Table of content
The Open Seeds program
Purpose: Training for early stage researchers and young leaders interested in furthering their Open Science skills
Outcome: Ambassadors for Open Science practice, training and education across multiple countries and scientific communities.
Process: A 16-week mentoring & training program, based on the Mozilla Open Leader program, helping participants in becoming Open Science ambassadors by using three principles:
- Sharing essential knowledge required to create, lead, and sustain an Open Science project.
- Connecting members across different communities, backgrounds, and identities by creating space in this program for them to share their experiences and expertise.
- Empowering them to become effective Open Science ambassadors in their communities.
Goals and Learning Objectives
The vision of OLS program is to strengthen Open Science skills for early stage researchers and young leaders in science.
At the end of the program, our participants will be able to:
- Describe and define the terms openness, open science, open leadership, community interactions, value exchanges, inclusivity, accessibility, open Science practices in developing resources and training
- Learn how to apply those principles to open leadership and working open in their projects and communities . Learn how to collect, invite, and tell stories that demonstrate how and why openness benefits the communities they serve
- Give original examples for the types of openness in science
- Design
- Illustrate the need for a project, its vision, and its goals
- Embrace and communicate the benefits of Open Science and how to strategically apply different open practices to their work
- Identify the public resources to share their data
- Identify the different type of Open Access and associated journals
- Build
- Start any project with openness in mind from day one
- Setup a project repository on GitHub using best practices for enabling collaboration
- Choose and apply open licenses appropriately
- Empower
- Create and enforce a safe working environment
- Promote the values of Open Science to empower others to lead and collaborate
- Include a broad range of contributors in their work
- Communicate their work and vision in a 2min demo of elevator pitch
- Lead an open project in science
Timeline
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July 11, 2024: Start of the program
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January 15, 2024: End of the program
Schedule
During the program,
- Mentors and mentees meet every 2 weeks for a 30 minutes call
- Mentees participate every ~2 weeks to 90-minutes cohort calls during which the program leaders introduce new topics and resources, facilitate break-out discussions, and invite experts from the field to give talks
- Mentees can participate to skill-up, Q&A or coworking sessions in the weeks without cohort calls
- Mentors take part in mentoring workshop and calls
Organizers will inform participants of the week schedule by email.
Role Descriptions
Project leads (aka Mentees)
Participants join this program with a project that they either are already working on or want to develop during this program. More details about the role of a project lead (mentee) can be found here.
Mentors
Our project leads are supported in this program by our mentor-community who are paired based on the compatibility of expertise, interests and requirements of their projects. Our mentors are Open Science practitioners and champions with previous experiences in training and mentoring. They are currently working in different professions in data science, publishing, community building, software development, clinical studies, industries, scientific training and IT services.
Mentors advise and inspire
- Connect: to people, programs, companies
- Recommend: resources, readings, classes, experiences
- Feedback: for the project leads to consider
Pool of mentors
We thank the 0 mentors this round.
Mentoring training
Mentorship roles can sound like a big personal responsibility and can be overwhelming for new mentors. To support our mentors in this program, we will offer training, topic-based guided discussions and opportunity for social interaction over 4 calls during the mentorship round:
- 2 training calls in the beginning of the cohort to get participants trained and prepared for their role as mentors
- 1 catch-up call in the middle of the cohort to discuss new topics and challenges that might have occurred and address them
- 1 call at the end to capture experiences of mentors and assess their interest in future cohorts
- Social and co-working calls schedule will be agreed among the mentors as per their needs and interests
In the mentor training, our mentors will then gain mentoring skills (active listening, effective questioning, giving feedback), learn to celebrate successes and gain confidence on navigating challenges in mentoring.
A dedicated slack channel will facilitate open discussions among mentors to help them discuss their experiences, challenges and tips and tricks (contact the team if you are not yet on this channel).
Experts
Experts are invited to join cohort calls or individual mentorship calls to share their experience and expertise during the program.
We thank the 0 persons who registered to be experts in this round.
A dedicated slack channel will facilitate open discussions among experts and other participants in OLS-9 to help them expand their network while discussing relevant topics (contact the team if you are not yet on this channel).
Facilitators
Facilitators work closely with the OLS organisers to manage and run cohort calls. They lead efforts in preparing cohort call notes, co-hosting cohort calls and ensuring the sharing of call recordings and resources through OLS channelss
We thank the 0 persons who facilitated in this round.
