Open and Inclusive Science at #ScienceMarch

Mozilla

The March for Science is officially happening! On April 22, 2017, there will be a network of marches worldwide aimed to engage the community in science and support scientific research.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the planned march to advocate for the promotion of open science practices and to give voice to the concerns of underrepresented people in science. Here are a few excerpts that captures the spirit of the post:

Science must be open. Science must be transparent. Science must be accessible.

One of the most commented topics over the past week has been about the gag orders both implemented and lifted at various federal agencies. One of the takeaway points was that information was being restricted to the public. People are outraged, and justifiably so. While we are advocating for open and transparent sharing of data from these federal agencies, we should also be advocating for the same transparency practices to research funded by taxpayer dollars.

When diversity is set aside, diversity is not centered. Intersectionality matters.

There have been countless studies, here, here and here for starters, that have highlighted some of the structural inequities for faculty of color in the academy from the representation to funding to institutional support. These are core issues that must be addressed if science and education continue to claim to be the great equalizer across race and socioeconomic status.

To read the complete post, click here

 

Over the past few weeks, I have been working with and have joined the National Committee for the March for Science in DC. I am co-leading the Partnership and Outreach committee, which aims to engage participations and form alliances with science organizations and the community at large. Feel free to follow me on Twitter at @teon_io. If march-related, feel free to send an email me (teon AT marchforscience.com).

Community Call Feb. 16, 11ET

Mozilla

This week, we’re hosting an artful community call on the intersection of Art and Science, and we want you there! For background, the Science Lab community call takes place every other month, highlighting recent developments and work of the community relevant to science and the web. Join us to hear more about current projects, find out how you can get involved, and listen to others (or yourself!) discuss work in and around open research.

Our upcoming community call is this Thursday, February 16th. The call is open to the public and will start at 11:00 am ET. Call in details can be found on the call etherpad (where you can also find notes and the agenda) and on the wiki. (If you have trouble with the toll-free number, try one of the numbers at the bottom of this post.)

This month, we’ll be talking about art, featuring people who build scientific projects in collaboration with or as artists, using visual tools to communicate and share scientific concepts. We’ll hear from the following set list of impressive contributors to art-science communities:

  • Paul Villoutreix – sharing open visualizations of embryonic development @paulvilloutreix, Center for Data Arts
  • Tega Brain – Processing and p5.js for science @tegabrain, Data & Society + 2016 Processing Foundation Fellow
  • Titus Wormer – text training through mellifluous visualization @wooorm, University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam
  • Bill Morris – abstract landscapes from satellite data @vtcraghead, Geosprocket
  • Ian Webster – creating stellar visuals with extra-terrestrial spatial data @iwebst, Zenysis
  • Michael Kosowsky – elevation panoramas for multitudes of mountainscapes @heywhatsthat, Hey What’s That

We’ll also hear our closing updates from our 2016 Mozilla Fellows for Science! Should be a great call!

Have an update, blog post or event you’d like to share relevant to open science? Add it to the etherpad (see ‘Non Verbal Updates’). It’s a great way to share what you’re working on and/or interested in with the community. Don’t be shy. Have a look at last month’s notes on ethics in open science for an idea of what others contributed to the conversation.

Mark your calendars, tune in and help us spread the word – everyone is welcome. For call-in details and links to the etherpad, visit our wiki page. We hope you’ll join us!

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Note: Having trouble dialing in? Try one of these numbers. (Note that they are toll calls and you’ll be charged by your telephone company if the number is long-distance.)

After you enter the extension, you’ll be asked for the conference ID, which is 7677.

  • US/California/Mountain View: +1 650 903 0800, extension 92
  • US/California/San Francisco: +1 415 762 5700, extension 92
  • US/Oregon/Portland: +1 971 544 8000, extension 92
  • CA/Vancouver: +1 778 785 1540, extension 92
  • CA/Toronto: +1 416 848 3114, extension 92
  • UK/London: +44 (0)207 855 3000, extension 92
  • FR/Paris: +33 1 44 79 34 80, extension 92
  • DE/Berlin: +49 30 983 333 000, extension 92
  • NZ/Auckland: +64 9 555 1100, extension 92

Working Open in Montréal!!!

