`BCC2020: 2020-07-17 & 2020-07-18`

# Open Life Science: Empowering communities with open* principles

###### tags: `Workshop` `BCC`

Session 1
**Logistics for session**
- Call date and time: 17 July 2020, 20:30 BST ([in your time zone](https://arewemeetingyet.com/London/2020-07-17/20:30/Open%20Life%20Science%20Training%201%20at%20BCC%202020#eyJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL2hhY2ttZC5pby9Ab3BlbmxpZmVzY2kvYmNjMjAtdHJhaW5pbmcxIn0=))
- Joining link: https://live.remo.co/e/w-1-3-2-open_communities
- Session Facilitators: Malvika Sharan, Yo Yehudi, Sam Guay, Kristina Reimer
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⏳ Preparation before this event: Project vision & Implicit Bias Test
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*The session leads will share this with the attendees before the session*

**1. Project vision**: Reflect on your current work.
* Take personal notes regarding your favorite open project (that you either lead or work on) by answering the following questions:
* The problem the project is trying to solve.
* How you think openness and open leadership will help solve it.
* How meeting the personal goals will help you and help solve the problem.
* How meeting your cultural goals for your community, organization, or project * will help solve the problem.

**2. Implicit bias and inclusion**: Do the implicit Bias Quiz
* Go to [https://implicit.harvard.edu](https://implicit.harvard.edu) to complete the 'Gender - Career' or ‘Gender - Science’ quiz (10 minutes). You can 'continue as a guest' by choosing your country,
* Reflect on these questions when you've finished the implicit association test:
* What does inclusion mean to you?
* Did your results of the implicit association test surprise you?

## Participants / Roll Call
*Name / (Anything else you want to add, e.g. Job Title, Organisation / Pronouns / Email, Social Media), one person per line/bullet, add new lines as needed.*
* Yo Yehudi / Open Life Science / she/they / t: yoyehudi / g: yochannah / mastodon: [e-mail]
* Malvika Sharan / Open Life Science / She/her / t+gh: malvikasharan
* Assunta DeSanto / Galaxy Project / Developer / she/her
* Ben Keller / Aquarium.bio / Project Lead (developer) / he/him / t: vinegarbin
* Lacey-Anne Sanderson / Tripal + KnowPulse / She/her / t+gh: laceysanderson
* Sean Buehler / Tripal
* Joshua Shapiro / Childhood Cancer Data Lab, ALSF / he/him / gh+t: jashapiro
* Cory Maughmer / Galaxy Admin - Center for Phage Technology @ Texas A&M / He-Him / t+gh: Moffmade
* Kristina Riemer / University of Arizona, OLS-1 participant / she/her / @KristinaRiemer (Twitter + GH)
* Xengie Doan/ Sage Bionetworks/ she&they/ t: xenggg / [e-mail]
* Beatriz Serrano-Solano / EMBL / she/her / t: Birthae / gh: beatrizserrano
* Emily Grau/Tripal and TreeGenes/ she/her
* Samuel Guay / Open Science UMontreal / he,him / t: SamGuay_ / gh: SamGuay
* Delphine Larivière / Galaxy project / she, her /g: Delphine-L
* Alexandru Mahmoud | Galaxy project (@JHU) | they/them in personal life, he/him also fine at work | gh: almahmoud
* Steven Foltz / Childhood Cancer Data Lab / University of Pennsylvania / he/him
* Manabu Ishii / Genome Analytics Japan, Inc / he/him
* Nicole Scherer / Instituto Nacional de Câncer - Brazil / she/her

👋 Welcome!
---
*[Lead] (⏰ 5 min)*

* The session leads will confirm if this call is recorded!
* Reminder: [Code of Conduct](https://bcc2020.github.io/code/)
* If you experience or witness unacceptable behavior, or have any other concerns, please report it by contacting the CoC contact:
* **Morgan Taschuk** or **Helen Van De Pol** by sending an email to [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])
* [Reporting form](https://bcc2020.wufoo.com/forms/rbisal20k4lqsc/)
* Call etiquette introduction
* Mute your microphone when not speaking to prevent background noises
* Okay to ask questions/make comments in chat, in the doc, or by unmuting when prompted
* Breakout rooms will be used for this training

