Open Source Summit North America 2022

Academics and researchers create a wide range of Open Work; hardware, software, science, data, digital humanities projects, and more. A key component of the scientific method is sharing work to replicate it and confirm its validity. But the mechanisms of academic dissemination and promotion have evolved to disincentivize them from fully releasing work as Open. Recently governments and foundations have increased pressure on institutions to remove these blockers, and the pandemic has added to it. In the last year, federal and foundation funders have recognized that dumping code (or data, etc.) into a repository and announcing its availability isn’t enough; they’re starting to look for evidence that a community will be supported around the work. Open@RIT has been developing a playbook and best practices for its academic clientele to help them release work in the Open with a community in mind. This presentation will look at the global changes that are coming to how the Open Work that improves and saves our lives is shared. It will also discuss the local, and Open, work done by Open@RIT to support those processes. It will also share the lessons learned from the Open@RIT Fellows program and its efforts to bring an Open Source sensibility to Open Science.