Mozilla

Last February, we hosted our first Working Open Workshop (WOW) in Berlin to train project leads to prepare for a strong open project launch on our Projects page and the 2016 Global Sprint. After some tremendous feedback from participants of that event, I’m pleased to announce that we will be hosting another WOW on March 10-11, this time in Montréal, Québec.

As before, we will be coordinating the event with a new Open Leadership Cohort and kicking off the event with a community event being hosted by the Montreal Open Reproducible Science Meetup.

Working hard (and openly) at the 2016 Berlin Working Open Workshop.

Working hard (and openly) at the 2016 Berlin Working Open Workshop.

For those unfamiliar with WOWs, we cover the essentials of Working Open, organizing open events, bringing on contributors, and growing an active community around an open project. This year we will be holding a half-day Friendly Introduction to GitHub on the first day to allow folks more time to get comfortable with the capabilities of this online collaboration platform. As always, our approach is hands-on, and project-based: we’ll set aside plenty of time for participants to do real, meaningful work on their projects.

TEASER: Also new to this WOW, we will be announcing a new funding opportunity. We’ll announce it here and on Twitter when it happens, so stay tuned!

You can follow the #mozwow Twitter feed to stay up to date on the happenings.  If you will be in Montréal or nearby and would like to check out (or help out with) the kickoff community event, or would like to participate in a future WOW let us know! Contact mozillascience [at] mozilla [dot] org.

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Community Spotlight: Link Clark

Mozilla

Code/Interactive (C/I) is a NYC-based non-profit that focuses on inspiring youth to learn, build, and collaborate with technology. In Austin, TX, C/I operates Coding4TX, a computer science education program that serves teachers and students statewide. Coding4TX has partnered with  Mozilla Hive Austin to contribute to allied educational efforts across the city.
Mozilla invited Link Clark, C/I Austin Program Manager, to bring C/I’s expertise to the second annual SPARK! hackathon, a collaboration with St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, Virginia. SPARK! will bring together over 65 students from 16 area high schools to imagine how they might address local community needs through the Internet of Things (IoT).
We had the opportunity to chat with Link to learn more about C/I, Coding4TX and their work to spread web literacy through hackathons and code jams. Here is what Link had to say:

Coding4TXhackathon, December 10, 2016

Coding4TXhackathon, December 10, 2016


 
How did C/I Austin’s Coding4TX program get its start?
Coding4TX is a coding and computer science education program serving teachers and students in the state of Texas. The initiative, organized and initially funded by the KLE Foundation, is operated by C/I, a NYC-based non-profit focused on inspiring the next generation to learn, build, and collaborate with technology.
Coding4TX launched in August 2015 in seven schools across five districts in Central Texas, successfully introducing coding and computer science to 225 students in middle and high school. During the 2016-2017 school year, C/I became its operator. Currently, we serve 16 schools across nine Texas districts, reaching over 1,500 elementary, middle and high school students.
 

