community development

community-development

### Timeline Here's a brief history of community infrastructure (online & off), and some notable milestones. #### 2021 - April 19, 2021 [100th Weekly Code Community Check-In!](https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/9526) - March: finetune subscription features like adding digests, and turning off email notifications for moderators - February: new "color by tag community" on [tags page](/tags) - January - February: Continue migrating testing infrastructure off Travis CI and onto Github Actions #### 2020 - Fall: Begin migrating testing infrastructure off TravisCI in advance of its closing date December 31, 2020 - Summertime migrations to Google Cloud by Sebastian begins saving us money - May: MapKnitter Cloud Exporter launches - January: end of 5+ years of in-kind donations of hosting from Rackspace - January: [@emash](/p/emash) joins the team as Full stack developer (through June 2020) - [@warren](/p/warren) changes role to Lead Code Coordinator #### 2019 - Internationalization of publiclab.org website - Now supports 11 languages - Finalized support / new UI for anonymous map creation in MapKnitter - 5+ years of major in-kind donation from Rackspace comes to an end - overall, 27 people paid in some capacity in the Coding Community - Home-made Disaster Kit card game by Emilio - [Blurred Location launches](/notes/warren/09-27-2019/blurred-location-and-variable-location-privacy)! - Switch to Google Search for Nonprofits - multi-person realtime editing in MapKnitter - Reply by Tweet! - Browser notifications added to the Public Lab website - July 1-3 First ever Teacher Training on community science in the classroom #education #GulfCoast - Tuesday June 26 - first Newcomers OpenCall starting 15 minutes before the main OpenCall publiclab.org/n/19731 - Tuesday June 4 - first "Code Open Call", the start of a new weekly video meeting dedicated to software contributors and mentors - Weekly check-ins among the software contributor community began rotating through other repos, not just plots2. ([issue 5034](https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/5034)) - tags graph visualization prototyped by @bsugar in 2017 went live on /tags ([github](https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/1502)) #### 2018 - RailsGirls improve Search - GDPR compliance - Emoji reactions added to website - first Crisis Convening held in Newark with community disaster responders from Houston, New Orleans, Miami, Puerto Rico, coastal NY and NJ - tag display on content moves up into the righthand sidebar - moved the lefthand sidebar to the right - @sagarpreet adds "map of maps" to mapknitter.org - completely refactored https://infragram.org/ based on https://publiclab.github.io/infragram/ - complete 3 year evaluation study, big update to /evaluation - first video trolling incident prompts improved moderation processes - security update reveals approximately ~40,000 real account holders on publiclab.org (out of more than a million total accounts) - Embedded a Trello boards into certain pages (/Barnraising, /evaluation), to make tasks more visible visible - Privacy-aware "add your location" feature on profile pages powers the map at the top of /people - @souravirus rewrites activity graphs to be interactive - improved /questions to have a tag search - Added tag search and sorting functions to /tags page - Removed sidebars on major pages like /questions, /tags ####2017 - added ability to display profile pictures for all Contributors to the "Community Toolbox" project, and created ours: https://publiclab.github.io/community-toolbox/ - last Annual Barnraising at LUMCON, shift to all "Regional Barnraisings" to focus on local issues ([note](/notes/stevie/05-17-2017/last-annual-barnraising-looking-to-the-future)) (november) - two of our Google groups (the main list, and later, that Barnraising list) were flagged as spam. Even though both were re-instated after less than a week, we realize that GoogleGroups is an unstaffed, declining platform and redouble our efforts to move entirely into website subscriptions - created community playlist on our YouTube channel, and enough people subscribed so that we could get custom URL youtube.com/publiclab (june) - Fourth Regional Barnraising: Appalachia, held in Morganton, West Virginia - first chatbot created to be a friendly, supportive voice in the chatroom (june) - connected IRC, Riot, Gitter, and the non-profit Slack Channel #irc so that everyone can chat in the same place - "first-timers-only" culture is re-iterated inside each Summer of Code project, students experience new contributors joining their projects - non-profit