UPDATE: This topic is closed and kept for archival reasons. It is from the first 18 month of OSCEdays when everything was Challenge based.
Sharing and collaborating on challenges and projects is what the OSCEdays and this platform are about (Read: What is a Challenge?). You are encouraged to share your challenge or project here in the community forum. Here are some suggestions how:
##QUICK GUIDE
###1 Tech
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Chose one of the Channel categories like “education” or “food” for your challenge. Go there and click on the top right on “+New Topic”.
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Assign the challenge tag to it and the tag(s) of the city where you and the people working on the challenge are located for example “city-barcelona”
(more tech info below)
###2 Content
Describe the challenge short and precise. Think about using the “Why – What – How” structure: Why is it needed? What is the idea? How do you plan to work on it?
WHY – WHAT – HOW
Start with a very short summary before you start and don’t forget to add some background information about you and to provide links to necessary resources like links to more information, data sets, tools, repositories etc.
(more suggestions below)
###3 Use your own website and link to it
It is great if you provide all that information on your own webpage or another one of your choice. The OSCEdays vote for decentralized processes and we are working hard on making this platform more and more decentralized itself. OSCEdays is more about providing context and help people to do the work they do anyway with that. But for now to allow this context-work to happen it is necessary that you at least create a short topic with the link to the webpage with your information, so that other people can find your open project and challenge.
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##EXTENDED GUIDE
##I. Tech
(Additional information to the Quick Guide above)
###There is no channel fitting my project?
Picking just one category for a project is often very hard, especially in creative areas. What is for example the fitting category for a project about “3d printing biodegradable textiles from food waste”?
This is even harder in circular economy, where everything is made to become and be other things.
So where to draw the line? The answer is: Just do it! Try to decide what is the most important aspect and pick this Channel (for 3d printing this would be manufacturing). We are in a Circular Economy environment, so people will be smart and also look into other channels anyway.
Use tags to show already existing ties to other areas. Like for the 3d printing-project “textiles”, “food” and “reuse”. And if you really think, another Channel should have a topic about your project create one there with a short description and a link to the main topic in your first channel.
###Tools in the OSCEdays environment
The OSCEdays provide a variety of tools you can use to share information, store data, collaborate with others etc. Get an overview here (Start with the pinned topic on top “Help and tutorials for the OSCEdays platform”).
##II. Structuring Your Challenge for Open Collaboration
(Additional information to “Content” from the Quick Guide above)
The OSCEdays emphasize on Open Source as a development and collaboration methodology for a Circular Economy. Open documentation enables others to study your work, learn from it and push it further alongside with you.
There is especially the possibility that others jump in and help you with your current tasks, problems and ideas. For this it is of course important, that you provide the necessary information people need to understand the problem and tasks and use a structure, that allows them to see, where they can jump in and contribute.
Being precise, clear, simple and instructive always helps. Here are some suggestions what you could do:
###Overview Topic (READ ME)
One good idea is to start a main ‘overview’ topic for your challenge. Think about a READ ME like file.
In this Overview Topic you describe the tasks. If tasks are more complex and need their own topic and discussion you can open up a new topic in the same channel just this task. Link to it from the Main Topic and add a link on the top of the Sub-Task back to the Main as well (“This is a sub-task of…”)
Suggest that anyone interested contributing comments and introduces themselves in the comment section and also subscribes to your challenge topic to stay updated about the development.
As your challenge develops, you can edit and update your main topic. You can also invite your collaborators to edit it or related texts with you by making the/a topic a Wiki.
You can of course link to external tools or sites (like GitLab or GitHub for code) which are more suited to specific types of collaboration or information. Check the tools the OSCEdays provides for collaboration.
###How to frame the challenge?
How can i structure my challenge or problem so that it works great for collaboration or in the context of the OSCEdays?
Get inspired by “Types Of Challenges To Get Inspired”.
###Search actively for help
If you need help with something regarding your challenge, consider to post a request in the “Call for Skills” category of the forum.
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###Open Source
Please be aware that by posting to this forum you agree to post your text under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License.
LAST MAJOR UPDATE on October 25, 2015