 
How does this work align with promoting the general health of the Internet?
Our organizational mission of diversifying the tech pipeline will increase participation in the industry that is integral to an Internet open to all, not just for entertainment and consumption.
How are Hive Austin & C/I working together? Any plans for 2017?
Hive Austin and C/I are symbiotic in our organizational missions as we work to bridge the digital divide in Austin and Central Texas through our respective efforts in digital literacy and coding education to shape the web. Hive Austin’s event,  “Empowering Educators to Shape the Web Empowers Learners to Shape Society“, was an excellent way to identify and grow our resources for a new era that will help teachers provide students the tools to shape the internet and society. C/I was fortunate enough to pull from Mozilla’s “Hack the News” activities for a part of our Hour of Code, because the teachers we support understand that learning to code does not happen in a vacuum and digital citizenship is shoulder to shoulder with computer science education. The next step in our plan is to co-host a hackathon based on what we learn at SPARK and Mozilla’s curriculum and expertise in web literacy.
Tell us more about the goal and purpose of the Coding4TX hackathon that happened in December.
The hackathon provides innovative real-world training for a new and necessary generation of tech builders and leaders from low-income communities. Students get a chance to work hand-in-hand with some of Central Texas’ most successful technologists to define, design, develop, and deploy real tech products to solve issues that are negatively impacting the community of our students and their peers.
What is one stand-out project that resulted from the hackathon that has made a positive impact on the local community?
Since the theme of our hackathon is to solve an issue that negatively impacts the community, it’s hard to choose just one! Projects from our December hackathon included: a babysitting app for teen mothers based on grades, crowd funding for low-income students for school uniforms, how to manage stress and mental health and balance school success, and a project by the “Coding Queens” that addressed racial cyber bullying. These girls knew firsthand the pains and danger of cyber bullying and decided to solve the problem themselves by building an educational and actionable tool to counter the increasingly hateful language found online. You can read about the event from one of our judges, Hugh Forrest, here.

 
What have you found to be the best way to connect learning with preparing for real-world careers and community impact?
The most successful connection tool, by far, has been the tech office visits we set up for the schools we support. Each semester, a school is able to visit a tech office at businesses such as Samsung, Whole Foods, Facebook, RetailMeNot, Oracle, etc,  that includes a tour and a Q&A with a diverse panel of employees, diverse in terms of background and role at the company. One of the most salient examples took place at Whole Foods Market, where the panel included folks from five different positions connected to their digital presence and an in-depth presentation of current work with two students at a time. The teacher told me multiple students said after that, “I can see myself doing that job,” having been given the chance to learn about it in detail by someone from a similar background.
How do you expect next generation networks to support C/I Austin’s efforts?
The more students that can engage computer science/coding education increases the number of citizens that participate in the building of the internet, which the Gigabit will contribute to immensely. Also, internet speed will be the next phase of the digital divide, so increasing fuller participation in all aspects of digital/internet community permits a greater opportunity to tap into potential.  
What are you most excited about in working with Mozilla and bringing web literacy work to Austin?
Web literacy will help students fully utilize gigabit internet and the multitude of opportunities that come with understanding how the internet can change our communities. For example, Coding4TX and Austin Public Library developed a program, Juntos Online, to encourage families to embrace digital tools at the library.
Learn more about C/I and Coding4TX here, follow them on Twitter @weareci.

A truly reproducible scientific paper?

Mozilla

One pillar of the scientific method is reproducibility, that is, being able to redo an experiment and get the same result. Sometimes this is very hard to accomplish. For example, if you’re doing field work, you might end up collecting some very rare samples or observe a rare natural event. If you work in the lab, tracking all the variables that go into an experiment and might influence it (e.g. the way a person pipettes or mixes reagents) is similar to following your mom’s recipes… most of the times it doesn’t give you the same amazing dish.

However, when analyzing data on a computer you would expect to have control of all the variables and be able to re-run everything you did at the touch of a button. Right? Well… it’s complicated.

Continue reading on medium

Open Credentials: Promising Practices

Mozilla


In 2011, Mozilla created Open Badges with funding from the MacArthur Foundation and a network of partners committed to developing a new way to recognize and connect learning anytime, any place, and any pace. Since then a growing community of contributors has driven the Open Badges movement.
Over the past five years, open credentials or digital badges have gained momentum as a way to capture and demonstrate knowledge and achievement. Through these efforts, badges have gained widespread interest and adoption by policy, technology, and education stakeholders. Open Badges are re-imagining ways to recognize learning beyond formal credentialing systems.
Funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation, Promising Practices of Open Credentials: Five Years of Progress, is a compilation of case studies focused on out-of-school learning, K–12 schools, higher education and workforce badging initiatives and lessons learned about designing and implementing open badging systems.
We want to hear from you — What valuable lessons are you learning? Where would you like to see Open Badges going in the next five years?


