Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
Dear all-
I would like to encourage you to start reaching out in whatever medium you feel comfortable with in the next month before the hackathon. Although BONSAI has been around for a while, we have more interested people bringing more ideas and more energy than ever right now. The hackathon is our best chance to finally turn these principles into an actual product, which in turn could lead to a huge increase in engagement and data provision. So even if it feels a bit awkward or arrogant, you have the right to celebrate being part of a movement in the right direction. Share your passion, and you will inspire passion in others! Or, as one of the leading lights in modern philosophy said: "Just do it!" Personally, I am making an open commitment to writing a blog post a week for the next five weeks (I am mostly announcing this in public so that I have to actually do it :). The first post is "What would a modern Industrial Ecology database look like?" The topic next week will be the management structure of BONSAI, both currently and possibilities for the future. Yours, Chris
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
Konstantin Stadler
Hi Chris,
Happy to share infos and blog posts on my twitter (https://twitter.com/kst_stadler) and can probably cross-post on the NTNU IndEcol twitter account (if of general interest). Specifically for the hackathon - are you still looking for participants; or should I rather post something general regarding Bonsai? best kst
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
I think we are more or less complete, unless someone comes with special expertise relevant to the specific deliverables.
I was thinking more about reaching out on the general purpose and philosophy behind BONSAI, and how this is a chance to build the future that most of us want.
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
Konstantin Stadler
ok,
toggle quoted messageShow quoted text
https://twitter.com/kst_stadler/status/1100379225373245440 just started the hashtag #BONSAI , hitch-hiking small trees...
On 26/02/2019 13:42, Chris Mutel wrote:
I think we are more or less complete, unless someone comes with special expertise relevant to the specific deliverables.
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Online #KnowledgeManagement - audit and suggestions for change
#knowledgemanagement
Following from Chris's post here, this is my audit of existing Bonsai communication mediums. Plus suggestions for changes that I'd like to open for comment before taking action which affects everyone. The goal of this effort is to organise the Bonsai mediums such that interested people can quickly navigate to the most up-to-date information which is relevant for them. This way they are more likely to properly understand the project without unnecessary struggle. Once they have this understanding, their path toward meaningful contributions should also be clear. This is particularly important with the recent flurry of activity and upcoming outreach. Current stateGithubBonsamurais organisation (17 members) containing: · 4 repositories o The Bonsai repository contains the Wiki, where tasks are currently managed (e.g.) · A top-level project board made my Chris today but not yet used Groups.ioBest navigated on the web-interface (although I've found rich-formatting of posts is not so friendly) · main (24 members) o hackathon2019 subgroup (16 members – note that posts here won’t necessarily reach the 8 people exclusively in Main) LinkedIn:· A 'company' (59 followers) · A closed 'group' (339 members!) o "About this group" is the only publicly visible part. It does not include links to other open Bonsai mediums Websitehttps://bonsai.uno/ contains · static pages · some document hosting here. · Fairly detailed descriptions of planning and strategy o it's not clear whether this or the wiki pages are authoritative on this topic, and there’s much duplication · web-app hosting on this domain suggested Google docsRoot and subfolders shared with various email addresses; anyone with the link can edit. Subfolders: · ‘documents’ - 8 sets of minutes from Developer and Board meetings · ‘classifications and correspondences’ - 24 Google spreadsheets Slackhttps://bonsai-open.slack.com for chat · Chris has stated he intends to also upload the chatlogs from the public channels for transparency · Private channels can be used for private comms
Other currently planned mediumsSphinxFor documentation of functional Bonsai software (source) Zoom.usFor video calling/conferencing. · Bo has a paid plan and has requested he be contacted for scheduling · Zoom can be integrated into Slack for video meetings (but hasn’t yet) Not foundPrevious funding applications. These could be useful for potential future applications.
