Individual consultations / Office Hours §
Pattern Summary §
Offer consultations to students, researchers and faculty about their open source projects.
Problem / Challenge §
There is inconsistent knowledge across a university of:
- How to create and use open source software (OSS) effectively.
- How to follow open source best practices / standards.
- Additional resources and services available to open source projects.
- Licensing frameworks and alternatives.
Students, researchers and faculty need guidance to identify the appropriate solutions for their specific challenges.
Pattern Category §
- Building University OSS Community
- Sharing OSS Best Practices
- Working with Tech Transfer / External Partners
- Supporting OSS development
- Funding & Financial Support
Context §
A university with diverse departments of varying levels of OSS expertise and needs.
There is inconsistent awareness about the role of OSS standards in improving scientific quality and generating results that are reproducible and trustworthy.
There is inconsistent awareness of OSS license management and compliance with institutional and IP policies.
An OSPO with the resources/capacity to offer one-to-one consultations and any required follow-up work.
Forces §
Students and researchers do not know how or where to access the information they need.
OSPO staff have the capacity/availability to meet for consultations and to provide follow-up support.
The OSPO or project lead has a working knowledge of and relationships with TTO, contract, and other staff/faculty who are positioned to support students.
Solution §
Offer individual consultations or ‘office hours’ as a service to answer questions and/or to provide support to open source projects.
This can be offered through a number of different channels:
- Providing a contact email address on the OSPO website.
- Booking a slot using a scheduling tool on the OSPO’s website.
- Integrating and advertising OSPO consultations as part of a Department’s wider consultation services.
- Providing individual consultations whenever requested.
Resulting Context §
Research teams and projects benefit from personalized guidance along with referrals to complementary university support services.
Additional Learning from Carnegie Mellon University OSPO §
We use this consultation template to guide the conversation with projects and to assess their needs.
Additional Learning from Georgia Tech OSPO §
We support POSE proposal development with office hours.
Additional Learning from University of California Santa Cruz OSPO §
We meet with projects to offer advice and support as needed. This is often a one-time call but sometimes grows into grant proposals or longer collaborations.
Additional Learning from University of Vermont VERSO OSPO §
Most of our consultations come from internal referrals or the Tech Transfer Office.
Known Instances §
- CMU Open Source Program Office, CMU Libraries, Carnegie Mellon University
- GW Open Source Program Office, The George Washington University
- Georgia Tech Open Source Program Office, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Innovation Partnerships, MOSS program, University of Michigan
- JHU Open Source Programs Office, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University
- OpenSource@Stanford, Stanford Data Science Center for Open and Reproducible Science (CORES), Leland Stanford Junior University
- Syracuse University OSPO, Syracuse University
- UGA Open Source Program Office, Grenoble Alpes University
- UC Davis OSPO, University of California Davis, UC OSPO Network
- UC Santa Cruz OSPO, University of California Santa Cruz, UC OSPO Network
- UT-OSPO, The University of Texas at Austin
- Vermont Research Open Source Program Office (VERSO), University of Vermont
References §
- Consultations offered by the GWU OSPO are part of the library’s research consulting services.
- Consulting services offered by Johns Hopkins University OSPO.
- Consultations offered by OpenSource@Stanford.
- Consultations offered by the MOSS Program - scroll down to GitHub Garage under “Education”.
- Consultation services offered by the UT-OSPO.
- Consultation booking form for the UT-OSPO.
- Consultations and other services offered by VERSO OSPO.
- Consultation template for projects used by Carnegie Mellon University OSPO.
Related Patterns §
Template for 1:1 Campus Consultations
Contributors & Acknowledgement §
- David Lippert (The George Washington University), https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6444-9595
- Duane O'Brien - consulted on the design of the CMU OSPO project consultation template
- Emily Lovell, University of California Santa Cruz, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5531-5956
- Kendall Fortney (University of Vermont), https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3898-0771
- Tom Hughes (Carnegie Mellon University) https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7516-3687
- Will Gearty (Syracuse University), https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0076-3262
- Ciara Flanagan, https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3153-7673