In the meantime, next steps for the Open Badges technical specification include widespread market development and adoption. IMS Global Learning Consortium will manage the evolution of the Open Badges technical specification, which defines the technical requirements for what a badge must represent for both issuers and earners. As an open-governance, member-based standards consortium, IMS Global has deep experience with Open Badges and the expertise to lead the evolution of the specification, and also drive the adoption and portability of badges. The aim is to create a global skills currency based on the Open Badges Specification, under the leadership of IMS members with the support of the Open Badges community. More information on how to contribute to the development of Open Badges technical specification can be found here.
In addition, Digitalme has carried out important updates to the Mozilla Backpack to maintain an open source, inter-operable option for individuals to store, share and move their badges between platforms.

Engaging Communities to Inspire Digital Innovation

Mozilla

A new gigabit network rolling out in Detroit is part of a groundswell of innovation currently taking place in this rapidly changing city. To make sure the incredible resource of this gigabit network is made available to more of the community, several organizations recently came together to launch the Equitable Internet Initiative to bring high speed connectivity to more neighborhoods in Detroit. This effort is a partnership between the Detroit Community Technology Project, Allied Media Projects, Grace in Action Collectives, WNUC Community Radio, and the Church of the Messiah’s Boulevard Harambee Program, and aims to build wireless broadband infrastructure and provide community members with the skills necessary to bring their communities online.
We at Mozilla are really interested in how these super fast networks are shaping the future of the internet and of communities. We were honored to be in Detroit as part of the launch of the Equitable Internet Initiative to explore how the high speed network they’re building can be leveraged for community impact.
We believe a healthy internet demands equal participation from diverse communities – that the future of the web should be built by and for all of us, not just a select few. Emerging high speed networks can create amazing possibilities for new technology like smart sensors to support public health and immersive virtual reality applications to expand the reach of teaching and learning. However, we have also seen how these networks can add layers to digital access within communities – advanced internet networks, and the technologies they enable, can feel even more out of reach for those already lacking connectivity.
As the digital landscape changes, it’s important that we’re inviting everyone to participate in a conversation about the potential of new technology to transform their communities and their lives. That’s why we were thrilled to be in Detroit to explore what story they’d like to be able to tell about high speed internet in neighborhoods throughout the city.

Detroit workshop participants make sticky note art during an activity focused on understanding gigabit connectivity


We facilitated an evening workshop that included a series of activities focused on creating a common understanding and shared language around gigabit internet, and inviting participants to think of new technologies that could create real impact. From applications that address pressing public health issues to ways for leveraging high speed networks to improve education, the workshop participants had great ideas they’ll be able to take forward in their neighborhoods as the new gigabit infrastructure is being built.
As communities in Detroit are working to spread the reach of gigabit internet and use that connectivity to inspire community based innovation, our team will continue developing this workshop as a framework of activities to help make these new technologies more accessible and approachable.
We look forward to sharing more of that framework as it’s developed. In the meantime, we wanted to share an activity around understanding gigabit internet connectivity that was a big hit with the workshop participants in Detroit.
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OpenCon: An Unexpected Journey

Mozilla

In this post, I’ll chronicle my journey to OpenCon 2015 and the OpenCon community’s influence on my work!

The Invitation

In early 2015, I saw a flyer for a roundtable discussion on scientific publishing on my campus. It promised snacks and beer to facilitate a forum on academic publishing, and its influence on scientists. At that point, I’d been in grad school pursuing my PhD in neuroscience for about three years and I’d encountered plenty of  “high impact factor at all costs” and anti-data sharing rhetoric. Heck, I’d even bought the argument against open science as a technician and then junior graduate student. During my PhD, however, the flaws in the logic (and the system) became glaring and impossible to brush off by saying “that’s just the way science works”.  The use of publications as academic currency, and the time and money that scientists invest in the closed publishing industry seemed to stand in direct opposition to the collaborative spirit and pursuit of knowledge that lie at the heart of scientific inquiry. I wanted to work on solutions that might help science live up to its own promise.

