SyBIT has initiated six communities to meet and discuss common issues, exchange tools and agree on standards for SystemsX.ch.

As almost all SystemsX.ch projects are distributed across several institutions and make use of services provided by one or more of the communities described here, discussions and information on each other's solutions and standards are very important. In addition if a community identifies items to be supported, ported or developed, SyBIT can provide help in their implementation.

The aim of the communities is to

• share best practices and techniques
• share software and tools
• discuss current issues and possible solutions
• establish shared goals
• establish standards for interfaces

• set up strategic SyBIT projects

Some technical topics of interest are

• Data flow from instrument to analysis to publication
• Data retention policies and storage types
• Standards for data production, filtering
• Standards for metadata annotation and validation
• Backup and preservation policies