This program area is dedicated to supporting Public Lab's unique combination of local organizing and distributed peer production.
Related website tags: community
Related program areas of the Public Lab non-profit: Web Working Group, Advocacy

Timeline

Here's a brief history of community infrastructure (online and off), and some notable milestones.

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
• creation of github.com/publiclab community repo

2012

• creation of organizers group
• creation of /lists overview page and tracking of list growth
• barnstars created & begins proliferating
• 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
• publiclaboratory list reaches 500 members, surpassing grassrootsmapping list

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

• grassrootsmapping list (first posts in Spanish)
• http://grassrootsmapping.org/