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!
- March: finetune subscription features like adding digests, and turning off email notifications for moderators
- February: new "color by tag community" on tags page
- 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 joins the team as Full stack developer (through June 2020)
- @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!
- 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)
- tags graph visualization prototyped by @bsugar in 2017 went live on /tags (github)
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) (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 (september)
- reached 10,000 contributors on spectralworkbench.org, 10,000 subscribers to the mailing lists
- began use of Gitter 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 (october)
- Third Regional Barnraising: Los Angeles, held in Val Verde, California (july)
- Code of Conduct published (july)
- 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
- 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, 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, followed by 309. First Timers Only culture came to us through SpinachCon2016, Gregor Martynus of Hoodie, BostonJS, and Name Your Contributors project by Richard Littauer, see note.
- 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 by Sreyanth
- Public Lab's 5th Anniversary (read about it in GrassrootsMappingForum #7))
- illustrated guide to joining the Public Lab community by Molly Danielsson
- Second 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 (also new for 2015)
- Public Lab Fellows Program created in program areas Open Air, Open Land, Open Water
- MapKnitter2.0 launches
- WhereWeBreathe project on indoor formaldehyde monitoring and mitigation
- The blog is rebooted, reviving a type of narrative writing that had been somewhat lost since the shift from grassrootsmapping.org to publiclab.org
- Early versions of "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 -- 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: 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
- 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 / live call events is first community wide audio/visual channel
- barnstar brainstorming
- 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
- Start a chapter page created
- Guide to starting 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, 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
2011
- barnraising event type
- Grassroots Mapping 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
2009
### 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/