Interest in the Bioconductor project has grown substantially. I would like to gauge the size of a user's group for the Boston area. I would propose meetings every other month, somewhere in the Longwood area, depending on the size of the group. It is possible that a membership fee would be needed to defray costs of meeting arrangements, but we would like to avoid this if possible. Sponsorship by a commercial group with adequate meeting facilities in the Boston area would be considered, though we have no candidates at present. Tentatively, user group meetings would consist of an invited prepared lecture of about 1/2 hour, two refereed contributed lectures of 15 mins each, and one hour of open but chaired discussion. This implies roles for presenters, referees, moderators, and secretarial activity. We would hope to post talk contents and meeting minutes on the web site as appropriate. Interested parties should contact me off the list with the tag [BioCBUG] on the subject line (for Bioconductor Boston Users Group) so that I can filter the responses. I will summarize the response and the plans for first meeting to the list. Those outside the Boston area who are interested in User Group formation can also reply in the same fashion (use tag [BioCBUG]) and we will consider how to deal with other regions. Thanks --- Vince Carey, PhD Ass't Prof Med (Biostatistics) Harvard Medical School Channing Laboratory - ph 6175252265 fa 6177311541 New cell phone number: 6178524863 181 Longwood Ave Boston MA 02115 USA stvjc@channing.harvard.edu