Change proposals· The wiki becomes the primary destination for up-to-date information, with only stable information on the website (plus eventually the web-apps) · Use the Github 'Projects' functionality for task management. o When tasks relate to specific repos, use the 'projects' in those. o For higher-level tasks or ones that presently lack repositories, use the top-level Bonsai organisation 'projects'
Action points1. Update the wiki front-page (or make a dedicated page) with the outcome of this discussion. a. use this as the general "contributing guidelines" (or similar) for the organisation. Stating how we agree to use the various comms mediums and tools such as GitHub Issues etc. b. This becomes the basis for the #GettingStarted guide referenced by Chris 2. Update LinkedIn (group and company) descriptions with a prominent link to the Wiki front page 3. The Google Drive and website meeting documents are hosted for posterity as pdfs at a single location (I suggest the website only, as they are static) 4. Delete the copies from other locations 5. Add previous funding applications to the same location. 6. Add any missing information from the website-hosted strategy and work plan to the wiki. Then delete these webpages 7. Add a link to the Groups.io mailing list in the website contact section 8. Edit the ‘Status and statutes’ section: a. ‘Status’ implies up-to-date: hence reference the wiki b. ‘Statutes’ are static: with other website-hosted documents 9. Move the 5 pages of tasks to appropriate GitHub organisation or repository Project Boards Further questions1. The LinkedIn group is not open. Is this by default or is there a rationale for requiring an invitation before people can join? 2. Paid 'Membership' is currently only emphasised on the website. Should this option be made more prominent elsewhere?
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Re: Online #KnowledgeManagement - audit and suggestions for change
#knowledgemanagement
I think this is a great start - I hope that you and a few others can put together a detailed plan including a repo with separate pages for what the website could look like, as well as a guide for newcomers, so that we can get to group consensus.
One small clarification - Sphinx is a tool to convert documentation from one format to another, for example to convert the Brightway docs from restructured text to HTML. It isn't a communication tool per se.
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
Weekly post #2: Governance structure of BONSAI, with specific suggestions for changes. Comments and critiques are welcome.
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2019 General Assembly - Doodle poll
We will have the general assembly for 2019 a bit after the hackathon, so we have some time to process the work that was done there. Please indicate your availability on the following doodle: https://doodle.com/poll/ehvevkibuvbiihu6.
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Re: 2019 General Assembly
Bo Weidema
We should maybe mention that to participate in the General Assembly, which is the formal governing body of BONSAI according to the Statutes, a formal membership is required, which you obtain by paying a minimum contribution of 150 EUR at https://bonsai.uno/contribute/ Bo Den 2019-03-02 kl. 08.50 skrev Chris
Mutel:
We will have the general assembly for 2019 a bit after the hackathon, so we have some time to process the work that was done there. Please indicate your availability on the following doodle: https://doodle.com/poll/ehvevkibuvbiihu6.
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
It seems that not all the hackathon participants have filled up the doodle pool yet. We should have a date soon so please fill the doodle :) I welcome Chris' suggestions about the management of the BONSAI organization.
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
Matteo Lissandrini (AAU)
Hi Michele,
sorry for not filling up the doodle. I was not actually planning to participate in the GA... I'm not 100% sure about what is its scope actually. Thanks, Matteo
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
On Wed, 6 Mar 2019 at 13:41, Matteo Lissandrini (AAU) <matteo@cs.aau.dk> wrote:
sorry for not filling up the doodle.The general assembly is the annual meeting of the BONSAI non-profit organization. There is no fixed agenda, nor any proposed agenda yet; you can read the minutes from previous meetings and the BONSAI statutes here: https://bonsai.uno/organisation/. We will have more specifics after the next board meeting. Currently, participation is limited to BONSAI members; details on membership here: https://bonsai.uno/contribute/. BTW, this will be in May, not March :) Thanks, -- ############################ Chris Mutel Technology Assessment Group, LEA Paul Scherrer Institut OHSA D22 5232 Villigen PSI Switzerland http://chris.mutel.org Telefon: +41 56 310 5787 ############################
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Re: Online #KnowledgeManagement - audit and suggestions for change
#knowledgemanagement
Thank you very much for this summary and for proposing those action points Tom. NOTE: The fee and the cases in which the fee might be waved for contributors will be discussed at the next board meeting (next week). About the action points:
Michele De Rosa
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A formal structure for community governance
Dear all-
I have developed a formal structure for making community decisions, based on the Python enhancement proposal template (PEP) that many other software projects use. You can find the draft here: https://github.com/BONSAMURAIS/enhancements/blob/master/beps/0002-bonsai-project-community-governance-structure.md, and the repository here: https://github.com/BONSAMURAIS/enhancements/. As eating your own dog food is generally good practice, I propose that we test this system on itself. To do this, someone who is not in my circle of friends would need to volunteer as an editor for BEP 2 (BEP is BONSAI enhancement proposal, and it describes what an editor does). I look forward to your ideas, suggestions, and critiques! If accepted, we would then use the BEP process for the hackathon as well - it is sometimes a bit of a pain, but I promise it will pay off in the end.
