Definitely! I’m up for helping in any way I can 
Just to clarify, is the article intended to be a tutorial on how to build something, or more of a commentary on our experiences of writing/delivering tutorials? I had thought it was the latter; if it’s the former I guess we will need to think a bit about how to combine things. Should we set up a shared document somewhere to start drafting?
Hi @rbowman (and all)
I initially contacted opensource.com about a community piece on the Roadmap, but suggested that if it fitted with the interests of their audience we could also contribute a how-to/tutorial (which is another possible article format)
The current feedback from the editor is that they would like:
- Intro piece that covers what open science hardware is, why it might be used, the Roadmap etc but illustrated by actual pieces of hardware otherwise they think it might be a bit dry for their readership
- The pieces of hardware they thought their readers would most like to build were the OpenFlexure Scope and FlyPi so they would like how-tos for those.
I think there is scope to suggest a longer running series with open science hardware tutorials. The website has 10 million visitors a year so that’s a big audience!
I hope that clarifies and here is the doc I set up. Is this OK and do you think 5 March would be a good deadline to aim for?
Thanks everyone!
Jenny
1 Like
Hi Jenny,
thanks for the clarification… I hadn’t asked, but had similar questions .
I think March 5 is a bit tight, but doable for a tutorial on my side.
Do we want to use a specific platform for the tutorials, or “free style” is good?
Regarding safety issues @biomakers_lab @edu.biomusical @jcm80, I think @rpez had some insights to share (or at least I remember that from an interview, but I may be 100% wrong)
Currently, what I have is (reasonable and up to date) build instructions in docubricks format. Maybe the open flexure microscope part of the tutorial could be a slightly expanded version of that, with some cross references to the other designs and a bit more detail on what you can see with it? I might pick jenny’s brains for good sample prep ideas…
March is soon, but I’m nominally striking over the USS pension changes, which I’m interpreting as giving me the freedom to pick and choose the fun parts of my job, so I should be able to find some time either side of this weekend.
1 Like
@amchagas @rbowman let’s got for 12 March to give some wiggle room - they said it wouldn’t be a problem to extend.
Here is opensource.com picking a selection of their best tutorials, so worth a look what they like and how they are formatted!
https://opensource.com/article/18/1/best-tutorials
Jenny
And the Intro piece should be community written then (in the gdoc)?
What about the length of the intro?
Hi @vektor yes! I haven’t had much time this week but will take a look at the weekend, anyone else is welcome to make a start
We weren’t given a strict word limit but from the editorial guidelines:
800-1,300 words: How-tos, getting-started guides, tutorials, and more thorough roundups that go a little more in-depth tend to be longer than feature articles.
This is going to be a two-parter as I understand, with the second how-topublished separately.
Jenny
1 Like
Hey @jcm80,
great! If I will find some time during the weekend I will put some words into that document, too.
But ~1000 words seems doable in 2 weeks
I guess this is the first in a series?
Apologies for not writing too much so far.
I got knockout by the flue last week. I tried to put some words in the gdoc but gave up after the obvious primer questions…
We have to finish tomorrow, right?
My to do list overflows because my inactivity last week and I am not sure if I can write much tomorrow but I can for sure have a look at it in the late afternoon!
Cheers,
Alex
I also got pushed for time the last week or so but happy to do most of the intro part tonight/tomorrow morning for editing by others.
@rbowman @amchagas are you going to be ready wuth tutorial material by end of Monday?
Let me know if not and I can give them a heads up.
Jenny
Hey,
sorry - my week had a lot less time in it than I expected… This coming week should be better!
R
Here is the draft! Comments (from people in this thread or elsewhere) welcome!
cc @vektor @rbowman @amchagas
Kepp me updated on progress - would 19 March make sense for a new deadline?
Hi Jenny and all,
I just finished a rough first draft of the tutorial for the FlyPi. I try to be short, but as usual end up writing a lot… I don’t know if this fits what is intended, so I would definitely love suggestions/criticism. Also @kaspar, I added a little info about kitspace but I’m pretty sure it would be better it is missing details/proper wording!
Hey @jcm80,
I added some of my thoughts, too.
Concerning the deadline, I am on a conference next week and will be staying for the weekend. But I guess it should be possible to have some quick looks at the article in the meantime. But I think the general article is anyways already quite progressed with all the text you wrote.
Best
Thanks for that - I’ve written some stuff in the Openflexure Microscope section, I hope it’s about the right level of detail and technical content…
Looking at the tutorials in the top 10 link (really helpful, thanks) it seems like just pasting in the build instructions isn’t what’s wanted; their tutorials usually give a gentle introduction but point the reader in the direction of the official instructions for more details. That’s what I’ve tried to do, but I’d appreciate someone other than me having a read of it to see if what I wrote actually made sense! It ends up being quite a link-heavy summary of how to build a microscope, which I think is probably a helpful thing for me to have written, whether or not it’s the right thing to publish here.
Our industrial action continues, so I am currently still on strike - which gives me an excellent opportunity to do fun stuff like this!