Public Lab is an open community -- you're welcome to simply sign up and start contributing in a variety of ways. If you are interested in a more formal collaboration, just ask staff@publiclaboratory.org.

###Some ways to be a part of the community:###

* email the list to say hello, describe your interests, and offer your skills to existing projects
* ask for help with a public science issue and reach out for collaborators
* post a research note describing the starting point for your project
* post a research note describing new developments in your project
* add to the knowledge base in Public Lab by editing pages (most are editable by any [registered user](/user/register), wiki-style)
* connect with or organize a [local group](/places) to investigate environmental, social, and other issues in a participatory way
* contribute to better [documentation](/wiki/guides) (tutorials, diagrams, even just offering critique) of the [tools](/tools) we all use

* co-author [articles & papers](/media) (in research journals, newspaper op-eds, magazines, etc) with other community members
* co-author grants for research and for working with specific communities
* adopt and contribute to units of our curriculum (mainly the [mapping curriculum](/wiki/mapping-curriculum) at this point) in universities, schools, and public workshops -- use some of our resources and add your own. Also see the [guides](/wiki/guides) we're starting to develop for our tools.

###Areas we need specific help in:###

* organizing meetups with residents in our [partner communities](/places) to test new tools and gather data with proven ones
* developing better and more comprehensive documentation & tutorials around our existing tools
* archiving and publishing consistent data sets (from spreadsheets and geotiffs to interviews with community members)
* outreach to research, policy, and legal institutions (Environmental Law Clinics, for example) to get our data adopted and used