Spotlight on GOSH
This week we are excited to share our first "Spotlight On" newsletter! We wanted to include these new Spotlight features to introduce our readers to the work of other groups and individuals in the Open Science space.
For our first Spotlight edition, we have chosen to highlight GOSH. The GOSH acronymn stands for the Gathering for Open Science Hardware/Global Open Science Hardware. GOSH is a global community of researchers, hardware developers, educators, community organizers and more dedicated to making open science hardware ubiquitous by 2025. As open science hardware users and makers, we share many of their stated values and goals, and think readers of this newsletter will benefit from their resources and global community. We hope you will check out the resources at the end of the Newsletter for how to get involved with GOSH.
About GOSH
As mentioned above, GOSH is an open hardware community specifically focused on science hardware. They have been organizing since 2016 in the open science hardware space. In 2018, the GOSH community developed a comprehensive Global Open Science Hardware Roadmap. This was a collaborative and inclusive work involving contributors from many different backgrounds and countries. Below are the opening lines of the Executive Summary:
"The ability to use, study, replicate, and improve scientific instrumentation is a central part of experimental science, and plays a crucial role in public life, research, and action. However, these activities are currently restricted by proprietary instrumentation, which is difficult and expensive to obtain and maintain, since they cannot be fully inspected, evaluated, or customized. This situation is fundamentally detrimental to the production of knowledge and its potential for creating equitable and sustainable solutions"
You can download the full 56-page document using the link below:
Over the years GOSH has continued to build an active, global community and develop an expansive set of resources in support of Open Science Hardware. We have highlighted a few of their resources below to give you an introduction to their work.
GOSH Resources: Global and regional gatherings
One of the hallmarks of the GOSH Community is its annual Global Gatherings. These have been held all around the world, most recently in Panama City. Previous meetings have been held in Geneva, Santiago de Chile and Shenzhen, China. Participants take part in collaborative learning, field trips, workshops and presentations focused on the shared goal of expanding access to Open Science. There are also regional-specific groups such as AfricaOSH and ReGOSH for members in Africa or Latin America respectively.
GOSH Resources: Online Forum
The GOSH Online Forum is a great place to keep up-to-date with news about open science hardware. You can learn about projects groups and individuals are working on and meet potential collaborators. There are also lots of other opportunities posted. If you join the forum you will get notified about relevant opportunities like the recently announced Open Climate Fellowship (upcoming Dec 11th deadline, check it out✨).
GOSH Resources: Monthly Newsletters
The GOSH monthly newsletters are packed with resources! As described in their site, newsletters include "the latest global open science hardware news and updates, information on upcoming events, career and job opportunities, and curated papers and projects selected by community members". The most recent December 2022 Newsletter is linked below.
GOSH Resources: Community Calls
Community Calls are virtual meetings, usually featuring 1-2 guest speakers. View past events on their YouTube channel. We are excited be presenting about IO Rodeo at a community call in February! If you would like to be notified about our presentation at a GOSH community call, sign-up below and we will make sure you get the info!
Get Involved with GOSH!
GOSH Community Coordinator, Bri Johns, hosts regular Welcome Calls for onboarding new members. As Bri describes the calls:
"Each welcome call consists of a 20-minute onboarding presentation to help orient new members to the GOSH Community, followed by time for discussion and questions. The welcome calls are a perfect opportunity to find out more about GOSH, and to connect with other GOSHers from across the globe!"
As you can imagine, GOSH have many, many more resources and opportunities than the ones we highlighted in this Newsletter, so this is a great way to learn more about GOSH and meet other community members.
In addition, Bri has also recommended readers to checkout the Welcome Package. This is a fantastic next step after this Newsletter. The Welcome Package has all of the links you need to join a welcome call, subscribe to the newsletter, join the forum and more.