January Newsletter 2024
=======================

Hi from AutSPACEs!

We hope you've all had a wonderful start to 2024 and would love to see you at our second meet-up session of the year, which is happening this week on Thursday 1st February. In this session, we'll be sharing some upcoming opportunities including user testing and a citizen science talk, and we'll be discussing the open challenges around how to compensate volunteer participants for their time - a topic that is vital for fair inclusion but represents a range of challenges and complexities.

**Date:** Thursday 01 February 2024

**Time:** 12:00-1:30pm

**Location:**     

   Online via. Zoom: https://turing-uk.zoom.us/j/523235071

## SSWI Collaborations Workshop 2023

The Collaborations Workshop 2024 (CW24)(https://www.software.ac.uk/workshop/collaborations-workshop-2024-cw24) will bring together researchers, developers, innovators, managers, funders, publishers, policy makers, leaders and educators to explore best practices and the future of research software. One of the themes for 2024 is citizen science: including designing participatory research projects, training and education around citizen science, and the role of research software in citizen science projects.

We'd like to submit a proposal to present a talk on AutSPACEs. We'd love to collaborate with people from the community so if you'd like to take part by helping create the talk, giving feedback or presenting with us at the workshop please email georgia at [e-mail] or join our meet-up session on Thursday to learn more.

## AI UK 2024

Hosted by The Alan Turing Institute, AI UK 2024 will be an in-depth exploration of how data science and AI can be used to solve real-world challenges (https://ai-uk.turing.ac.uk/). We will be presenting a short talk on citizen engagment using learning from AutSPACEs.

## LGBTQ+ in STEM networking symposium

February marks LGBTQ+ history month, and the theme this year is Medicine. In this vein, The Crick Instutute is hosting a symposium to consider the past and future progressions in LGBTQ+ diversity in science, healthcare, and medicine. It's free to join and if you're interested you can see the agenda and reserve a spot at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lgbtq-in-stem-networking-symposium-tickets-790045245597.

October Contributor Spotlight - Jason Symons
-------------------------------------------

This week we're spotlighting Jason Symons. Jason has been a fantastic contributor to AutSPACEs, and his feedback has been really useful in helping to make AutSPACEs inclusive and user friendly.

>## Tell us a little about yourself...
>
>My name is Jason. I've done lots of different things in my life. When I left school I couldn't read or write, but I spent years trying to learn and I did it which I thought was impossible before. I use modern technology to help. I've had lots of different jobs including as a physics technician and a gardener, painter, cleaner, and many more. I've got mobility issues now and I have a mobility scooter, but I used to love cycling and swimming. I have dyslexia and dyscalculia. I also have fybromyalgia which is connected to autism, and it means I have chronic pain. I have sensory issues. I'm sensitive to frequencies and vibrations and it hurts but others aren't aware and it can be hard for others to understand. Without understanding or direct experience, people can be dismissive. People wouldn't accept that I had sensory difficulties until I had my diagnosis, which took 2 years. It seems it has to come from professionals rather than people listening to my experience. I wish people were more prepared to listen. I've been part of AutSPACEs for a few years now and you might have met me at one of the meet-up sessions. I've been having a hard time recently with my health and mental health. I wish things were different for me, but I'm always trying my best. I struggle to feel positive, but I've always been honest, which I think is a good quality of people who are Autistic. I hope one day things will improve. Time will tell. In the meantime I occupy my mind and try to do positive things in the world. Spending time with animals and listening to birds sing is something which makes me happy.
>
>## What are your favourite hobbies/things to do.
>
>I make videos on YouTube. My channel is Jason new look. I've started making cartoons. I've been going to Heathrow Special Needs Farm (http://www.heathrowspecialneedscentre.org/), which helps people with special needs through offering interactions with animals. I payed for a living turkey for the farm. Her name is Tinsel. You can watch a YouTube video I made of her and her friend Holly: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WIgXAoOHrc0&si=EL5l0ZE7uhKwuqQK. I believe it's important to have places like these. I know it helped me. I go there on Wednesdays and video the animals, including the chickens and guinea pigs. It's not perfect, as it's near the airport, but you can't have everything. It's a lovely place due to the animals and birds. I love animals and birds, and they're much more clever then I'd realised. They make me smile and laugh and I hope the turkeys make you smile too.
>
>## What have you been working on for the AutSPACEs project?
>
>I've been to some of the meet-up sessions and shared my views there. I have different backgrounds on my zoom because I enjoy art and photography and I like to make life interesting and make people smile. I also tested the platform early on. Others have put lots of work into it and I'm grateful to them. I want to share my experience to increase people's uderstanding. I think having autistic people share what their own life is like is really important. They have an understanding you couldn't get from the outside even as a professional, so it's really important to listen and to share.
>
>## Give your best tips and tricks for contributing:
>
>It's important for all humans to be able to tell each other their experiences freely, especially humans who have differences, because it's hard for people to understand human differences. Hopfully your work with AutSPACEs and sharing your experiences will help people understand more about others. Don't give up, keep trying your best. Listen to yourself and know your view of yourself matters. Don't be afraid to say, "this is me, this is who I am, and this is my truth". Do your best, be kind to the world we live in and be kind to each other, and always be honest. Try to make the world a better place. Listen to others and realise all human beings are unique, and accept that uniqueness. Autism is a spectrum and effects people in different ways. You couldn't make assumptions about all autistic people based on just one. We all have different abilities and lives. For some of us it's more visible than for others. I wouldn't want anyone to feel that they should compare themselves to others. Be okay with who you are. I want everyone to be able to find a way to communicate their experiences of the world, not just people for whom it's easy to communicate, but also those who might find it hard. With technology, there are lots of possibilities, so who knows what the future holds.

Get involved
------------

Our project consists of many different areas where we would love people to contribute and give us their thoughts and ideas. It is really important we hear the voices and perspective of all of our community members.

We have identified the following areas where we need your help:

* Communication, Engagement and Promotion
* Platform development
* Accessibility and Inclusion
* Moderation

If you want to get stuck in ASAP and know how to use GitHub, you can visit our main repository: [https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/AutSPACEs](https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/AutSPACEs). If you look at the issues list in each of these, you can see a list of tasks that need to be completed, and we welcome anyone to contribute and get involved. We also invite you to take part (or start up) discussions on GitHub. You can do this by going to the repository and clicking on the "discussion" tab, where you can share your views:

[https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/AutSPACEs/discussions](https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/AutSPACEs/discussions)

If you're not too sure about GitHub but would like to know more, _The Turing Way Book_ has a whole section on how to get started for successful collaboration and involvement. We highly recommend this book also for anyone who is interested in Open Source Research and Reproducibility! Follow this link for Getting Started with GitHub: https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/collaboration/github-novice.html

### Connect with us

* [Github repository](https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/AutSPACEs)
* [Join us on Slack](https://slackin.openhumans.org/)
* [Follow us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/AutSpaces)

You are also welcome to email [Georgia](mailto:[e-mail]) and we will support you to be involved or answer any questions you might have.

As always, a huge thank you is due to everyone in the community for all of your ongoing efforts and wonderful contributions. You are making a big difference in creating research which can benefit autistic people and their families.

Very best wishes,

Georgia, Sophia, Bastian, David, and Jason