We have identified four steps to successful community science projects, and collected tools and resources to support each of these steps. The steps are:
- Match: Before any community science can happen, communities and scientists need to be around the same table, as equals. We have partners, like Rockefellers 100 Resilient Cities initiative and ICLEI, who understand community priorities. We can tap into our network of scientists to find the right scientists – right expertise, right temperament, right location – to work with those cities. To help with matching, TEX allows people to browse potential projects and find a fit; we complement that with direct, hands-on outreach. Eventually, we will create ways for scientists to publicize their expertise so other projects or potential projects can invite them in.
- Scope: After a match is made, you need to have the ‘art of the possible conversation’. This is a respectful back-and-forth that explores what is possible scientifically and what is workable from a community perspective, with the goal of honing in on an actionable, realistic project. Sometimes scoping reveals a need for additional expertise, so it can be iterative with matching. TEX offers a ever-growing set of tools to help you have these conversations, an ambassador program that guides scientists through facilitating the ‘art of the possible”, and we are developing hands-on scoping workshops for scientist-community leader teams.
- Solve: Getting the work done requires all kinds of support. Crowdsourcing for ideas and solutions. Crowd-funding for the resources and tools needed to do the project. Coming soon well offer ways to recruit volunteers, from the local and scientific community and computing resources.
- Share: good ideas should be shared, so TEX will host a library of tools and successes. They might need to be adapted, but TEX can help you connect with the expertise you need to adapt these ideas.
Also, we know we don’t have to invent all the tools, especially when there are incredible tools already available. We’ve partnered with MIT’s Climate CoLab for our crowdsourcing solve tool and with Experiment.com for a crowd-funding solve tool, as a start.
Stay tuned to hear about some cool computational tools coming soon!
