A Philosophy of OSS

For OSS to work, it needs to be collaborative, and not just structurally or functionally, but collaborative in the social sense of the word. We all need to work together. Now that we are at this critical juncture where OSS can stand on its own two feet, we need to transition from working as individuals to working as a true cohort. What does that mean?

Regular posting so everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
Regular checkins to the Cohort feed until we have notifications.
Focusing on our lanes as expressed in the current terms, so we are each contributing our various expertise.
And most of all, working sessions that are coordinated collaboratively, not just meetings, but working together regularly through Zoom or chat or whatever works, in order to unite our work.

I would also like to think about the pedagogy of OSS. Having taught it for six years at CalArts and NTU, I can say that what works particularly well is learning through doing.

Each team meeting is divided into segments of explanation, segments of doing, segments of review.
Each member of the team shares their work: schematics, onboarding ideas, information design, etc. This is not only useful for collaboration, but it injects the work itself into the team transcription.
OSS requires regular practice, it's more than preparing for the next meeting, it's a quotidian documentation of ongoing work and process.
Of course we urgently need notifications, but we also need replies, so that OSS can become more of a conversation, what I call social broadcasting, rather than each person just posting to their own individual feed. We reply to each other's feeds.

Actually, the excitement of OSS is incorporating this practice into our individual and collective workflow, you feel like you are contributing to the whole, finding connections and commonalities with one another. This is what it means to be a true cohort, IMHO!

Regular posting so everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
Regular checkins to the Cohort feed until we have notifications.
Focusing on our lanes as expressed in the current terms, so we are each contributing our various expertise.
And most of all, working sessions that are coordinated collaboratively, not just meetings, but working together regularly through Zoom or chat or whatever works, in order to unite our work.

I would also like to think about the pedagogy of OSS. Having taught it for six years at CalArts and NTU, I can say that what works particularly well is learning through doing.

Each team meeting is divided into segments of explanation, segments of doing, segments of review.
Each member of the team shares their work: schematics, onboarding ideas, information design, etc. This is not only useful for collaboration, but it injects the work itself into the team transcription.
OSS requires regular practice, it's more than preparing for the next meeting, it's a quotidian documentation of ongoing work and process.
Of course we urgently need notifications, but we also need replies, so that OSS can become more of a conversation, what I call social broadcasting, rather than each person just posting to their own individual feed. We reply to each other's feeds.

A Philosophy of OSS

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A Philosophy of OSS

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