Organizers
Role in OLS:
Director of Learning and Technology
Bérénice is a bioinformatician (post-doc in the Freiburg Galaxy Team), analyzing biological data and developing tools for data analysis, mainly via Galaxy. In her current role, she also serves as a deputy training coordinator for ELIXIR Germany (de.NBI). Bérénice is passionate about training and education. She founded and co-leads the Galaxy Training Material project, and regularly giving talks and workshops on topics like data analysis, and tool development. She is also a founder of Street Science Community, a citizen science and outreach program.
Role in OLS:
Director of Partnerships and Strategy
Malvika Sharan is a Senior Researcher at The Alan Turing Institute, where she leads a team of community managers and co-leads The Turing Way, a community-led handbook on data science. She is a co-founder of Open Life Science, and an active contributor of several open source/science projects. Connect with her on topics such as community building, open science, strategic collaboration and representation of marginalised members in leadership.
Role in OLS:
Executive Director, Business and Development Lead
Yo is the executive director and a co-founder of OLS. As an EngD student at the University of Manchester, Yo is studying pathogen-related data sharing and sustainability of open source software.Yo is a founder of Code is Science, and previously, they were editor for the PLOS Open Source Toolkit, editor emeritus at the Journal of Open Source Software, board member of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation, and a software developer at the University of Cambridge, working on an open source biological data warehouse called InterMine.
Collaborators
This cohort is a joined effort between OLS and 3 international organisations and communities:
- Africa-OLS with Bioinformatics Hub of Kenya initiative (BHKi) amd the South African Center for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) via the ESCALATOR programme
- VU Amsterdam
- MetaDocencia
Resources
The resources available to the OLS-9 cohort members will facilitate their communication, training, mentoring and learning process during their participation in the program.
Calls
Cohort calls
The full cohort meetings take place every 2 weeks (unless mentioned otherwise) and last for 90 minutes.
During these calls:
- Organisers/hosts will introduce new topic of the week
- Speakers will present their work related to the topic of the week
- Participants will be given group discussion exercises
- An open Q&A will be run and notes will be co-developed
- Exercises will be given for the week to be completed before the mentee-mentor meeting
The calls will be hosted online using the Zoom web-conferencing option. A link for the calls will be shared for each meeting separately.
Look up the shared notes for each call linked to the schedule in this website. You will also be updated via email each week by the organisers with additional details to aid your participation.
If you can’t make it to a call:
The call will be recorded and available on the OLS YouTube channel after the call.
If you can not attend most calls during the program due to the time zone incompatibility or other personal obligation, please let the organisers know. If you are unable to communicate with your mentor regularly or do not engage in the program as planned, we may need to evaluate if you are able to finish the program.
Mentor-mentee calls
The Mentor-mentee calls take place every 2 weeks (unless mentioned otherwise) and last for 30 minutes.
During these calls:
- Mentors help their mentees evaluate their understanding of the new topics
- Mentees will complete their task assigned at the cohort calls using new skills learned that week
- Mentors and mentee will review progress together where mentees provide constructive feedback
- Mentors will connect mentees with other experts and get consulted on their project when needed
Coordinate with your mentor how you manage the notes and assignments for your 1:1 calls.
The online communication options can be agreed upon by the mentor-mentee pairs. A few options to explore are the following:
- Zoom: 40 mins limit for each call
- Google hangout: Free for members with google account
- Skype: Free, download the app
- Whereby.com: Free option, valid upto 4 participants
- Jitsi: Free, open source web-based call is possible
- Whatsapp or other phone-based calls: Only if both mentor and mentee are comfortable with exchanging numbers
If a mentor has to miss a mentee-mentor meeting, please discuss it with your mentee and reschedule your call. If you are unable to make it to any slot together, please find other ways (asynchronous documentation) to interact with your mentee.
If a mentor has to step back from the program for any reason, please communicate with the organisers to identify an alternative for their mentees.
Skill-up calls
In some weeks during which there is not cohort call, we will offer some optional skill-up calls.
The calls will be hosted online using the Zoom web-conferencing option. A link for the calls will be shared for each meeting separately.
Look up the shared notes for each call linked to the schedule in this website. You will also be updated via email each week by the organisers with additional details to aid your participation.
Q&A calls
The Q&A sessions take place in weeks during which there is not cohort call. These calls are optional but highly valuable for enhancing your understanding of the materials discussed in OLS-4 with the help of other participants.
The calls will be hosted online using the Zoom web-conferencing option. A link for the calls will be shared for each meeting separately.
Mentor calls
4 mentor calls will take place during the program.
The calls will be hosted online using the Zoom web-conferencing option. A link for the calls will be shared for each meeting separately.
Speaker Guide
We have a short guide for invited speakers.
