Building OS Hardware following demand

[amchagas]

Project Lead:
amchagas

Mentor: emdupre

Welcome to OL6, Cohort C! This issue will be used to track your project and progress during the program. Please use this checklist over the next few weeks as you start Open Leadership Training 🎉.

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Before Week 1 (Sept 12): Your first mentorship call

• Complete the OLF self-assessment (online, printable). If you're a group, each teammate should complete this assessment individually. This is here to help you set your own personal goals during the program. No need to share your results, but be ready to share your thoughts with your mentor.
• Make sure you know when and how you'll be meeting with your mentor.

Before Week 2 (Sept 19): First Cohort Call (Open by Design)

• Complete Assignment 'Write Your Vision or Mission Statement'. Leave a comment on this issue with your draft vision statement & be ready to share this on the call.
• Watch 'Mozilla & Working Open'.
• Check the Syllabus for notes and connection info for all the cohort calls.

Before Week 3 (Sept 26): Mentorship call

• Look up two other projects and comment on their issues with feedback on their vision statement.
• Complete your Open Canvas (instructions, canvas). Comment on this issue with a link to your canvas.
• Start your Roadmap. Comment on this issue with your draft Roadmap.

Before Week 4 (Oct 3): Cohort Call (Build for Understanding)

• Look up two other projects and comment on their issues with feedback on their open canvas.
• Pick an open license for the work you're doing during the program.
• Use your canvas to start writing a README, or landing page, for your project. Link to your README in a comment on this issue.

This issue is here to help you keep track of work during the first month of the program. Please refer to the OL6 Syllabus for more detailed weekly notes and assignments past week 4.

[amchagas]

Vision statement:

I'm working with researchers and science enthusiasts to map demands & needs of scientific hardware so that everyone (see below) starts collaborating to build Open Source tools for science, so that it becomes more accessible

Who is "everyone" : Hardware projects require electronic, mechanic parts, as well as coding/software. In the case of scientific hardware, it also requires some notions on science & experiments. By no means this means that contributors need to know all of these things!!!! The idea is to get people to talk and collaborate. Hackers, coders, scientists, engineers, DIY enthusiasts, artists are all welcome!

Long version:
One of the barriers in the way of an diverse and inclusive science landscape is the access to scientific/educational equipment.

Most of what is available is proprietary and sold under "scarcity" rationale.

The goal of this project is to map the need/demand for scientific equipment around the globe,
and to kickstart projects for collaborative build of open source (OS) alternatives.

In the long run, the research equipment landscape would optimally be covered by OS hardware, allowing for the benefits already seem in OS software to be seen in hardware (a more detailed description of those: https://osf.io/uh682/)

[amchagas]

Link to canvas:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YRKFmasmwXvhAoc9iKK2v2x0vV8GlKgVQixd_7WSGi8/edit?usp=sharing

[fraguada]

Interesting and useful project! I'd humbly suggest a few things in the short statement:

• instead of 'hoping to work' just replace with the contributor profiles you wish to have as contributors
• I wonder if there is a way to not repeat 'demand'

My suggestion:

I'm working with researchers and science enthusiasts to collaboratively build Open Source tools that meet the demand for affordable (and awesome) scientific equipment.

Maybe there is an opportunity in the '(and awesome)' to add a better qualifier for the equipment.

[kaodro]

Great project!

Two suggestions:

I am wondering whether you could specify what "we" means in the second part of the vision: who will be building the OS hardware; the researchers and science enthusiasts? Do they have the skills?

Also, I am wondering if it would make sense for you to work on the mapping with exactly the people who have the needs you want to explore = to hear directly from them (scientists?). It can also be that this is what you mean with researchers and science enthusiasts in which case just ignore my comment:)

It is such a useful and promising project, congrats!

[amchagas]

Roadmap: https://github.com/amchagas/map_fosh_demand/projects/1?add_cards_query=is%3Aopen

[amchagas]

Project page: https://github.com/amchagas/map_fosh_demand

[amchagas]

@fraguada and @kaodro thanks for your suggestions! I'll make changes to the text soon, stay tuned!
I'm also super glad that more people find this useful :)

[shreevari]

Vision statement:

I'm working with researchers and science enthusiasts to map demands & needs of scientific hardware so that everyone (see below) starts collaborating to build Open Source tools for science, so that it becomes more accessible

Who is "everyone" : Hardware projects require electronic, mechanic parts, as well as coding/software. In the case of scientific hardware, it also requires some notions on science & experiments. By no means this means that contributors need to know all of these things!!!! The idea is to get people to talk and collaborate. Hackers, coders, scientists, engineers, DIY enthusiasts, artists are all welcome!

Long version:
One of the barriers in the way of an diverse and inclusive science landscape is the access to scientific/educational equipment.

Most of what is available is proprietary and sold under "scarcity" rationale.

The goal of this project is to map the need/demand for scientific equipment around the globe,
and to kickstart projects for collaborative build of open source (OS) alternatives.

In the long run, the research equipment landscape would optimally be covered by OS hardware, allowing for the benefits already seem in OS software to be seen in hardware (a more detailed description of those: https://osf.io/uh682/)

I'm a bit confused, Do you intend to build a platform where you connect interested science enthusiasts who want specific hardware and manufacturers willing to produce these custom hardware or are you proposing to build the hardware yourself?

[amchagas]

Hi @shreevari ,
What I'm proposing is to discover what people interested in science/education need hardware wise and figure out a way to build said hardware. At the moment I suspect the most probable outcome is that electronic hobbyists, researchers who are building hardware already and other DIYers will be the people building these tools (as a lot of OS projects, people using the "products" being develop are a lot of the times also developing them). If companies are interested in building OS hardware, then they are welcome to join too!
Hope this makes it more clear!

[KevZawacki]

Hi @amchagas -- great project, and very thoughtful Open Canvas.

For "Contributor Channels," what publications did you have in mind? Make Magazine and Popular Mechanics could both be good targets.

[amchagas]

thanks @KevZawacki !
Those are definitely good suggestions. I also had academic publications specialized in scientific methods in mind

[amchagas]

Hi! I wrote a first draft of the code of conduct (here I used one of GitHub's templates) and contributing docs, suggestions and criticism are appreciated! FOSH-following-demand/map_fosh_demand#5

[amchagas]

First results from a pilot run are in! https://github.com/amchagas/map_fosh_demand/blob/master/survey/demand_list/pilot_demand.csv

[amchagas]

Update: The Survey is live! http://bit.ly/BFOSH
We've also created a landing page for the project: https://fosh-following-demand.github.io/en/home

If you are feeling extra generous, give us a shout out:
https://twitter.com/Chagas_AM/status/1086149183403409409