### Icebreaker question

*If you can meet a fictional heroic character from a book or a show at this conference, who would that be and why? Extra points for pictures of your fictional character.*

* Name / answer
* Yo / Freddie Mercury / because he made the best music 😢 I'm a simple person
* Sean / Dumbledore / He's just a pretty cool dude
* Cory M / Obi Wan / I'm a simple star wars fan
*
* Malvika / Po from Kung-fu Panda
* Kristina / Alfred, one of the main characters from a book series called Death Gate / he's an unexpected hero!
* Josh S. / Watson (Sherlock Holmes's chronicler/companion) / I think Holmes would be a bit too much of a jerk.
* Xengie/ Uncle Iroh / He'd give some great advice and make me tea
* Delphine / Doctor Who (Tennant) / Always showing new unexpected things
* Assunta / Atticus Finch / Stands up for those who need support /https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atticus_Finch
* Nicole / Marvin from The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy / The most inteligent and sad robot
* Samuel / Katniss
* Muhammet / Deadpool He is the fun.

📢 Introduction to the Open Life Science program
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*[Lead] (⏰ 10 mins)*

> “Welcome to Open Life Science! The Open Life Science program helps individuals in research in becoming Open Science ambassadors and leaders in their communities.”

***A quick demo of OLS and next cohort***
* Links and resources
* [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dvwjd2i8rzgOfAQLQBsRlqZXRmU67wdrTY3QHKiDXUI/edit?usp=sharing)
* [openlifesci.org]([openlifesci.org)
* Twitter: [@openlifesci](https://twitter.com/openlifesci)
* GitHub: [github.com/open-life-science](github.com/open-life-science)

* **Shared notes** (feel free to add your notes here)

* there are many fields of open science, based on what area you of science you work in like open source, open review, open hardware, open education and so on
* Put intention in your open practice, sticking your work simply online doesn't make it open
* Love the Order vs Chaos (: In the learning circle/ Hero's adventure)
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## 🏆 Who are Open Leaders?
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*[Lead] (⏰ 10 mins)*

*“Open leaders design and build projects that empower others to collaborate within inclusive communities.”*
* Links and resources
* [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1MrZpgkj8yyUp-4jnER5FsLJ_jM2HYw4ciBIHPfZ1wOI/edit?usp=sharing)

* **Shared notes** (feel free to add your notes here)

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## 👥 First breakout: Exchange what we practice.
*[Lead] (⏰ 10 mins)*

**During our first breakout:**
* Say hello and introduce ourselves. (4 in each breakout, 2 mins for everyone to talk, and last 2 minutes for capturing your responses.)
* **Discuss:** What common community practices (how people interact with your project) do you use for maintaining interactions in your open projects?
* **Shared insights**, Write any insights/thoughts/comments to share from your breakout room?

* How do we define "community practices"
* Galaxy inspired community meetings, documentation, small meetings but open for open
* Slack (limited engagement from most users) and GitHub for communication
* Need to be more on the tech-side though.
* Allowing asynchronous interaction to move away from central time zones - emails
* Open by design!! Otherwise the burden is too much to handle.+1
- Changing projects too late in the process gets messy!
* Open Slack Channel, Github, Community Meetings
* Convincing leaders about the importance of open science
* Using open meetings keeping in mind how you name the meeting may impact how welcome your users feel (i.e. user vs. developer meetings)
* Difficulty of switching from more popular to less popular platforms, there's lots of inertia
* +1, it always comes down to easier/friendly platforms despite data shenanigans.. :grimacing:
* +1, GitHub for example is owned by Microsoft and is not very open anymore, and there are open alternative (eg: gitea) but self-hosting would make it less accessible

### Q&A about OLS and Open Leadership
*[Lead](⏰ 5 mins)*

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## 🔓 Unpacking the difference between Open “by Default” & “by Design”
*[Lead] (⏰ 20 mins)*

> “Open leaders design and build projects that empower others to collaborate within inclusive communities.”
* Links and resources:
* [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1H82WnOR-siINJMU5Tzjdwft34ZlRhrzzfO-iEW3j33Q/edit?usp=sharing)

* **Shared notes** (feel free to add your notes here)

Is this open? Share your opinions about Taro
* It's open in the sense that anyone can see it, but it's not actually probably useful/usable to a lot of people who could benefit from it
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### ✏️ Reflect and share insights
*[Lead] (⏰ 5 mins)*

**Question to reflect on**: Based on the difference you learned, how do you categorize your community interaction practices? Is it Open “by default” or “by design”? How do you feel about it?

