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Building

communities of practice around environmental open data science

Art by @allison_horst

Julia Stewart Lowndes, PhD

Mozilla Fellow & Marine Data Scientist

National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)

University of California at Santa Barbara

lowndes@nceas.ucsb.edu; @juliesquid

slides: openscapes.org/media

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Hi, I’m a marine ecologist

and open data science has been game-changing for my science and my life

#rstats

Humboldt squid! Photo by Greg Auger

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Optional - Speaker to add their slides here (2 max)

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Environmental open data science communities

Empowering environmental science labs

Enabling international ocean science & policy teams

ohi-science.org

@OHIScience

openscapes.org

@openscapes

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Open data science improves working as a team

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Open data science enables local ocean teams

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My OHI open data science journey

pics of me at these things!! teaching at eco-data-sci

2013+

2014+

2016+

2017+

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How do we welcome & empower more (environmental) scientists with open data science?

How can we help science labs work like teams?

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OPENSCAPES

  • Complement existing efforts by welcoming & empowering scientists as labs

  • Increase visibility & value by amplifying labs

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CHAMPIONS PROGRAM

  • Mentorship program for early career scientists & their labs
  • Normalize open data science in the lab & seed change beyond

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5-month remote program à la Mozilla Open Leaders

Discipline agnostic: openscapes.org/series

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CHAMPIONS COHORT 1

  • Jan – May 2019
  • 7 Champions & their labs (24 participants)

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OUTCOMES

In four months we’ve already seen:

  • Mindset shifts in individuals
  • Increase in skills & practice

  • Culture shifts in labs
  • Leadership & championing

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Lab GitHub organizations, CoCs, & protocols

github.com/pinskylab

github.com/therkildsen-lab

github.com/wood-lab

github.com/stier-lab

github.com/allisonhorst

github.com/jayasundara-lab

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Normalizing talking about open data science

pinsky.marine.rutgers.edu/fishbowl-chat-1

github.com/wood-lab/wood-lab-resources

openscapes.org/blog/2019/03/10/seaside-chats

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Joining & leading communities outside the lab

twitter.com/allison_horst

openscapes.org/blog

twitter.com/highlandladies

First RLadies chapter in New Jersey!

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Being ambassadors & engaging with #rstats Twitter

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New scientific collaborations

twitter.com/allison_horst

openscapes.org/blog

Manuscript in prep!

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So many other wins to measure & share

I am championing open data science in faculty meetings • I said we’re doing our students a disservice • I’m asking to hire lecturer positions • I enabled labs to have seaside chats • we are developing onboarding plans • I support my students starting hacky hours • we now take lab meeting notes in google docs, openscapes style! • our lab tech will teach a new data science course • we have a code of conduct! • us too! • all this is something I’ve worried about a lot and feeling better about it • all our lab protocols are now on GitHub • I reorganized my teaching materials so it’s better next year • all my capstone students are using GitHub for their analyses • I'm now pushing GitHub on all my collaborators • we have a more open culture • I organized and put all my teaching materials online • I didn’t realize there would be so much to talk about • we have a shared lab Google Drive • we developed a way to offboard our undergrads • my lab has put all our scripts online • we are going to have a lab hackathon • thank you for saying the code of conduct on each call • I didn’t know about #rstats twitter • these efficiency tips save me so much time • I taught a course from R4DS, learning the night before • I want to do everything a bit better • I reran my collaborator’s code! • we improved our documentation • we improved our metadata • this saved me so much time • everyone in our lab now has a GitHub account • I led a discussion on data sharing practices for our lab • we are now officially an open science lab • I’m going to put all my teaching materials online • I am starting an RLadies chapter • I organized our lab’s code on GitHub • I feel a part of something bigger • I will start teaching R in my classes • I thought I was utterly incapable of learning GitHub • this happened just at the right time • this isn’t just about coding & GitHub, it’s about changing the way we do science

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Challenges

  • Labs don't by default think/act like a team
  • Imposter syndrome & hierarchy
  • Limited time, hard to prioritize with no academic incentives

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Challenges

Ideas

  • Labs don't by default think/act like a team
  • Imposter syndrome & hierarchy
  • Limited time, hard to prioritize with no academic incentives

  • Links between open software & kinder culture IRL
  • Invest in people that enable open data science
    • lecturers
    • researchers
    • valued with $$ & job security

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Julia Stewart Lowndes, PhD

http://jules32.github.io

lowndes@nceas.ucsb.edu

@juliesquid

openscapes.org ohi-science.org

@openscapes @ohi-science

slides: openscapes.org/media

Thank You

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