So, I skipped out of lab a little early and went to talk about open science and the future of scientific publishing with Erick Turner, Melissa Haendel, and Robin Champieux. As a PhD candidate who spent most of my time in the lab, it was my first exposure to the open science movement. Discussing solutions with people who valued my perspective was a welcome change to the environment in lab. I left the event inspired to get involved – but unsure how to start.

How to start a project from scratch? It’s always intimidating, but you’ll be glad you did!

Photo credit: Right to Research Coalition

Why was I unsure? As a student in the US, I don’t “own” my data. Without permission from my supervisor, I can not share data, code, or methods. As is often the case, my PhD supervisors were worried about being “scooped”, distrustful of any avenues for scientific output outside of traditional publishing, and generally uninterested in open access and preprints.

In this environment, I didn’t know how I could become open. Looking back I realize I was thinking of openness as an all or nothing proposition.  In reality, moving one’s entire scientific workflow – particularly in a closed environment without control of data and resources – can be more realistically achieved step by step. A total switch to openness wasn’t possible for me, but I wanted to do something and was ready to learn more.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Scholarly Communication Librarian Robin Champieux had organized the event after attending OpenCon 2014. This was the first OpenCon, organized in Washington DC bye Right to Research Coalition, The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), and community members. Robin’s engagement with OpenCon sparked her to write a grant titled “Catalyzing a Culture of Open Science” to support open science advocacy and scientific communication at my university. This grant was funded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and set the stage for greater involvement by me and other students. Beyond funding events at OHSU, the grant included two travel awards to send students to OpenCon.

As Robin shared with me, she learned at that first OpenCon that “armed with the right information and enough practical pathways, early career researchers have the potential to change the culture of scientific communication.”  She set out to help OHSU’s graduate students and postdocs do just that.

The First Journey

OpenCon is a unique conference and community. I was not really sure what to expect, the only meeting I’d ever been to were large scientific conferences. OpenCon is a relatively small conference (~200 people) that brings students and researchers together from across academia  to discuss Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education.

 

OpenCon 2015 group photo.

Photo credit: Right to Research Coalition

I met librarians, humanities researchers, and scientists from many different fields. As a “bench scientist” it was refreshing to discuss issues with paleontologists, ecologists, scholarly and scientific communications experts, librarians, and tool builders. It was also refreshing to see things happen quickly. The updates from OpenCon 2014 projects floored me, as I come from a world where things move slowly. Importantly, as a privileged person from North America, OpenCon introduced me to people from all over the globe and their projects, struggles, and academic climates. Beyond meeting academics face to face from institutions that can not afford costly journal subscriptions, I got a global and interdisciplinary perspective on what works (and what doesn’t).

.expensive_science

It adds up! The argument that anyone associated with an institution can get access to research is elitist and antithetical to the spirit of science.

Illustration credit: Jorge Cham

The advocacy day at OpenCon 2015 was an experience unlike any I’d ever had. In the morning, panelists and speakers discussed the state of affairs for open issues in the EU. After lunch, OpenCon organizers arranged meetings with policymakers, funders, and organizations to discuss the open movement’s priorities.

 

Spectacular old world splendor in Brussels at OpenCon 2015 advocacy day.

Photo credit: Right to Research Coalition

Pirate Party’s Julia Reda speaking at OpenCon 2015.

Photo credit: Right to Research Coalition

The meetings with policy makers were the first experience in science advocacy I’d ever had. Direct interaction with leaders and policy makers helped me to better understand the role of the scientist in politics. These interactions showed me that it was my job, even my duty, to communicate with political leadership. At the end of the day, I’d heard the perspectives of people from all around the world working for an open future for research.  It was a truly transformative experience!

Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales speaking at closing reception of OpenCon 2015.

