Hi all! Sharing the 2021 GOSH Community Report below, which is a summary of what was accomplished this past year!
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The following report was prepared by the GOSH Community Coordinator, Bri Johns, in January 2022.
The Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH) community continues to be a catalyst within the broader Open Science Hardware (OScH) movement. In the past year alone, GOSH has produced a series of publications, formed a grounded governance structure rolling out OScH programs, and created a considerable amount of community engagement activities. With member participation on the rise, the GOSH community continues to advance its mission of making Open Hardware ubiquitous by 2025.
Earlier in 2021, GOSH successfully published a 100+ page document on the GOSH event model, to be used by regional GOSH event organizers. Community members also coordinated a series of writing workshops which resulted in a policy brief on open hardware (OH) and international policy, OH for technology transfer, and a series of 5 write-ups on research funding for OH. Other notable publications from the GOSH Community include a white paper on Distributed Manufacturing of Open Hardware, written by GOSH’s Distribution and Documentation working group.
This past year also marked the creation of the GOSH Community Council, the governing body of GOSH that is responsible for overseeing and delegating all tasks, questions, and issues related to the governance of the GOSH community. The GOSH Community Council is also responsible for coordinating the allocation of community funds, including regional events and collaborative hardware development programs. The council has already opened up applications for regional events funding in 2022 and is in the process of announcing applications for the collaborative hardware development programs.
GOSH also has several ongoing initiatives for continuing community engagement and showcasing community members’ accomplishments. This includes the GOSH Community Member profiles series, a collection of 22 interviews with GOSH community members from across the globe, and the monthly GOSH Newsletter, which features projects and papers curated by the GOSH community. In addition to this, the GOSH Community Coordinator hosts monthly open hours, where new members can learn more about the GOSH community, and monthly community calls, which resulted in six presentations from community members between September and December of 2021.
Participation of GOSH community members is on the rise, overall activity on the GOSH forum has increased this year, with the number of new accounts, posts, topics, and contributors higher this past year than it was the year before. This uptick in virtual participation also coincided with a series of website improvements to the GOSH website and forum that were carried out in 2021. With the formation of the GOSH Gathering working group, the community looks forward to planning and hosting the next global GOSH Gathering in 2022.