Status Report: Community Services

October 2020 - April 2021

Nicole Corbin, Doug Dirks, Jeff Weber, Joshua Young

Areas for Committee Feedback

We are requesting your feedback on the following topics:

Do your needs from the Unidata Program Center change during this unique time?

Activities Since the Last Status Report

News@Unidata blog

Posts to the News@Unidata blog appear regularly, but not on a specific schedule. Some highlights:

• NSF EarthCube funds Project Pythia
• UCAR Mentorship and Remote Computing Resources Boost Remote Research for SOARS Student
• AMS Student Conference Python Workshop
• Unidata Staff at AMS 2021 Meeting
• Offer: Unidata Science Gateway JupyterHub Resources Available for Spring 2021 Courses
• Call for Proposals: Unidata 2021 Community Equipment Awards
• What's New in MetPy 1.0?
• Wanted: Student Representative for Unidata Users Committee
• Mike Zuranski Receives 2020 DeSouza Award
• Unidata Program Center Welcomes Nicole Corbin
• Unidata Staff Teach MetPy at AMS Python for Climate and Meteorology Short Course
• A Proposal for Community Support of GEMPAK
• Welcome to AWIPS Tips!
• Unidata Welcomes New Committee Member
• Software release information

• Community job postings
• Community meetings and other announcements

Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:

• Finding community members willing to contribute stories (or story ideas) for the blog is an ongoing challenge. We’re starting to make progress working with committee members, but there is more to do.

Community Outreach and Services

The community services group continues to actively reach out to and engage with Unidata community members.

Progress has been made on the following:

• Continue to engage with underserved populations and institutions as part of Unidata’s outreach efforts to groups such as Rising Voices, SACNAS and AISES
• Continue to serve on the CUAHSI HIS standing committee.
• Engage with the Arctic Research Consortium of the US on multidisciplinary projects
• We continue to update Unidata’s social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Google+).
• We continue to  publish short videos/screencasts on the Unidata YouTube channel.
• Represent Unidata at the National Weather Service Partners events
• We continue to actively support the NCAR/SOARS program.
• Actively participate in Super Science Saturday.
• Engage and support the Undergraduate Leadership Workshop (ULW) at UCAR.
• Support the development and operation of the UCAR:NCAR Equity and InclusiON (UNEION) community of practice.

Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:

• Facilitating community adoption of new technological services (cloud, etc)
• Engagement with Unidata social media streams among community members is not particularly high.

Learning and Outreach

The community services group has expanded efforts to promote learning Unidata products and workflows.

Progress has been made on the following:

• Delivering a virtual MetPy workshop with activities backed by adult learning science principles.
• Developing an appropriately scaffolded Python curriculum from initial programming/logical thinking principles to Unidata packages (e.g. MetPy, Siphon, Python-AWIPS)
• Performing a needs assessment for an upcoming AWIPS eLearning offering
• Sharing tips and best practices for using AWIPS through the AWIPS Tips blog series

Dependencies, challenges, problems, and risks include:

• Identifying community members with the availability to provide feedback throughout the development process for new learning materials. This feedback is critical for ensuring learning programs will directly meet the needs of the community.

Ongoing Activities

We plan to continue the following activities:

• Engagement with science or cyber communities at large
• NAWIPS migration to AWIPS, including the overall AWIPS project
• Ongoing development of news articles for publication through News@Unidata
• Continue to support and contribute to governing committees
• Seminars
• Outreach
• Inclusion and equity
• Engagement with professional societies
• Support for cloud-related projects
• Further development of the Data Management Resource Center
• Support the pursuit of funding
• Site visits as the budget and pandemic allow
• Engage other UCAR/NCAR divisions regarding Unidata software use i.e. CESM/IDV
• Active participation in CUAHSI HIS (Hydrologic Information System)
• Active participation in the Hydroshare Advisory Committee

New Activities

Over the next three months, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Expanded emphasis on engagement with MSIs
• Expanded effort organizing and supporting community seminars/working sessions

Over the next twelve months, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Make structural changes to broaden participation in Unidata community engagement
• Continue to engage the hydrologic community regarding WRF-Hydro/IDV interactions and the National Water Center’s efforts
• Continue to engage the arctic community to find opportunities for collaboration
• Seek additional opportunities to engage and listen to the community
• Release a self-paced eLearning module for AWIPS
• Formalize a curriculum for learning Unidata-provided Python packages

Beyond a one-year timeframe, we plan to organize or take part in the following:

• Support the providing additional cloud-related training

Relevant Metrics

Statistics from the Community pages on the Unidata web site. Comparisons are made with statistics from the previous six-month period.

All community pages

Most recent six months:

• 46,703 unique pageviews (50,067 in previous period)
• 8.1% of total unique pageviews (7.6% in previous period)

Top community pages

1. All blog pages
   32397  unique pageviews (38443 in previous period)
   69% of total community pageviews (77% in previous period)
2. www.unidata.ucar.edu/community
   8592  unique pageviews (4682 in previous period)
   18% of total community pageviews (9% in previous period)
3. www.unidata.ucar.edu/events
   1927  unique pageviews (3438 in previous period)
   4% of total community pageviews (7% in previous period)
4. www.unidata.ucar.edu/about
   3010  unique pageviews (2992 in previous period)
   7% of total community pageviews (6% in previous period)

Social media statistics, April 16, 2021

1. # of Twitter followers: 1597  (up from 1386)
2. # of Facebook followers: 874 (up from 846)

Strategic Focus Areas

We support the following goals described in Unidata Strategic Plan:

1. Managing Geoscience Data
   We monitor and collaborate with data sources to stay apprised of impending changes and to advocate for the needs of our user community.
   
2. Supporting People
   We provide user workshops, tutorials, and community workshops to help build supportive relationships between community members.
   
   We coordinate with our governing committees to find ways to expand Unidata's community participation. We use our web site, electronic newsletters, and social media to keep community members informed about enhanced data services, software tools, and cyberinfrastructure.
   
   We participate in UCAR/NCAR and NSF projects for underrepresented populations and minority communities (SOARS, AIHEC, outreach to HBCUs). We provide services and tools to facilitate education and research in diverse communities. We work to broaden the Unidata community by participating in student and professional conferences.
   

Prepared April 2021