What is a Public Lab Barnraising?

Public Lab Barnraisings are the closest thing we have to a Public Lab conference -- but with an emphasis on "doing stuff together" rather than just presenting/talking. In the spirit of bringing a community together to collectively raise a structure such as a barn, Public Lab comes together to develop tools, toolkits, supporting materials such as guides and tutorials, test the tools and develop new research directions and projects. Participants represent a wide range of interests from technologists and designers to social """scientists""" and community organizers. The annual Fall Barnraising is held in Louisiana each year. In 2014, we’ve introducing a second Spring Barnraising into our event schedule. The Spring Barnraisings will be in different locations each year and focus on specific environmental issues or tool development projects.

What was the 2014 Tool-focused Barnraising?

The 2014 tool-focused Barnraising was a regional version of a Public Lab Barnraising and was held in Kington and Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Barnraising was a 2.5 day conference for 25-30 individuals from Public Lab’s Northeast community, including representatives from local environmental justice organizations that are interested in incorporating community science into their programs. Together, the attendees engaged in discussions, research and tool development around environmental justice issues of water quality through unconference sessions.

Planning Information about Barnraising is located on this wiki page as well as in several google spreadsheets, docs, and pads--find all links gathered here: http://hackfoldr.org/barnraising-2014-northeast/

Friday, June 6, 2014

10:00AM-5:00PM: Organizer's Summit

6:00PM: Jones River Landing Community Potluck and Sunset Canoe

Saturday, June 7, 2014

7:00AM - 10:00AM: Jones River Landing Canoe & Kayak

10:00AM - 11:00AM: Introductions & Ice Breakers. * What's your name? * Where are you from? * What was your first point of contact with Public Lab?

11:00AM - 11:30AM: Presentation by Jones River Landing and Cape Cod Baywatch.

Jones River Landing: http://jonesriver.org/ Cape Cod Bay Watch: http://www.capecodbaywatch.org/

11:30AM - 12:00PM: Unconference Planning

12:00PM - 1:00PM:

A) Mailing List Search

B) Landstat Imagery

1:00PM - 2:00PM:

A) Oil Test Kits

B) Water Monitoring Discussion & Riffle

2:00PM - 3:00PM

A) Publiclab.org Everything!

B) Edible Oil Adulteration Detection using Spectometry

3:00PM - 4:00PM

A) Barnstars

B) Thermal Fishing Bob

5:00PM The closest we've ever been to an actual barnraising: a dock flipping!

Evening: Dinner Discussions at Tidmarsh Farm with Glorianna and Evan

Sunday, June 8, 2014

9:00AM - 10:00AM: Working Breakfast

A) Narrative Pipeline Story Walk

B) Historical Data Search

10:00AM - 11:30AM: Presentation by Tidmarsh Farm

12:00PM - 4:00PM: Continued discussions and personal projects

Add Your Own Media Links Here:

• JONES RIVER LANDING: Pine's introduction, history of the site
• PILGRIM PLANT: Karen from Cape Cod Bay Watch - introduction and overview
• CHRIS FASTIE'S Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisfastie/sets/72157644686032239/
• EYMUND DIEGEL'S Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/11001189@N07/sets/72157645114965494/
• KATIE GRADOWSKI'S Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/36839337@N02/sets/72157640400797294/

Tidmarsh Farm

House Rules: GoogleDoc

Address: 139 Bartlett Road (same at 137 Bartlett Road), Plymouth, MA 02360.

The industrial barn.

The guest house.

The campsite.

Jones River Landing

Address: 55 Landing Road Kingston, MA 02364

This Barnraising was made possible with generous support from Rackspace.