further and especially all the time consuming maintenance. Obviously, one
person can't do all this alone. So, this is also a big thank you to all the
> Dear community,
>
> almost seven years ago, I started the Fiji project to address the need for
> a user-friendly distribution of ImageJ with life-science specific plugins
> on the one side and for a developer-friendly platform on which new image
> processing and analysis components can be built on the other.
>
> A lot happened in the meantime!
>
> - Many useful plugins were added to the Fiji distribution, e.g. the
> Trainable Segmentation (sporting advanced machine learning "hidden"
> behind a very intuitive and easy-to-use graphical user interface) or
> several bleeding-edge plugins to process and analyze light-sheet
> microscopy (SPIM) images.
>
> - We saw that the updater was the singularly most popular feature - both
> for developers and users, because it made the interaction between these
> two groups of scientists much easier - and extended its functionality
> e.g. to allow for personal update sites.
>
> - We saw the need for a robust next-generation data processing library and
> came up first with ImgLib, later with the even better ImgLib2.
>
> - We then joined ranks with the ImageJ2 project, lifting the complete Fiji
> project to a new level of professional, industry-grade software
> development.
>
> - During a hackathon with representatives of KNIME, OMERO and Icy, the
> SciJava project was started, identifying commonly needed functionality
> and putting it into highly reusable, robustly developed software
> libraries.
>
> - An incredibly successful paper was published in Nature Methods, cited
> almost a thousand times at the time of writing (according to Google
> Scholar).
>
> - Many development techniques and best practices emerged that now benefit
> the entire developer community.
>
> - Developer and web resources are now provided by LOCI in Madison, WI,
> USA, being much more scalable than our first server.
>
> - The Fiji wiki was transmogrified into the Fiji/ImageJ wiki, with the two
> entry points
http://fiji.sc and
http://imagej.net being backed by the
> same, community-driven content.
>
> - Fiji development is busier than ever, and the web site access numbers
> have climbed from a humble 4,870 unique visitors in January 2009 to
> 320,365 unique visitors in October 2014.
>
> For me personally, Fiji has landed me a job at the MPI-CBG in Dresden,
> Germany, getting free reign to work on Fiji for one year, then getting the
> opportunity to use Fiji extensively while leading the image processing
> facility for two years. I had the flattering invitation to work with Kevin
> Eliceiri and Curtis Rueden at the University Wisconsin-Madison originally
> intended for two years, then extended to a third year, and I just returned
> to Dresden to work with PAvel Tomancak.
>
> The work on Fiji put me in touch with many excellent scientists in all
> kinds of exciting places (Barcelona, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and
> many more) and while funding was always a concern, I had many an
> encouraging feedback from literally hundreds of users.
>
> After such a long time of sustained committment and dedication, it is time
> to take a slightly belated sabbatical for me.
>
> The Fiji maintenance will be in good hands, as my good friend and
> colleague Curtis Rueden agreed to step in for me; His unquestioned
> integrity and skill will undoubtedly keep this project running very
> smoothly.
>
> Here's to keeping the community spirit alive!
> Johannes
>
> --
> ImageJ mailing list:
http://imagej.nih.gov/ij/list.htmlCEO: Dr. rer. nat. Jan Brocher