We wanted to share an update on the application and selection process for the first cohort of the Birdaro training program, including how it’s been influencing our next steps with program design.
It’s been a busy few weeks as we’ve worked in an intentionally iterative manner to review applications and work with applicants to determine the schedule and timing for this brand new training for open-source project leaders. We received applications from more than 50 open-source projects in just three weeks and we’ve been enjoying learning more about the projects and what their needs are.
If you’re just hearing about Birdaro now and wishing you’d applied, the strong interest we’ve received means that we hope that we’ll be able to run another cohort next year. So make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter to stay up to date.
Brief recap: What is the Birdaro training program?
The Birdaro training program is intended to support decision-makers in STEM-related open-source projects who are often faced with non-technical challenges such as how to support and grow a community of contributors, how to build shared governance approaches, and how to wrangle documentation in such a way that it can be accessed, used and updated by those who need it. At CSCCE, these “human infrastructure” challenges are topics we’ve focused on for years and we’re excited to be contextualizing some of existing materials and creating new ones specifically for open-source projects.
What topics will the program cover?
As part of the application process, we asked applicants which training topics they were most interested in. This applicant pool was most interested in topics relating to creating and maintaining documentation to support engagement, such as contributor guides or playbooks, as well as shorter form topics such as working with volunteers, governance models, shared decision-making, and best practices for collaborative work.
Based on this feedback, we’ve constructed a curriculum for our first cohort that we’re describing as a Birdaro training program “module” focused on governance and documentation to support engagement. We imagine that there may be future program modules that we could offer such as a deeper dive into community engagement approaches and practices to support a diverse range of contributions, or a module focused more on the logistics of identifying the fiscal home for a project and how to manage day-to-day operations and business management decisions. If you’re reading this and would like to contribute to potential future modules, please reach out to info@birdaro.org.
Who’s been applying to the program?
We’ll be announcing our first cohort in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime we can share a few more details about who applied.
- We received 53 applications to the program, many of which were from small teams of open-source leaders
- Of those applications, 26 referenced “open research” and “data science,” 23 referenced “environmental science,” and 20 referenced “software development/”
- We also received a significant number of applications from projects focused on “training / professional development” (19), “computing” (17), and “interdisciplinary research” (16), as well as domain-focused projects in “engineering” (11), “biology” (11), and “artificial intelligence” (11).
- Most of the applications came from projects that are currently run by a University-based team (18) or hosted by a fiscal sponsor (12), but we also received applications from several grassroots projects that are currently without a fiscal home.
- A majority of applications originated from projects based in the United States. We also received applications from several UK-based projects, Europe, and Africa, as well as a number of all-remote teams based around the world.
- 18 applications came from projects that have existed for 10 or more years, and a majority have been around for at least 3 years (45).
One of things we’re excited about is that our applicant pool includes a range of different project stages, and project contexts – including some at US National Labs, some focused at university open-source project offices (OSPOs), and some operating as more independent start ups.
How have applicants informed our program design?
- In addition to using applicant responses to structure the curriculum of our pilot module, we also realized that because the majority of applicants were applying in teams that we’d prioritize team-based projects for this first cohort. We believe this is likely to have the most impact in embedding the ideas shared as new practices with a decreased need for any single participant to play the role of translator to their team mates.
- Given the broad contexts in which our participants are situated, we’ve decided to include participant lightning talks as part of the program to support the sharing of experiences and expertise between participants. Lightning talk sessions will be organized around themes that resonate with the other components of the program.
- Most applicants were also really motivated to connect with and learn from other projects and in addition to our usual training approach of support in-class reflection and discussion, we’ll be kicking off the program with a curated networking session – something we created for the CSCCE community of practice and which intentionally matches people with others who have shared interests.
- Based on the scheduling feedback we’ve received, we’re offering two participation options to selected projects; i) take all components of the Birdaro training program to receive the program badge on graduation, or ii) participate only in the course on documentation that we’re hosting at the end of the program to receive a course badge.
We’ll share more about the program syllabus in due course as we finalize the details with participants.
Other opportunities to collaborate on Birdaro
Participating in the Birdaro training program is just one way of collaborating with Birdaro! We’d love to hear from you if:
- You’re a long-time open-source practitioner with a specific skillset you think our trainees would benefit from learning more about (e.g., fiscal sponsorship or business development)
- You’d like to contribute to the curation of existing open-source resources into a new online library
- You’d like your project to be featured as a case study
- You’d like to serve as a mentor
Please let us know if you’re interested in collaborating by emailing info@birdaro.org.