Photo credit: Right to Research Coalition

 

Back in the Field

When I returned home, I wanted to use what I had learned and the OpenCon network to advance open science in the Pacific Northwest. But how? Robin and I joined forced to develop a project that would build three key areas critical to open science– skills, community, and advocacy.

Skills

Researchers need  skills in order to use tools that facilitate openness (like GitHub and open source programming languages for data analysis). Code literacy helps scientists use the best tools for their research, and not default to outdated research workflows. The Open Insight series, developed in collaboration with fellow neuroscientist Daniela Saderi and librarians Robin Champieux and Erin Foster, exposed researchers to open source tools and open science concepts through workshops and discussion. Through Open Insight and other collaborations, we have covered Git and GitHub, building web apps, basic R stats, and discussed the future of data with scientific policy leaders. This year, skill building will continue through the OHSU Code Club Study Group, which will also help to build and maintain community.

Community

 

Women in Science PDX annual mixer at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

Photo credit Women in Science PDX

Building skills in a vacuum is hard. Maybe impossible. This is where community becomes critical. When you’re in a lab that uses Excel and MatLab, there is little incentive to move to a new language. It’s important to have a local community of people who can answer questions, puzzle through things, show you how they work, and show off the new tool that they just learned. Building community enables scientists to gain exposure to new tools, workflows, and perspective from other technical communities. Expanding my scientific community to include people from across scientific spectrum, and the open source community has enhanced my scientific productivity and helped me develop leadership and project management skills. I continued to host events to bring the scientific and open source community together, including a three part workshop on career development and negotiation for women in technical fields with Jessica Williams, a talk on Open Science at the Donuts.js meetup.

To continue the theme of local community building within Portland’s diverse scientific and tech communities, the Open Insight team and I collaborated with an incredible group of scientists, engineers, and coders to produce Science Hack Day Portland in October. OpenCon alum Jenny Molloy spoke about hacking hardware, Mozilla’s

Dietrich Ayala spoke about harnessing the power of the internet of things for people rather than corporate gain, and Hack Oregon founder Catherine Nikolovski talked about civic tech and hacking open government data. Mozilla donated Raspberry Pi and hardware for the event, and the indispensable Alex Challey of Portland State University’s Science Support Shop brought along three 3-D printers and managed the design workstation for people to prototype on site. At the event, I lead a molecular biology team to use CRISPR technology to edit the yeast genome with hacked equipment. It was a fantastic event, and the 3D printers ran all night with 35 print jobs making over 75 unique objects during the 24 hour hack – more than a few scientists wrote their first line of code at this event! More on the teams and projects can be found here.

This year, I am excited to be on the organizing team for csv,conf,v3 coming to Portland next year, the local open science and data community continues to grow (ahem, pitch you talk by 2/15).

Advocacy

The third piece is advocacy. The scientific system has been built up around the traditional, closed, scientific publishing and academic system. This means the policies that govern the evaluation of a scientist’s contributions may not value open source, data sharing, and creation of other open resources. Scientists need to learn advocacy and communication skills to advocate for their needs to institutional and funding agency policy making bodies. We are the only ones who can do this job – as articulated nicely by Alexandra Erwin. My OpenCon experience was a first foray into advocacy. When I returned to campus, I reframed my student representative committee service as a chance to learn how the policy “sausage” gets made at my institution.

Back to the Well

I traveled to Washington DC for the third OpenCon in November of 2016. Prior to OpenCon, Kirstie Whitaker and I developed a website to collect “agony aunt” style questions and answers to issues facing researchers who want to work openly called Open Advice. At OpenCon, we gathered a group of contributors together and worked on the site. The work is ongoing, so feel free to contribute a question or an answer!

Group Photo OpenCon 2016.

Photo credit: Right to Research Coalition

OpenCon’s unique Advocacy Day matches conference attendees with representatives or interest groups to advocate for policies to support open science. This year, advocacy day took place just six days after the presidential election and the mood in DC was unsettled.I joined a group of students and librarians from around Oregon lead by Portland State librarian Emily Ford, met with Ron Wyden’s staff to discuss the Fair Access to Science and Technology Act (FASTR).

