Day 1: OSH And Working with Communities

Topics include:

OSH & Marginalized communities
linking btw OS tech and comm
comm-based science
establishing trust between communities and scientists
leveraging local community resources for open science
making data useful to a community & individuals (democratizing data)

Definitions of Hardware— welcome and include traditional
How can gosh support this

Community- is that the places you’re working? Users of device? Impacted by what you’re studying? Etc.

Common thread: community may not be direct user? Userproducer—

What is a community? How do you define it? To what level is that community involved in using/producing.

The people are impacted by what you’re measuring? People who depend on the quality of

People convening around an issue? Try to find those mechanisms that different stakeholders can connect (users have a role in governance, different roles, different kinds of engagement)

Linking tech with community, establishing trust. Feel uneasy about size of the group— let’s split into groups… take the question 5 minutes, present in one minute.

Hardware and trust?
ACCESSIBLE IN SOME WAY IS IMPORTANT EVEN IF PIECES ARE SOPHISTICATED

IN THIS GROUP we’re aware of risks with hardware and data, but some of us use tools that are less trustworthy— tool is available is easy to use but not trustful. How can we raise awareness to

Accessibility— all spectrum? Money, knowledge, data, etc? Using a framework, s/a data handling practices that GOSH

Accountability- in front of who. Who are we

Communities are part of it— making sure that nobody is more valuable in the mix than anyone else

Discussion: community concept— different ways that communities can form. Have not reached a consensus. A community of trust or practice around a common problem where hardware can .

We talked about accessibility and accountable— how do you balance technical sophistication and making sure interaction s are throughtful.

Talking about different ways fo being accessible (knowledge, data, etc).

*** leveraging local community resources for open science resources***

Is open hardware the place to solve issue around engagement— how to make problems visible.

In Brazil it’s difficult to make things accessible to communities, the government contributes to social divisions

___ most successful community based stuff happens when it is bottom up— there’s a need from a community and the hardware meets that need. Not “build it and they will come”

In the amazon, there was discussion about what communities want before there was a discussion about hardware. The hurdle would be if a community organizes around a problem— finding a sensor that exists. Resources— different kinds of resources! Stakeholder has some money? Working for a city? We’re all in this together, but the reality might be that some people can leave, some people may have $$, etc.

Governance may not always be the right people— how to you know who to work with?

3 minute recap? Final round of conclusions. Challenges in engaging, talked about engagement as the leap from “this is cool” to something that will make an impact.

High Garden— the things that are the most successful come from the needs of the community (we need to know this better, what is there that I can use to find it). Mechanisms for connecting those things might be helpful.

Moving forward—

A resources bank for data/initiative/how to make things accessible : somewhere where you can get support and information. Sharing resources

Can we break things down in the process

“I need” and “I have”— is there an algorithm that can point to real results.
Need to go to see that things can be a success- programs that are available for projects to come to learn. Experiential learning— opportunities to talk to people.

Like a bank of successful projects to learn from? How
How can we create a resource bank how we do that with our event

Is there a definition — lower fidelity, accessible, reproducible

Project to sample air in classrooms, using broom instead of Roomba.

Trying to imagine how someone who isn’t already a part of this community… what would you google?

Something about linkages might be obvious to someone how to make connections between communities, might be ready to pick up and get going if they could already see a menu of things that are possible/available .

Closing statements!

Leaning new perspectives, getting some outcome, seeing some resources.
Question left with— how to translate idea of hardware an open science to communities who might not know that this could be a solution. What about the public policy avenue?
Thinking more about os VS accessibility VS usability— how to incorporate inclusive practice. Not everyone has the same goal, but brining social justice and social good makes things — doing work that’s equitable and sustainable goes farther than just starting projects.

What do I expect in a trusting relationship and how to I work in a way that makes me deserving of trust.

Leveraging community resources, not sure we improved outreach, or accomplished something sufficiently concrete. How can we work together in a way that we impact communities. — Can we do something like create a document designed to share these resources instead of just talking about things?

We talk a lot about what we’re going to do post-discussion. When there’s colocation we can get a lot done. Can the global event have working sessions?

We can share a document. If we go open source it’s about taking ownership of the process we’re living, but if there are other ways to make impacts we should discuss and consider.

We’re three or five days together, maybe there’s something we could do that would be of value for everyone.
Risk is that we spend 3 days in discussions, conversations won’t be sustainable or lead to action.

Split sessions so they are more outcome oriented.

Interesting thought about how to make global and regional events— plans are made but some are abandoned. When meeting people, you do need to build language and relationships, so jumping into work right away might be challenging, but maybe the last day could be oriented around some kinds of deliverables.

Maybe there’s a way to break some things down into more actionable— forming working groups, etc. Gosh roadmap, manifesto, etc. If you personally have committed to contributing to a bank of resources— could be interesting. Shared resources.

Bringing some of these conversations back to our own communities— takes time to build a movement and change mindsets. Takes patience and slow incremental movement towards something better, more inclusive each time.

Willing to be a resource person—
There are already tools for sharing and finding resources, another forum OS Hardware forum, don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel.

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Action items:

Setting up a forum so that people who have resources and people who need resources can connect (example-- someone visiting a region might know that a particular component is hard to source, can bring something with them)

Ahead of meetings (GOSH, OSHWA, Public Lab, other OSH groups), remind folks who will be attending that this is a good opportunity to connect people with resources (things people need, or may be in a position to pass on to another local group/org.

Forums for “I need/ I want” should be easy to be accessed and used by multiple groups-- what kind of platform best supports this?

“I need / I want” should include requests and offers for collaboration and support.