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Set up an informal Communication Platform §

Pattern Summary §

Set up a a dedicated communication platform to provide students with a dedicated informal space to engage with the OSPO and with open source communities on campus.

Problem / Challenge §

Students and researchers interested in open source sometimes face barriers to participation. There may not be clear pathways to connect with experienced contributors. Potential contributors may struggle to find appropriate projects matching their skill levels. Those who are new to open source, may lack the confidence to interact publicly with open source communities.

Standard communication channels (e.g. email or learning management systems) don't reflect the conversational, collaborative nature of open source culture.

OSPOs need an accessible entry point for students, researchers, open source projects and potential contributors to engage with each other.

Pattern Category §

  • Awareness
  • Community Building

Context §

A university or research institution creating large volumes of research outputs across every discipline.

Existing open source activities are spread across different departments, programs and campuses.

An OSPO has been established.

Forces §

The OSPO has a website.

OSPO staff members have the resources/capacity to maintain and moderate any communications.

Solution §

Set up a dedicated communications platform as an accessible, informal space where students and researchers can ask questions, share information and learn about open source activities taking place across campus.

Choose from a range of platforms e.g. Slack, Discord, Matrix, Zulip.

Develop a code of conduct and agree on a process for staff moderation of discussions.

Promote the platform using a join button on the OSPO website and on any other communications (e.g newsletters or mailing lists).

Resulting Context §

The communications platform can become a hub for spontaneous knowledge sharing amongst open source practitioners across campus.

Students gain exposure to professional communication practices used in open source communities.

The platform also serves as a channel for promoting the OSPO; signposting supports for open source projects and the academic community; and also attracting new contributors/participants to open source projects.

The OSPO can identify emerging themes or needs from discussions.

Additional Learning from the University of California OSPO Network §

We recently set up a Slack workspace for the network as a whole, and some campuses have set up channels on that workspace for campus-specific chat. The workspace has channels for the following: - Funding - General (read-only for non-admins, so notifications aren’t just noise) - Intros - Maintainers - Off-topic - OSS-chat (for anything folks would otherwise put in general, but it’s read-only) - OSS-events (for non-OSPO OSS events that folks might be interested in) - Project-matching (to match aspiring contributors to projects seeking contributions and vice versa) - Temporary event chat channels during hackathons or conferences

Additional Learning from OpenSource@Stanford §

OpenSource@Stanford has its own Slack workspace where we invite community members to join public channels (using our general channel mainly for community-wide announcements and updates). We also have private channels for specific groups e.g. a channel for Maintainers & Contributors Roundtable members.

Known Instances §

References §

Contributors & Acknowledgement §

In alphabetical order

  • Ciara Flanagan, https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3153-7673
  • Francesca Vera, Stanford University, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8791-3854
  • Laura Langdon, University of California, Davis