Mailing lists
Many of our discussions happen on our mailing lists. There's a central list, and other lists organized by region and topic (see below). Join one today to get involved!
publiclaboratory
This is the center of all Public Lab discussions, including ideas & news in civic science; if in doubt, post here! (since 2010. Now with >1,800 members)laboratoriopublico
La lista de correo en castellano (since 2010. Now with ~50 members) Not sure where to start? Want to make contact with a nice person who can answer questions? Email the Welcome Working Group, a welcoming group of core Public Lab community members who are excited to meet you! Just drop them a line and say hello.FYI, people registering on this website (publiclab.org) are auto-subscribed to the main publiclaboratory list. To manage your subscriptions, go to https://groups.google.com.
Topics
Discussions on tools, hardware and software development, field methodologies, real world applications, educational applications.
grassrootsmapping - the place to discuss everything about balloon & kite-mapping. (since 2010, now >900 members) plots-spectrometry - spectrometry and spectral analysis discussions. (since 2012, now >750 members) plots-infrared - near-infrared imaging and vegetation monitoring discussions. (since 2013, now >125 members) plots-waterquality - water quality discussions, including thermal plumes and "the riffle". (started ~ Oct 13 2013) plots-airquality - discussion list for air quality related topics. Was started for a project with EPA and is now open to all. (started summer 2012, currently ~50 members) plotz-3d - Everything about 3D printers, especially the Rep 1s that were donated to Public Lab by MakerBot Industries. plots-dev - group for people interested in conceptualizing and testing new web infrastructure for Public Lab, also the location for developers and detailed code-related topics. (Started late October 2013, 28 members) plots-education Started at the 2013 education-themed barnraising, this group is for teachers of all varieties! Writing Working Group - started at the 2013 education-themed barnraising, this group is for folks interested in writing articles, conducting interviews, assembling case studies, and more! Barnraising! - for folks attending and collaborating in person at the annual Public Lab barnraising.Places
Where to connect with other Public Labbers in your area, announce/coordinate local events and meetups, and ask for local help.
plots-amsterdam - inactive? ~50 members plots-baltimore-dc ~15 members plots-boston ~150 members, the second largest geographic community! plots-butte - inactive? plots-gulfcoast - New Orleans and the Gulf Coast! Public Lab's core geographic community with over 50 members. publiclab-jerusalem - a new list, ~10 members. plots-norcal ~100 members, lots of aerial mapping. publiclab-la - Los Angeles, just formed in January 2014. plots-nyc at ~175 members, the largest local list. plots-philadelphia - relatively new, ~15 members. plots-providence ~ 40 members. plots-skane - Sweden. inactive? plots-southeast - broad regional list for Appalachia.Working Groups (WGs)
Working Groups (WGs) preform vital support functions for the Public Lab ecosystem. Largely consisting of organizers and staff, most WGs are open by nomination only so send an email if you are interested in contributing. Full description on Working Groups wiki page.
welcome@publiclab.org - welcoming group of core Public Lab community members! If you are a friendly and welcoming person who would like to help new people enter our community, drop them a line and introduce yourself!
moderators - the moderators keep our mailing lists and website a friendly place to interact by watching out for spam. Want to help out? :D
media@publiclaboratory.org - the media working group, focused on social media, blog submissions, press releases, PR.
retail@publiclaboratory.org - the retail working group, focused on bulk orders, supply chain optimization, kit assembly, distribution, order fulfillment.
web@publiclaboratory.org - the web working group, focused on support of existing users of the Public Lab website and of our browser-based software.
Nonprofit arm lists
staff@publiclaboratory.org - staff of the nonprofit arm
board@publiclaboratory.org - board of directors of the nonprofit
Graphs
We are recording the growth of these lists over time on this spreadsheet and graphing the results here to track community growth. (You can also see activity over time on the Google Groups about pages)
Guidelines
(Draft) Please treat our mailing lists as a place of respectful conversation. Our lists have moderators to ensure civility. Moderators review the posts of all new members before approving them to post automatically. Some existing members may be placed into moderation if their posting pattern changes such that it violates our list guidelines (see below):
When posting to Public Lab lists:
- Stay on topic
- stay on topic to make long threads easier to follow
- if you diverge from the main thread/topic/subject, consider breaking off into a new thread/topic/subject to help others follow along
avoid sending one-line spurious responses that effectively "spam" hundreds of people and lowers the overall content quality of a conversation
Mind your tone
- Since we are in a conversation in email form, maintaining a tone of respect is essential. Any of the following can result in a member having their posts moderated before going out to the whole list: aggressive tone, disrespectful tone, mocking tone, off-color tone
- a note on humor: expressing ourselves online in text is different from expressing ourselves in person by talking.
Before you are placed into moderation, you will be notified on the pertinent list.
References: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Etiquette, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Community_Code_of_Conduct_(Draft), https://hackpad.com/HOT-Code-1X2acHIN2HX
List management
Some consistency in spam handling, joining policy, and naming will be very helpful as the # of local lists grows. Also we want to just be careful not to let research-related conversations fragment. Each list should have at least one moderator who's responsible for spam and/or willing to say "Wow! Please take this extremely interesting conversation to the main publiclaboratory list!"