Audience building for open source projects
Julia Lowndes, Openscapes
@juliesquid
📌 Welcome!
We will start at 11:32 PT.
Please introduce yourself and your project in the chat!
slides: openscapes.org/media
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Essential Open Source Software for Science Meeting Workshop, December 8, 2020
Workshop plan
* I’ll be watching the chat during the activities and discussion
* Please upgrade to the latest version of Zoom (Zoom > Check for Updates)
First 40 mins:
Last 15 mins:
End at 12:25 PT
OVERARCHING THEMES openness • inclusion • maintenance
PROCESS:
• iterative
• reinforcing
• overlapping
COMMUNICATION
Define your audiences to create meaningful messaging and web presence
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Welcome folks to participate and contribute, leveraging existing channels
SUSTAINABILITY
Build resilience through strategic planning, governance, and onboarding team members
Hi, I’m a marine ecologist
and open source project founder
Senior Fellow, National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis, University of California Santa Barbara
Open Community Member, entryway through R
Mozilla Fellow 2018-2019, founded Openscapes
Julia “Julie” Stewart Lowndes, PhD, jules32.github.io
👋
#rstats
(Environmental) Science
Data Science
Open Source
Training, mentoring,
community empowerment
Openscapes helps researchers reimagine data analysis and develop open data science leadership skills
Openscapes Champions is a remote mentorship program that cultivates collaborative and inclusive research teams
Main resources that frame my thinking
OVERARCHING THEMES openness • inclusion • maintenance
PROCESS:
• iterative
• reinforcing
• overlapping
COMMUNICATION
Define your audiences to create meaningful messaging and web presence
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Welcome folks to participate and contribute, leveraging existing channels
SUSTAINABILITY
Build resilience through strategic planning, governance, and onboarding team members
Audience
Defining your audiences and understanding their needs helps you communicate in ways that resonate.
*
* Two-sided market (eBird, Etsy)
Define your primary & secondary audiences
Primary audience: users (most likely)
Secondary audiences: allies
How are your audiences already connected?
*Mapping the research software ecosystem* Karthik Ram & James Howison’s Workshop: Wednesday
References & Resources
Understand your audiences
Messaging
Crafting a clear message that describes the value of your work in inclusive language helps you reach your audiences.
Craft your value proposition
* Messaging will mature as your program and understanding of audience needs evolve
What value do you provide? Why is it important?
If your project disappeared, who would care?
References & Resources
Reframe your message for different audiences*
Use inclusive language, as if all your audiences are all in the same room together
Value proposition
[MY PROJECT]…..........
will help [WHO?]........
do [WHAT?]........
by [HOW?]
Web presence
Using different web platforms helps you engage your audiences early.
Present your project openly online
“Can you send a link?” - be able to say yes.
Use light-weight, existing platforms, and cross-link – website doesn’t need to come first
Plan your website – start simple & purposefully
Share updates as you progress. Create teaching materials too –
**Creating open computational curricula**
Kari Jordan’s Workshop: Wednesday
References & Resources
COMMUNICATION
Example of defining the primary audience, messaging, and open web presence
Two-sided market: mentees and mentors
Primary audience (so far): environmental scientists
Secondary audiences – ally communities:
Openscapes value proposition (rework)
Openscapes…..........
helps researchers........
reimagine data analysis and develop open data science leadership skills........
through a remote mentorship program that cultivates collaborative and inclusive research teams
OPENSCAPES
Fall 2018: GitHub Org, Issues & READMEs, blogging on Medium
Winter 2019+: Website, Champions Lesson Series
github: @openscapes, Medium: @openscapes
web: openscapes.org,
series: openscapes.org/series
Activity (30 sec)
Write in the chat
What is a potential next step for you in terms of communication (audience, messaging, web)?
