Barnraising 2013
Conference Dates: October 4-6, 2013 (full days Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Travel Details: Free shuttle from MSY (Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) on Thursday PM & Monday AM
Location: LUMCON, a research station on the Gulf Coast in Cocodrie, Lousiana
RSVP for the barn raising here. (link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FmmZFUUn2fOe-xI9-gtWdge8C-nXCTS9G0D977YOwAE/viewform) Deadline is September 27th!
A human contact if you have logistical questions: Liz Barry (336-269-1539) or liz[@]publiclab.org; Shannon Dosemagen (504.239.4642) or shannon[@]publiclab.org; and Becki Chall, becki[@]publiclab.org.
What is a Public Lab barn raising?
This is the closest thing we have to a Public Lab conference -- but with an emphasis on "doing stuff together" rather than just presenting/talking. In the spirit of bringing a community together to collectively raise a structure such as a barn, Public Lab comes together to develop tools, toolkits, supporting materials such as guides and tutorials, test the tools and develop new research directions and projects. Participants represent a wide range of interests from technologists and designers to social scientists and community organizers.
2013 Theme: Education: Many folks have been leading programs and writing curricula for Public Lab tools and field methods. This barnraising is dedicated to bringing these initiatives together and identifying a plan for growing education within Public Lab and with our partner organizations. By doing this we hope to better support knowledge-sharers of all varieties who are growing the community of people who can do their own environmental research.
Join the conversation
Join the Education Working Group list:https://groups.google.com/group/plots-education
Join the Barn Raising mailing list: https://groups.google.com/group/plots-barnraising
Canoe time at the 2012 Barnraising (photo by Pat Coyle)
Planning Committees
If you are attending, please sign up for one or more committees!
Beercom Jeff + Becki + [?] (unwinding, downtime)
Gearcom + Scott + Mathew + [?] (organizing what equipment needs to be brought)
Doccom Liz + [?] (tweeting, documenting, reporting out to the online audience as things happen)
Media sharing Lots of people will be taking photos, shared articles/readings, etc. Let's aggregate them here, just edit this page and paste in the link below! Flickr tags: "publiclaboratory" and "barnraising2013". Please remember to share as Creative Commons Attribution at least. We can also host large amounts of files, just contact web@publiclaboratory.org.
_PASTE YOUR MEDIA LINKS HERE: _
Travelcom Becki head organizer, Jeff will be a driver, Shannon will be a driver + Scott can be a driver + [?] If you'll be needing a ride to / from the airport, or from New Orleans to Cocodrie, give us a heads up as to your travel deets in this google doc
Schedulecom Liz + [?] This COM will will collate ideas for sessions (add yours below) and create the schedule grid (embedded below). There will also be some open sessions for unconference-style organizing.
Session Ideas
Add your ideas for sessions here! Discuss on the Barnraising mailing list! Join Schedule Com to help turn these ideas into a real schedule (see embedded spreadsheet below)
- Who's teaching what? Presentations of current educational programs in Public Lab
- Who's documenting what? Presentations of curricula created around Public Lab tools, including Oil Spill Toolkit and the GeoJournalism Handbook.
- Popular Activities as proven entry points to Public Lab that we could design curriculum around: http://publiclab.org/wiki/activities
- Barnstars turn 1! (classic barnstars awarded for all barnraising attendees, learn how to add them to your profile page)
- Public Lab value statement (draft started at Barnraising 2012)
- http://www.gogamestorm.com/ for group discussion facilitation games (via Dan Beavers)
- Raspberry Pi Infragram with Mathew. Buy/bring a Pi and Pi camera if you want to make one.
- Flare spectrometry -- how to measure contaminants from gas flares (suggested by Jeff)
- Making and launching small-run open hardware kits, crowdfunding (suggested by Jeff)
- Tour of LUMCON facilities (and maybe research vessels!) led by Alex Kolker. Best for Saturday.
- "Prove something with Infragram" - outdoor "photo hunt" with infragram cameras (with head-boxes), in small teams, followed by each group using Infragram.org to test a simple hypothesis about plant health. Slideshow and discussion at end. (Jeff on behalf of LEAFFEST crew and Cindy)
- Infragram & Spectrometer interface brainstorming with respective designers, coders, users, etc. -- "wish list" and wireframe sketching (proposed by Jeff, looking for co-lead)
- how to to get more serious about public lab developers as a community... a plots-dev mailing list? Try to cultivate a programmer corps? (Jeff plus anyone who's interested)
- Ethics of participation: picking it up where we left it last year and breif presentation of a draft guide of ethical principles and practices in community-based research (suggested by Cindy)
- Some thoughts on Participatory Sensing - "Community engagement in environment monitoring through imagery: Discussion on community engagement in developing methods for sensing and their impact on sustainability" (suggested by Hagit and Cindy)
- Short discussion about the attributes, purpose, etc. of an open online community map (on the Mapping for Change platform) to plot DIY Public Lab tools/knowledge available for sharing - maybe start here in the UK and then extended to the US and around the world.
- Your Idea Here :D
Logistics
LUMCON is generously allowing us to descend on their research station, so please review their online handbook for visitors: http://www.lumcon.edu/facilities/MarineCenter/VisitorHandbook.pdf
Lodging Options The majority of people will be staying at the LUMCON facility which has male and female dorm-style bunk rooms and a couple of apartments with double beds. Each is $20 per night. If you are not comfortable spending the night in a dorm, the closest marina/lodge is TradeWinds: http://www.tradewindscocodrie.com/. If you are coming with a group of friends, there are also a number of "camp" options (which means large houses with enough sleeping room for 8+). There are also a number of lodging options in Houma (which is a bit of a distance away) and a couple of options in Chauvin.
Scenes from the 2012 Barnraising
Video produced by Caterina Scaramelli (12 minutes of pure Barnraising gold)
Kickoff at the schedule grid! (photo by Don Blair)
A late-night session on Barnstars! (photo by Don Blair)