program staff adjustments: @bronwen joins as Open Hardware Community Manager (formerly Kits Manager), @gilbert joins as Advocacy Manager (new position). Margie joins as Director of Partnerships. Long term staff @mathew and @becki phase out. ####2016 * Benjamin Sugar created the [first tag cloud of all content on publiclab.org](/notes/liz/09-15-2016/first-draft-of-tag-graph) (september) * reached 10,000 contributors on spectralworkbench.org, 10,000 subscribers to the mailing lists * began use of [Gitter](https://gitter.im/publiclab/publiclab) chatroom (november) * gradually transitioned from organizers-only calls (starting in summer by changing one call per month to be open to the public; holding last call in September) towards OpenCalls (October 11) * standard template for first-timers-only issues & encouragement of others to post issues in that way [note](/notes/warren/10-31-2016/create-a-welcoming-first-timers-only-issue-to-invite-new-software-contributors) (october) * [Third Regional Barnraising](/wiki/barnraising-val-verde-ca): Los Angeles, held in Val Verde, California (july) * [Code of Conduct](/conduct) published (july) * [Webjack](https://publiclab.org/wiki/webjack) Project by Richard * New Search API introduced in publiclab.org website by Ujitha * Internationalization of publiclab.org website - Translation in German by Jitesh * "Streaks" https://publiclab.org/wiki/streak (june) * hashtagging implemented by [Ananyo](https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/138) * dashboard 2.0 launched * modularization in codebases with implications for copyleft licensing * plan for user testing developed with @weatherpattern & @ann, and connected to org-wide evaluation "quantitative snapshot" * outreach to developers via public presentations & use of new github tags "help-wanted" "first-timers-only" yields new contributors * Moderation improvements April 2016: basic guidelines posted at [/moderation](http://publiclab.org/wiki/moderation), all first time posters now moderated, moderators group expanded to mailing lists and website * first "first-timers-only" issue created in Public Lab March 16, 2016: [329](https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/329), followed by [309](https://github.com/publiclab/plots2/issues/309). First Timers Only culture came to us through SpinachCon2016, Gregor Martynus of [Hoodie](http://hood.ie), BostonJS, and Name Your Contributors project by Richard Littauer, see [note](/notes/warren/03-04-2016/bostonjs-talks-focused-on-welcoming-new-coding-contributors). * 4th top level language group created: China, via WeChat (january) ####2015 * Code of Conduct written for Annual Barnraising 2015 * by the end of 2015, there are 67 organizers from 11 countries * publiclaboratory list surpasses 4000 members * regional "umbrella" mailing list created for northwest; becomes the first regional list that is bigger than the list for the name-brand city (Vancounver) it encompasses * SpectralWorkbench 2.0, including a [Procedures System](/notes/Sreyanth/07-14-2015/stepwise-procedures-to-guide-users-through-testing) by [Sreyanth](http://publiclab.org/profile/Sreyanth) * Public Lab's 5th Anniversary (read about it in [GrassrootsMappingForum #7](/wiki/forum#Issue+#7+The+5+Year+Anniversary+Issue+(May+2015))) * [illustrated guide to joining the Public Lab community](/wiki/how-to-get-involved-with-public-lab-illustrated) by [Molly Danielsson](/wiki/www.mollydanielsson.com) * [Second Regional Barnraising](/wiki/2015-regional-barnraising): Midwest, held in Chicago, Illinois * first ever Organizers Survey. Key topics: decision-making among organizers, active/inactive status. * Organizers Welcome pack becomes a physical mailing, including printed Handbook and [Event Packs](http://store.publiclab.org/collections/publications/products/events-pack) (also new for 2015) * [Public Lab Fellows Program](/wiki/fellows) created in program areas Open Air, Open Land, Open Water * [MapKnitter2.0 launches](http://publiclab.org/notes/warren/02-13-2015/announcing-mapknitter-2-0) * [WhereWeBreathe](/wiki/indoor-air-quality-monitoring) project on indoor formaldehyde monitoring and mitigation * The [blog](/blog) is rebooted, reviving a type of narrative writing that had been somewhat lost since the shift from [grassrootsmapping.org](http://grassrootsmapping.org/) to publiclab.org * Early versions of "[Lending Library](/wiki/lending-library)" based out of Portland leverages the shipping experience of our kits program and our non-profit access to discount USPS Library Mail rates for moving more expensive tools or calibration equipment around the community. Existing chapter-based tool exchanges continue