A new way to take action with the OpenCon community, from wherever you are

We often say that OpenCon is more than just a conference — it’s also a global community made up of diverse people, all with a shared vision of a more equitable and open system for sharing the world’s scholarly information. It’s a conference and community we’re constantly looking to experiment with. We’re eager to explore new ways that the next generation of scholars, students, librarians, educators, practitioners and advocates can collaborate to advance Open Research and Open Education.

This is why we’re excited to announce that this year, for the first time, Day 3 of OpenCon 2017 will be a do-a-thon: a day of making, trying, designing, prototyping, testing, and learning in the name of advancing Open Research and Education (like a hackathon, but less focused on tech—and more focused on collaboration and problem-solving).  You can participate from wherever you are, which is one of the reasons why we’re so excited about the do-a-thon.  We’re always looking for ways for OpenCon to be more inclusive and engaging for people who are not physically in the room.

The do-a-thon's focus is on action. You don't need to be a coder or a designer or a “techie” to participate. We’re hoping people will use the day to develop and execute ideas for new campaigns, strategy development, policy changes, resource creation, educating, media-based organizing, and more! We want you to get creative with the approaches you take to create a more open system for sharing the world's information.

So — how do you get involved?

There are three different ways you can participate in the do-a-thon, before, during—and after the day itself:

1. Submit a Project

Have a project idea you want to put into action? Or an existing project that needs support? The do-a-thon is a great opportunity to make a quick mock-up to pitch or test an idea you have to advance Open Research or Open Education. It's also a chance to receive support and contributions from collaborators around the world. Building and strategizing on the day with new collaborators can make it much easier to keep the momentum after the event! Some projects that have already been proposed include:

• Collaboratively building an open introductory engineering textbook [Read more]

• Translating Software and Data Carpentry open lessons into Spanish [Read more]

• And more! See the growing list of projects that have been proposed here.

You can learn more about how to submit a project at: http://doathon.opencon2017.org/project. Once you submit, we’ll email you tips and tools to make the most of the do-a-thon.

2. Submit a Challenge

If you don't have a project idea, that's totally OK! We're also looking for participants to ask big questions about Open Research and Open Education.  And so — people will also have the option of submitting challenges for folks to work on together on tackling during the do-a-thon.  Some questions your fellow participants already started to put forward include:

• How might we make Open Educational Resources more easily editable to better serve local contexts? [Read more]

• How might we ensure that early career academic professionals are meaningfully represented on the boards of organizations working in the OA, OER, Open Data space? [Read more]

• And more! See the growing list of challenges that have been proposed here.

You can learn more about how to submit a challenge at: http://doathon.opencon2017.org/challenge.  Once you submit, we’ll email you tips and tools to make the most of the do-a-thon.

3. Contribute & Collaborate

We’re also just as excited if you choose to spend the day helping out on projects and challenges other folks have put forward — collaboration is what the do-a-thon is all about!  This is also a great way to start to getting involved in advancing Open Research or Open Education. You can find a project or challenge to dive into with our lists of awesome projects, by browsing through projects and challenges in your region or issue area, or by what skills they need help with. Read more about how to best contribute to a project or challenge here.

Participants, both remote and in-person will be able to (and have already!) submit challenges and projects up to and including the day-of the do-a-thon itself. If you have any questions about the do-a-thon or how to get involved, please send an email to lorraine(at)sparcopen(dot)org.