Communication channels
Communication within the cohort members
OLS-9 Slack Channel
A dedicated Slack channel has been setup to facilitate real-time as well as asynchronous communication among the all members of the OLS-9 cohort. A personal invitation link will be shared with the participants via an email.
OLS-9 private Google group
Organizers inform participants of the week schedule by email. An archive of all emails can be found on the private OLS-9 Google group.
An invitation is sent to all participants (mentees, mentors, etc) at the beginning of the program. If it is not the case, please contact the team
Communication with members not in the cohort
General updates from the program such as new posts, collaborations and relevant retweets will be shared via our official Twitter channel.
Gitter
We have a public Gitter channel that can be used by members of the public contact the OLS team and community.
OLS Google group
Updates regarding new calls for applications, announcements, and final project presentations are posted on the OLS public Google group
Community Participation Guidelines
This project, as part of the Open Life Science community, is committed to providing a welcoming, friendly, and harassment-free environment for everyone to learn and grow by contributing. As a result, we require participants to follow our code of conduct.
This code of conduct outlines our expectations for participants within the community, as well as steps to reporting unacceptable behavior. We are committed to providing a welcoming and inspiring community for all and expect our code of conduct to be honored. Anyone who violates this code of conduct may be banned from the community.
Our open source community strives to:
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Be friendly and patient.
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Be welcoming: We strive to be a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. This includes, but is not limited to members of any race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, colour, immigration status, social and economic class, educational level, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental and physical ability.
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Be considerate: Your work will be used by other people, and you in turn will depend on the work of others. Any decision you take will affect users and colleagues, and you should take those consequences into account when making decisions. Remember that we’re a world-wide community, so you might not be communicating in someone else’s primary language.
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Be respectful: Not all of us will agree all the time, but disagreement is no excuse for poor behavior and poor manners. We might all experience some frustration now and then, but we cannot allow that frustration to turn into a personal attack. It’s important to remember that a community where people feel uncomfortable or threatened is not a productive one.
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Be careful in the words that we choose: We are a community of professionals, and we conduct ourselves professionally. Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down other participants. Harassment and other exclusionary behavior aren’t acceptable. This includes, but is not limited to: Violent threats or language directed against another person, Discriminatory jokes and language, Posting sexually explicit or violent material, Posting (or threatening to post) other people’s personally identifying information (“doxing”), Personal insults, especially those using racist or sexist terms, Unwelcome sexual attention, Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior, Repeated harassment of others. In general, if someone asks you to stop, then stop.
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Try to understand why we disagree: Disagreements, both social and technical, happen all the time. It is important that we resolve disagreements and differing views constructively. Remember that we’re different. Diversity contributes to the strength of our community, which is composed of people from a wide range of backgrounds. Different people have different perspectives on issues. Being unable to understand why someone holds a viewpoint doesn’t mean that they’re wrong. Don’t forget that it is human to err and blaming each other doesn’t get us anywhere. Instead, focus on helping to resolve issues and learning from mistakes.
Diversity Statement
We encourage everyone to participate and are committed to building a community for all. Although we will fail at times, we seek to treat everyone both as fairly and equally as possible. Whenever a participant has made a mistake, we expect them to take responsibility for it. If someone has been harmed or offended, it is our responsibility to listen carefully and respectfully, and do our best to right the wrong.
Although this list cannot be exhaustive, we explicitly honor diversity in age, gender, gender identity or expression, culture, ethnicity, language, national origin, political beliefs, profession, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and technical ability. We will not tolerate discrimination based on any of the protected characteristics above, including participants with disabilities.
Reporting Issues
If you experience or witness unacceptable behavior, or have any other concerns, please report it by contacting the organisers - Bérénice, Malvika and Yo. (team@we-are-ols.org).
To report an issue involving one of the members, please email one of the members individually (berenice@we-are-ols.org, malvika@we-are-ols.org, yo@we-are-ols.org).
All reports will be handled with discretion. In your report please include:
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Your contact information.
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Names (real, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved. If there are additional witnesses, please include them as well. Your account of what occurred, and if you believe the incident is ongoing. If there is a publicly available record (e.g. a mailing list archive or a public IRC logger), please include a link.
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Any additional information that may be helpful.
After filing a report, a representative will contact you personally, review the incident, follow up with any additional questions, and make a decision as to how to respond. If the person who is harassing you is part of the response team, they will recuse themselves from handling your incident. If the complaint originates from a member of the response team, it will be handled by a different member of the response team. We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse.
Attribution & Acknowledgements
This code of conduct is based on the Open Code of Conduct from the TODOGroup.