OVERARCHING THEMES openness • inclusion • maintenance
PROCESS:
• iterative
• reinforcing
• overlapping
COMMUNICATION
Define your audiences to create meaningful messaging and web presence
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Welcome folks to participate and contribute, leveraging existing channels
SUSTAINABILITY
Build resilience through strategic planning, governance, and onboarding team members
Power of Welcome
Creating a welcoming community helps diverse folks feel included, valued, and safe. This helps enable enduring participation and contribution
Working open as a way to shift power
5 Open source practices that can shift power:
Build Welcome into norms into your project
Biased by default: Exploring Discrimination in Research Code Abby Cabunoc Mayes’ Keynote at #BCC2020
References & Resources
Be deliberate & purposeful
Code of Conduct
Contributing
Having clear channels for folks to contribute helps create buy-in and champions to support your project
Create clear entryways to engagement
Mountain of engagement
A sustainable community has:
References & Resources
Clear value exchange. How can you create champions and support your community at each level?
**Community management**
Lou Woodley’s Workshop: Thursday
Channels
Leveraging existing communication channels helps your community stay in contact synchronously and asynchronously
Help your community connect with you and each other
Updates and events
Convening your community – where is your audience? Leverage existing channels
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Example of first focusing on welcome, and still building contributing plan and channels
github: @openscapes, Twitter: @openscapes; openscapes.org/media
Where is your project in the Mountain of Engagement?
Julie: screenshot!
Activity: Stamp
Top & Center of Zoom Window > View Options > Annotate > Stamp > Choose shape > Stamp the screenshare!
Work Open, Lead Open (#WOLO) – Abby Cabunoc Mayes
OVERARCHING THEMES openness • inclusion • maintenance
PROCESS:
• iterative
• reinforcing
• overlapping
COMMUNICATION
Define your audiences to create meaningful messaging and web presence
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Welcome folks to participate and contribute, leveraging existing channels
SUSTAINABILITY
Build resilience through strategic planning, governance, and onboarding team members
Strategic planning
Approaching strategic planning through the lens of community helps you build meaningful connections while you learn.
Focus your strategy on learning and people
Read about & talk to groups that work in your space
References & Resources
Don’t approach this alone! Learn with others
The Joint Roadmap for Open Science Tools (JROST) Conference Dec 14-16 2020
A strategic plan is also about:
Governance
Clearly defining the decision-making process early on helps as the project grows.
Governance is important internally and externally
Questions to ask yourself as you consider when to create a governance plan (OSAOS):
Sharing vision and responsibility
Governance is also about:
References & Resources
Onboarding
Planning ahead and documenting internal processes helps streamline knowledge transfer when others join your internal team.
Think of onboarding for Future You & Us
“the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors in order to become effective organizational members and insiders”
What will make your life easier when
References & Resources
Build documentation for how to run your project
“Bus factor” critical here too
SUSTAINABILITY
Example of focusing on onboarding, and ongoing efforts for strategic planning and governance
Draft/archive emails in a single doc for re-use
Indicate permissions [ in brackets ]
Onboarding: Focused on onboarding myself, and also towards growth
Strategic Planning:
Governance: Will be focusing on this in 2021 as our team grows!
Activity
Write in the chat
How could you use help with sustainability (strategic planning, governance, and onboarding)?
What questions do you have?
What experiences/resources do you want to share?
How can we approach this together?
Discussion
Please write in the chat
📌 Please write /hand
If you’d like to unmute to
share verbally
End time: 12:25 PT
OVERARCHING THEMES openness • inclusion • maintenance
PROCESS:
• iterative
• reinforcing
• overlapping
COMMUNICATION
Define your audiences to create meaningful messaging and web presence
COMMUNITY BUILDING
Welcome folks to participate and contribute, leveraging existing channels
SUSTAINABILITY
Build resilience through funding, governance, and onboarding team members
Audience building for open source projects
Julia Lowndes, Openscapes
@juliesquid
📌 Thank you so much!
I’m looking forward to connecting further during the conference and beyond!
slides: openscapes.org/media
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Essential Open Source Software for Science Meeting Workshop, December 8, 2020
Educator
Researcher
Compassion
Developer
Actionable (Environmental) Science
Data Science
Mentoring,
Teaching,
Community Empowerment
Open Science