as usual. Two Open Hours dedicated to this topic. * the Public Lab non-profit organizes its programs into [initiative areas](/wiki/nonprofit-initiatives) -- Open Air, Open Water, Open Land and Civic Kits -- in order to enable cohesive community collaboration across hardware, software, expertise, and locale. * plots-nyc (also NJ!) becomes first local mailing list to top 200 members. ####2014 * by end of 2014, there are 62 organizers from 8 countries * PublicLabTV launched at Barnraising 2014 * [First Regional Barnraising](/wiki/barnraising-northeast-2014): Northeast, held in Plymouth, Massachusetts * organizers handbook (including undersigning of statements, and nomination of new organizers by sending one's own filled-in profile) * "New organizer welcome & orientation" email is standardized * Organizers Summit (event type piloted in June during regional barnraising, full event held in November at Annual Barnraising) * first federal grant * paper research notes, notepads * community cards: "welcome to Public Lab" messaging printed on brown cardstock * "Ask a Question / Answer a Question" tagging system [see all questions](http://publiclab.org/tag/question:*) * new, simplified front page on publiclab.org * ability to award a barnstar & have it displayed on awardee's profile page via dropdown menu on research notes * subscribe to tag (RSS) * http://publiclab.org/tags lists popular tags on the site * http://publiclab.org/stats shows a year of activity at a glance * select the language of a research note or wiki page with power tag * co-authorship of research notes via powertag * images supported in research note comments * in-line wiki editing * callouts on publiclab.org via @username send email notifications * [OpenHour](/wiki/openhour) / live call events is first community wide audio/visual channel * [barnstar brainstorming](http://publiclab.org/wiki/barnstar-brainstorm) * Event template and RSVP feature on research notes * international edition of Grassroots Mapping Forum features XXX countries/regions * chat room (IRC) integrated into all publiclab.org pages * regional "umbrella" mailing lists created for northeast, midwest * third top-level language specific list is created, Public Lab Portugues * plots-spectroscopy list reaches 1000 members, surpassing grassrootsmapping as the largest tool-specific list * publiclaboratory list reaches 3000 members ####2013 * ability to comment on research notes * ability to write one research note in response to another * ability to "like" research notes, and "follow" them to receive email updates * tabbed wiki pages * "toolshed raising" event type * lists created for software developers, education, and writing * [Mapknitter Club / Cartography Collective](http://publiclab.org/wiki/public-lab-cartography-collective) * [Start a chapter](http://publiclab.org/wiki/start-a-chapter) page created * [Guide to starting new projects](http://publiclab.org/wiki/new-projects) * PDF print stylesheets for wiki and research note pages * research note templates * Sign-up page integrated anti-spam questionnaire "Turing Test" * publiclab.org [launched](http://publiclab.org/notes/warren/04-18-2013/introducing-a-new-public-lab-website), replicating all publiclaboratory.org features + adding user dashboard, profile pages, and supporting international characters (UTF-8) * OpenID used across all sites to authenticate against one's PublicLab.org account * plots-infrared list launches, along with plots-airquality and plots-waterquality * publiclaboratory list reaches 1500 members * so #wintercamp happened * creation of github.com/publiclab community repo ####2012 * creation of [organizers](/wiki/organizers) group * creation of /lists overview page and tracking of [list growth](http://publiclab.org/wiki/mailing-lists#Graphs) * [barnstars](/notes/liz/4-13-2012/barnstars) created & [begins proliferating](/wiki/barnstars) * user dashboard when logged in on website * kit boxes include "Welcome to the community!" messaging * first sticker printed (CONFIRM THIS) * [illustrated guides translated into 10 new languages](http://publiclab.org/wiki/guides#Translations) * publiclaboratory list reaches 500 members, surpassing grassrootsmapping list ####2011 * barnraising event type * [Grassroots Mapping Forum](/forum) (print publication for offline data distribution) * publiclaboratory.org launches, pioneering the "research note" and creating the wiki knowledge base (January 2011) * publiclaboratory list * laboratoriopublico list (Spanish) ####2010 * BP Oil spill -- short story at the top of [this page](/wiki/stories) ####2009 * grassrootsmapping list (first posts in Spanish) * http://grassrootsmapping.org/...