* We are working towards open by design. We have the documentation and meetings but are finding it difficult to engage the community. How to help people feel welcome?
* +1, Most people are disappeared after join to Slack. +1111 +1
* Sam suggests having a limited number of channels and having guidelines for how to use Slack
* Sadly we are open by "default" because we don't currently have the bandwitdth to intentionally work on making it "by design" and should take the time to make it better
* +1, it takes time and resources to do some of this work, especially initially. What are ways to make some of these tasks easier to do?
* I think joining this training is helpful and being able to bring back bite-sized "to-dos" during the setup phase instead of having to backtrack once people complain
* I think learning about all of the ways to be open by design can be overwhelming too, so focusing on progress instead of perfection is probably helpful. Doing small tasks incrementally is way better than doing nothing! +1
* +1 definitely! time is a huge restriction -how to help make a community inclusive while maininting your own mental health
* Yo: send people stickers
* We thought for a while that we were open by design, but we learned the hardway the we were open by default when some people told us they didn't feel welcome to contribute / didn't know how to. Inviting people as early as possible
* My past is open by default, but my future is open by design. This requires training and intentionality and planning.
* When I started working on our software project it was open only for non-commercial use, but it was really only open-by-default. We made an explicit decision to move to open source (MIT license), and have tried to adopt open practices since. We also did not share the content that made the system usable unless someone asked. So, I think people perceived the project as closed.
* We put our project online and used the right licences, but we did not realy invited others to collaborate. We were lazy...
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* Find your *onboarding* people, the ones who like to talk to others!

### Q&A
*[Lead] (⏰ 5 mins)*

* What are good first steps for being more open by design?
* READMEs in repos, contributor guidelines, lists of tasks
* What are good forms of positive reinforcement? (besides stickers :) )
* Simple and happy recognition, such as a welcoming bot
* Share good opportunities, such as hackathons and job postings
* small things that make people happy.
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🖥 Unconscious Bias & Designing for inclusion
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## 👥 Second breakout: Recalling a moment of inclusion
*[Lead] (⏰ 10 mins)*
During our second breakout reflect on:
* What’s a place that made you feel included the first time you visited? (online or in-person)

* Birds of a feather in BOSC that one of my colleagues was attending - the space was so welcoming that I ended up coming back to BOSC regularly
* First Galaxy Conferences, with hearty hellos and welcoming words
* Singularity slack workspace - I entered to ask one specific question and they were so receptive that I decided to stay and help others

* What made that place so inclusive?

* No heirarchy, everyone's opinions were considered equally +1
* Room for everyone to be heard and have that integrated into the space
* People used my right pronouns
* Making me feel valued: inviting me to be a committer on a project after a few PRs
* Freedom to not talk
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* Seeing people like me at the table/in the room
* people asking how to use my name correctly +1111 +1

* Shared Insights on the implicit bias test?

* no matter how open minded and unbiased we think we are, there is always some inherent bias we have, and it's ok! +1
* Accepting that you have bias and being aware of how it can affect decisions is important +1
*

## 💪 Why is intent important in Open Science?
*[Lead] (⏰ 20 mins)*

* Links and Resources:
* [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NeELYlOA9MedF43BloZJiDf9AULOTi1lS6zPB3YGPSU/edit?usp=sharing)
* Slides from OLS-1 expert speaker [Alex Chan](https://alexwlchan.net/2020/03/inclusion-cant-be-an-afterthought/)

* **Shared notes** (feel free to add your notes here)

* Diversity is different people invited to a party, inclusion is when everyone is involved and cared for
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### Q&A

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🖥 Personas & Pathways to welcome contributions
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*[Lead] (⏰ 20 min)*
* Links and Resources:
* [Slides](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1wEcgznz9wt32Sk2ViXg6oNPkgC6w1NnlyI9XgNuy1xs/edit?usp=sharing)

* **Shared Notes** (feel free to add your notes here)

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### Q&A

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⚖ Balance
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*[Lead] (⏰ 10 min)*

**Balance: Value exchanges are for you, too.**
> Reflect on what you give to your community, organization, or project and what does this bring back to you. If there are gaps and unmatched expectations, think about how you can adjust them.