The Oregon OpenCon delegation at Ron Wyden’s office.

Photo credit: Daniela Saderi

I then rushed across town to lead a meeting of 20 OpenCon attendees with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) with Dr. George Strawn, Board Director for the Policy and Global Affairs Division at the National Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Marcia McNutt, President of the National Academy of Sciences. We advocated for data sharing and open access, more support for early career researchers, voiced our concerns about diversity and inclusion in the sciences.

The gilded ceiling at the National Academy of Sciences.

Photo credit: Danielle Robinson

Beginning in 2014, Robin’s trip to OpenCon and involvement with the community brought open issues to the forefront on our campus and brought me into the fold through on-campus events. My trip to OpenCon 2015, sponsored by Robin’s NLM grant, sparked a larger collaboration that has engaged hundreds of of researchers. In 2016, two more students went to OpenCon sponsored by the OHSU library. This is how a local network grows and this is how an institution demonstrates is commitment to open science In 2016, I received a Mozilla Science fellowship, enabling me to dedicate more time to my open science projects and further develop my advocacy skills. None of this would have happened if Robin hadn’t gone to OpenCon 2014.

OpenCon, Robin said, “has not only sparked our strategies for making open science the norm at OHSU, it also influenced the career trajectories and success of everyone we’ve sent.  It is really amazing how influential it’s been.”

If you’re considering getting involved with a local OpenCon event or starting a local group – DO IT. It’s a vibrant and growing community that’s opened my eyes to many resources, networks, and diverse perspectives on openness and advocacy. I’m happy to chat if you want to know more.

Achintya Rao, Kirstie Whitaker, Danielle Robinson at OpenCon 2016.

Photo credit: Right to Research Coalition

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Hive Toronto 2017 Membership Application is Open!

Mozilla

Become a Hive Toronto Member!

We are excited to announce that Hive Toronto is now accepting new members! At Hive Toronto, members network with each other, share best practices and pedagogies, learn about and play with new technologies, participate in events, and most importantly, collaborate to design and implement transformative learning opportunities for Toronto youth and the greater community.

To learn more about our members, check out our MEMBERS page

Please find our application here

Why become a member?

To support youth learning, Hive supports member organizations by providing opportunities for educators to develop skills, share knowledge, and collaborate through the following mechanisms:

  • Cultivating a community of practice: Community calls, meetups, online communication platform, consultation on program and curriculum development
  • Facilitating professional development: Digital literacy trainings, cultivating and sharing training opportunities
  • Acting as a conduit: To other organizations, to funders, to opportunities for youth, promotion
  • Seeding collaborative partnerships: Informal partnerships, pooling funding from outside funders for cross-member to develop new digital learning opportunities for youth

By joining Hive Toronto, members commit to contributing to a collaborative community of practice. We often explain Hive as a potluck: members have different needs, or “appetites,” but like any good potluck, you take what you need while contributing what you can.

There are two types of membership you can apply to join the Hive Toronto network:

Hive Member:

Organizations or institutions that:

  • Must be a registered not for profit in Canada (this requirement is necessary to apply for Hive Toronto mini-grant funding)
  • Provide youth development and learning opportunities directly to young people in the Greater Toronto Area.
  • Invest in increasing access and equity in education through digital media and web literacy.
  • Commit to ongoing learning and innovation for both educators and youth participants.
  • Commit to creating and contributing to inclusive learning environments within and outside of their organization.

Community Ally:

Organizations that are aligned with Hive’s core principles and practices but do not meet Hive Member criteria. This can include community organizing groups, community focused coalitions etc.

These groups showcase a commitment to:

  • Investing in increasing access and equity in education through digital media and web literacy.
  • Commit to ongoing learning and innovation for both educators and youth participants.
  • Commit to creating and contributing to inclusive learning environments within and outside of their organization.

