Attendees
@Sebastian.Incuvers @Chris, @Lucas , @Nicole , @thomasmboa , @matt , @shicks, @ting
Summary
Need a strong local community to build momentum first, before international communication can thrive, and share in ownership of projects. Internet required! Makerspaces/infrastructure also required. Keep design flexible/simple.
Notes
What do we mean by collaborations?
- Locally is much easier to contribute, sense of collaboration with same values and goals. Personal connection. Step one being project community build up?
- Software contributors, does it happen organically? Core vs feature contributors? Does it make sense to have this in terms of hardware where components need to be in one space?
- Country regulations stunting this? Electronics certification, export control etc. RF model limitations
- Reciprocal benefits for both sides
- Deciding a project that you want to contribute to, based on where tools are available rather than centering the project around you. Is it possible to decentralize a project – you need one full made version that works before you can fork it for versioning across locations.
Challenges - How can documentation be standardized to help communication? Language barriers, all docs are in English
- Distribution centres- for open-source non-profit hardware, it’s hard to find international distribution centres. Costing/economics of this
- Collaboration is limited to what resources are available at different places
- Capacity and local ownership is vital for collaboration to be successful.
- What are the different needs locally, the local infrastructures, and the providence of training?
Who - Community ambassadors who know needs of a region who can link people up?
- People who have similar access to tools
- Similar buy-in/ownership/needs
Funding - Where does this come from??
- Crowdfunding?
Platforms - Airtable – “Excel on steroids!”, not opensource though
- Slack
- Gitlab and Github
Action Items
- Create core teams in regional places that can build up local networks – like satellite offices.
- Ensure basic tools and infrastructure is set up at a local base that can then be used to spread nationally in another country.
- Create flexible designs that can be adapted for use in different contexts/ infrastructure capabilities. Frequent call-in “design reviews” that create shared ownership of design, means no just a one way knowledge dissemination but reciprocal benefits.
- Creation of a “Kit” - enables easy revisions based on first making a version that first works.
- Shared resources- need a knowledge base/platform of logged capabilities (eg. What tools are available in various makerspaces)
- Communication is (almost) free, so how can we take advantage of this to foster passionate ambassadors
- Virtual presence of 24/7 video calling capabilities to feel part of community. Needs cultural competency.
- Sometimes keeping the most basic access point (version 00.1) is the simplest for others to jump on board, rather than later versions with bells and whistles that become too complicated to replicate.