL's first class (but optional) support for Docker containers. The state of CWL adoption and examples of bioinformatic collaborations across many continents using CWL will be reviewed. Attendees who want to play with CWL prior to attending the presentation are invited to go through the "Gentle Introduction to the Common Workflow Language" tutorial on any OS X or Linux machine on their own time: http://www.commonwl.org/v1.0/UserGuide.html

Bio:
Michael R. Crusoe is one of the co-founders of the CWL project and is the CWL Community Engineer. His facilitation, technical contributions, and training on behalf of the project draw from his time as the former lead developer of C. Titus Brown's k-h-mer project, his previous career as a sysadmin and programmer, and his experiences in various Free and Open Source Software communities. This is not Michael's first time working on a standards project as he was the technical author of the International Labour Organization's Seafarers' Identity Card (2003) standard which is in force and ratified by 32 countries. Based out of Europe for the last year and a half, Michael has enjoyed partnering with ELIXIR and other European research networks to build collaborations across that continent and across the world.