Public Lab Research note


Public Lab community newsletter 10.6.13: Update from the 2013 barnraising

by Shannon | October 06, 2013 20:51 06 Oct 20:51 | #9413 | #9413

In lieu of the normal community newsletter format for this week, I'm excited to do a quick report out from the 2013 barnraising that is currently going on in New Orleans!

The barnraising this year was sponsored with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Rackspace, allowing almost 50 people to come to Louisiana for our annual, retreat style community gathering. With the Sandy storm in the Northeast disrupting travel of barnraising participants last year, we all crossed our fingers that we'd be storm free between the East and Gulf Coasts. However, we weren't so lucky!

On Thursday morning, we had to make a quick location change as LUMCON in Cocodrie, Louisiana, where we were planning on holding our yearly gathering, called to inform us that they were facing a potential 2-3 foot storm surge from Tropical Storm Karen. Within a couple hours, gracious hospitality was offered to us by University of New Orleans TRAC and Propeller co-working space who agreed to house and host barnraisers joining us from as far away as Jerusalem and London.

We've had a great three days of meeting, collaborating, eating and scheming in an unconference style, combining both fieldwork and discussion sessions. There will be more to come soon, but here are links to some of the session notepads, images and new working groups coming out of this weekend:

  • Barnstars turn one! The newest barnstars, including the "dolla dolla bill" barnstar and the "MudStar", were introduced.

  • A Google Group was created for people interested in development work happening on a lowcost potentiostat.

  • We had a lively conversation on values and ethics in open science communities and Public Lab more specifically.

  • And here's a selection of notes from other sessions that have taken place:

Spectral analysis

Public Lab in higher education

Water monitoring

IR camera magic

Creating a Public Lab gear map for sharing equipment

And a selection of intros on who attended and notes from sessions

Hope this will pique your interest and we look forward to welcoming a whole new group of you to the barnraising next year! Shannon

P.S. Here's your lagniappe if you've read this far-- a couple images from the last few days.


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