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BEP0001
Hi,
in the proposed BEP template (BEP0001), could there be a "type" hashtag in the header? Like in https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0001/#pep-types
Since we'll likely be dealing with a wide range of issues, it could make sense to categorize these enhancement proposals in broad categories (e.g., proposed software features, proposed guidelines, etc.). Just an idea.
/Romain
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Re: A formal structure for community governance
Sorry, there was a comma at the end of the first link (thanks Romain), here is the correct link: https://github.com/BONSAMURAIS/enhancements/blob/master/beps/0002-bonsai-project-community-governance-structure.md.
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Re: Outreach in the buildup to the hackathon
Weekly post #3: Modular BONSAI components. Comments and critiques are welcome.
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Re: #BEP0001 - Community governance through enhancement proposals
#bep0001
This sounds good to me, please submit a PR with the suggested types, and add your name to the authors list!
Still looking for an editor :)
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Re: #BEP0001 - Community governance through enhancement proposals
#bep0001
Sorry, this was supposed to be in response to Romain's email about adding another metadata field.
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Re: Online #KnowledgeManagement - audit and suggestions for change
#knowledgemanagement
Dear all-
I had a very nice talk today with Oleg Lavrovsky, who makes his living as an independent open data consultant (https://datalets.ch/). He organizes most of the open data hackathons in Switzerland, and is active in sustainability data as well, so I think his feedback is worth listening to. Here are the points I noted: We desperately need a getting-started guide - this should be the first thing one sees, after the small motivation section. We want to communicate from the beginning that each visitor has something to contribute, and that we need their contribution. As a part of this getting-started guide, it would be worth building a sort of toolbox for beginners to bonsai, like the one found here: http://toolbox.schoolofdata.ch/. The idea is that we will have a bunch of people looking at our site who aren't experts in coding or semantic tech, but who are motivated to participate. If they see a wall of complications, they will just close the tab and move on, but if they have a list of tools with good docs and tutorials that will give them a chance to start contributing in a meaningful way. In his experience, hackathons work best if there is one focus. In our case, I think it is worth re-emphasizing that the goal of the hackathon is to have a complete working demo that we can show people, and it probably makes sense to focus on getting the existing work packages to be good instead of starting a bunch of the stretch goals (though I have been dreaming of a bunch of BONSAI components: https://chris.mutel.org/bonsai-components.html). He felt that the hackathon was a good opportunity to already involve more people online, and that there would be an audience if we did more outreach. Online participants need to be able to work independently, which means that we should have some example small projects that people can just claim and work on. As a follow-up to this, I think it would very good to have a list of projects where we need help - this would allow people to either pick a project, or to get a sense for the kind of projects BONSAI works on, so that they can define their own. Here are some examples I can think of:
A key to hackathon success is to make sure that everyone can make meaningful contributions. Each person should be a champion or leader of their task/deliverable. Key here is fostering a positive and welcoming atmosphere, and being flexible as groups evolve. One idea that was new to me was to have a data-driven hackathon, where we would be measuring data about the hackathon itself. Oleg and his team have developed https://datalets.ch/dribdat/, and though it is difficult to explain, it is quite cool to see in action. He would be willing to set up an instance for our hackathon. Finally, we only get one chance to make a first impression, so all our communications should reflect and emphasize our core values, especially our embrace of openness, both in consuming open data, and in making our data available for others. We want people like Oleg to see our website and feel at home, knowing that this is a place where he could make a difference. It isn't easy, which is why we need to start ASAP. I see that Oleg has joined our list, so he is welcome to add/edit the above points :)
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