If you have any questions about eligibility, please contact the team at Hive Toronto at hivetoronto@mozillafoundation.org 

 

Advocacy and Activism: This is what a SCIENTIST looks like

Mozilla

https://twitter.com/roxana_hickey/status/822954210878636032

Scientists tend to think of advocacy in terms of funding. New movements are empowering early career scientists to get advocate for their needs (Alexandra Erwin breaks it down here).  Advocacy tends to mean getting smartly dressed for an orderly meeting where you will be diplomatic and bite your tongue as you state your perspective to people in power. Will advocacy be enough? Activism means like you’ll be participating in disruptive events.  Even the tamest forms of activism will have you in the streets in the rain, shouting at full volume, and waving a soggy sign.

This weekend, many scientists protested for the first time in their lives. But on Monday, most of us will be back in the lab. How can scientists maintain the momentum that will be required to fight for personal and scientific causes?

Use the time you have <-strategically

Scientists always feel like we have no time. To be strategic, you need to learn about the groups in your local area that are already doing the work you care about. Then ask them how you can help. My state has strong groups working in racial justice, rural organizing, tenants rights and other issues that are personally important for me. Find yours, and ask them how you can support their work.

If you have no time, you can make phone calls on your lunch break or support groups that work virtually, including data refuge and data backup projects. Finding your IRL or virtual community will also help fight burnout and sustain your development as an activist/advocate over the long haul.

Use the skills you have <-but develop them

(Hint, not by talking to a bunch of people exactly like you!)

Scientists are are good at project management, understanding complex landscapes, and if you’re reading this post you’re probably interested in communication – these are key skills for both advocacy and activism. But what works in academia does not always translate outside the ivory tower.

This November, Amira Dhalla ran a groundbreaking workshop to teach organization and advocacy skills to women from around the world. Women+Web=<STRONG> gave participants the chance to work through a campaign design exercise within diverse global groups. For me, it was also a lesson in both advocacy and recognizing my own biased, academic perspective.

How do you get to the root of the problem and find a winning strategy? The prompt for our group exercise at Women+Web=<STRONG> was “how to get more women and girls interested in STEM”. I immediately thought about getting successful STEM women to speak to high school girls, anti-bias training for faculty, and developing professional support groups – typical things you do in the US or somewhere that already has a robust STEM community. My group included Mmaki Jantijes, a PhD in computer science and faculty member at the University of the Western Cape (more here). Another group member, Baratang Miya, has long expereince developing a pipleine for women in STEM. Their perspectives were different. In the end, we developed a strategy that both enabled virtual participation (to keep moms in the loop) and resulted in a fast path to marketable skills.

For me, this was a direct lesson in how my bias/privilege clouds my strategic planning ability. My ideas were too academic. They danced around the issue. They were directed towards women who have time/ability to attend professional development events or already in the field with access to role models. None of my ideas got to the heart of the problem. None of my ideas would work outside cities in the US. Working with Mmaki and Baratang, I saw clearly that I had a lot of work to do to level up my ability to develop effective programs – and I saw directly that working alone, or with people just like me, would not bring progress.

Keep pushing

I’m a liberal academic American white lady. April Hathcock wrote a piece last spring called “You’re Gonna Screw This Up”, which should be required reading for people like me.  My expereince at Amira’s workshop is an “easy story” to tell the story because I got to learn about an aspect my bias in a safe space, while making awesome new friends, and without feeling uncomfortable AND I got to walk away with a clear lesson. It’s not always that way, sometimes it hurts to face my bias/privilege. But there’s no option but to keep pushing and learning. See also, the work of Chanda Prescod-Weinstein.

Loop it

Science is full of people willing to wait and see how things turn out. If you’re not one of them, you can make your voice heard. Find your people/organizations, learn how to improve your skills, use your time strategically, confront your biases, learn how to improve your skills further, and keep pushing to impact!

Celebrate small victories

And now, a series of fun links to tweets showing scientists who joined marches this weekend. Comment to link to more images and I’ll add them!