adding a draft of a post to the mailing list summarizing initiation of electrophysiol...

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+Dear Electrophysiology Neuroscientists,
+=======================================
+
+As you might know, during November 13-17, the NeuroDebian team ran its
+first Debian booth at the annual meeting of the `Society for
+Neuroscience`_ (SfN2010_) in San Diego, USA.  Our generic report `is
+available from NeuroDebian website <http://neuro.debian.net/booth_sfn2010.html>`_.
+
+In this post we want to summarize our findings on the status of Free
+and Open Source Software (FOSS) in the domain of
+neuro-electrophysiology.
+
+- Majority of electrophysiology researchers are locked into software
+  platforms provided by the vendors of the used hardware
+- There exist a number of FOSS platforms for all (?) stages necessary
+  for setting up the research workflow but their adoption in hindered
+  by difficulty to setup and maintain.  That in turn results in the
+  absence of a set of commonly accepted and used ultimate FOSS
+  solutions in the field
+- Majority of FOSS and some of the commercial data acquisition
+  solutions use Linux-based systems, relying on an additional stack
+  for real-time kernel support (e.g. RTAI_) and often the Comedi_
+  library for interfacing with the (most often proprietary) hardware
+- Some commercial companies are interested in sharing their products
+  as FOSS (e.g. Ripple LLC: Trellis-Neuro) and getting them ready for
+  inclusion into Debian
+- Many labs develop their solutions and are willing to share but 
+- Nearly all researchers using Linux, already use Debian_ (or
+  Debian-derived such as Ubuntu_) Linux distribution as the platform
+  but primarily rely on manual deployment (download, build, install or
+  compose a custom Live media such as DVD or USB) of the 3rd-party and
+  their own products
+
+Existing Electrophysiology FOSS
+-------------------------------
+
+We have initiated a `Debian Science Electrophysiology task page
+<http://blends.alioth.debian.org/science/tasks/neuroscience-electrophysiology>`_
+to collect all relevant FOSS for the field and signal their status in
+respect to inclusion in Debian distribution or presence of not (yet)
+official Debian packages.  The list is constantly growing (and
+changing), so if you spot some relevant FOSS absent, please `let us
+know <team@neuro.debian.net>`_.
+
+Here is a brief summary listing per application sub-domain:
+
+XXX may be listing is just not needed and duplicate of what could be
+found on the tasks page, although there it is not very
+structured... so may be it is better to come up with a verbal
+description
+
+Data acquisition
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+`Debian Science Data Acquisition task page
+<http://blends.alioth.debian.org/science/tasks/dataacquisition>`_
+provides similar summary for software such as RTAI_, Xenomai_, Comedi_
+which enables data acquisition.
+
+- Nspike -- electrophysiological and behavioral data collection
+
+TODO:
+- provide verbal summary on existing solutions
+- mention RT-Preempt kernel images being available
+- point to 'cooked' solutions on how to build using RTAI-patches
+
+
+Online Frameworks
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+- Relacs -- framework for closed-loop neurophysiological experiments
+- RTXI -- real-time data acquisition and control applications in biological research
+- Trellis-Neuro -- interface to neurophysiology data acquisition and stimulation instruments
+
+TODO:
+ - pointers to the SfN posters for RTXI, Mehmet's setups
+
+
+Offline data analysis
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+- Chronus -- Matlab toolbox for analysis of neural signals
+- KlustaKwik -- spike sorting tool
+- Neurodata -- Octave/Matlab suite to analyze data acquired from electrophysiology experiments
+- Openelectrophy -- data analysis framework for intra- and extra-cellular recordings
+- Sigviewer -- GUI viewer for biosignals such as EEG, EMG, and ECG
+- Spike -- information-theoretic spike train analysis techniques
+- Stimfit -- viewing and analyzing of electrophysiological data
+
+
+
+.. _chap_debian_booth_sfn2010: http://neuro.debian.net/booth_sfn2010.html
+.. _blends_neuroscience_electrophysiology: http://blends.alioth.debian.org/science/tasks/neuroscience-electrophysiology
+
+.. _annual meeting: http://www.sfn.org/am2010/
+.. _SfN2010: http://www.sfn.org/am2010/
+.. _Society for Neuroscience: http://www.sfn.org/
+.. _RTAI: https://www.rtai.org
+.. _Xenomai: http://www.xenomai.org
+.. _Comedi: http://www.comedi.org
+.. _Debian: http://www.debian.org
+.. _Ubuntu: http://www.ubuntu.com