## 👥 Third breakout: Value exchange in open leadership
During our third breakout discuss:
* What kinds of things do you give to others in your daily practices?

* Training, Knowledge Transfer
* Emotional support
* Mentorship
* Debugging codes
* Time +1
* Organizing, communicating, "secretary" stuff

* What kinds of things do you get back?

* Validation on efforts to provide the tools needed by the teams
* Acknowledgment, love
* Advice, Help, Wisdom
* Purpose: to feel like I'm making a difference +1
* Understanding of where our software needs to be better
* Sometimes just good questions!

* Does the balance seem right to you, or are there adjustments you’d like to make?

* setting clear boundaries between work and non-work e.g. remove notifications after work hours, set expectations for what you can contribute
* +1
* +1
* I feel like I'm giving a lot but also recieving a lot. It is balanced but not sustainable
* For few of us it feels balanced. Some of us feel we pour out more than we recieve, and some feel we recieve more than we get back - we talked about how time in our positions/groups plays a role in this disparity (i.e. being new to a project you tend to need more assistance vs. when you're in a leadership/training/educator role for a while)
* I give somethings to others and after that we need to support if they want to give for us. sometimes I talk too much about topics, they think me as a genious, they think no information to me. It's not good situation. I want to improve.

### Silent reflection (shared note-taking)

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* Get ready for a marathon, not a sprint! :running:
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### Q&A

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🗣️ Closing
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*[Lead](⏰ 10 minutes)*

**Note to add on self care and mental health**:
- Taking care of yourself and others in sustaining your energy so that you can do what you enjoy in a long term. This is called "Personal Ecology".
- Working openly is a choice. Working openly as a volunteer is a privilege. Not everyone has the time, resource or bandwidth to do that (that includes you) - and therefore [burnout is prevalent in Open Source](https://opensource.com/article/19/11/burnout-open-source-communities).
- Be aware of your personal needs, learn to step back when you need to and encourage your members to do that too.

**Summary**
* You learned what Open Life Science program is and why it is designed.
* Who the open leaders are and what kind of training they receive from OLS.
* How we can bring open by design principle to our project and go beyond the thoughtless default of open label.
* How we can use our understanding of personal bias to overcome them and intentionally create an inclusive and welcoming space for collaboration.
* How "persona and pathway" tool can help us create pathways for open engagement and collaboration for diverse members in our community.
* How we create opportunities for value exchange for others and ourselves in the work we do.
* Be aware of your needs by understanding your personal ecology and well being of your mental health.

**Assignments**
* In a typical cohort call OLS participants get home works and assignments to apply what they learn into their work. If you would like to make a full use of this training, then go ahead an create a vision statement for your work
* Review your notes that you created before this event and improve them based on your training today.
* Using those details, create a vision statement for yourself.
* Develop you personal notes on how you will overcome your bias when designing open projects. Use persona creation tool in this process.

**Open Q & A**
*The session leads will write responses to your questions here after the session if we can’t cover this during the call*

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## Feedback

What worked?

* Lots of time to reflect and think about the information that was presented +1
* The time to discuss was amazing! I feel like I had time to really think and bring the tools home. +1
* A lot of useful knowledges which I don't have. Discussion session is also good. Thank you.

What didn’t work?

* 10 minutes didn't feel long enough. We spent too much time orienting ourselves and did not have enough time for everyone to discuss -maybe smaller groups?
* Trying to take notes while also talking was hard! +1

What would you change?

* Ask people to change tables +1000000 - note taken
* But maybe not for every breakout? I kind of enjoy being able to talk to the same people more than once +111
* More time to discuss if possible

What surprised you?

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*License: CC-BY-4.0, Open Life Science*