Interplanetary Community-in-a-Box Contributor Guidelines
What would you put in an interplanetary Community in a Box?
The Interplanetary Community-in-a-Box project is kick-starting creative conversations around off-world community-building, by getting people to imagine what they would put in a hypothetical space-community starter-kit: a “Community in a Box.” It’s part of the Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative.
Here, we’re encouraging scientists, scholars, thinkers and others associated with the ASU Interplanetary Initiative to write short, engaging and thought-provoking articles that are inspired by the question “what would you put in an Interplanetary Community-in-a-Box, and why?”
Who can contribute?
We are encouraging ASU Interplanetary Initiative experts and scholars from all disciplines with an interest in the challenges and opportunities of developing off-world communities to contribute to this publication (although we’re also taking stories from other experts!). We are looking for articles that are short, sharp, engaging (even entertaining), and easily understandable, which explore new ways of thinking about how to build sustainable communities in novel and harsh environments.
How do I contribute?
1. If you haven’t done so yet, create a fee account on Medium.com — you don’t need to take out a paid subscription.
2. Create a draft of your article in Medium. When you are happy with it, submit it to the Interplanetary Community-in-a-Box publication. Alternatively, please email our editor, Hannah Bercovici.
3. If you are interested in contributing a Digital Interview, please contact us and we’ll send you more information.
Our editors will be in touch to discuss next steps.
Note that, because we take relevance and quality of writing seriously, we will not accept all submissions. Where we do provisionally to accept a submission, our editors will work with you to ensure that it hits the mark.
What are some of the areas we’re looking for articles in?
We want the articles we publish to reflect a very wide range of areas of expertise — the aim is to stimulate serendipitous insights and novel ideas. These are just some areas that we think may be interesting:
Scholarship: What is known, and what can be learned from, historic cases of community building/expansion at frontiers/boundaries? What are useful historic/geographical analogs for space exploration, and how can we develop and use them in robust ways? How do emerging ideas, concepts and models around governance, such as collaborative governance, inform off-world governance and community building? How do areas of expertise such as complex systems, systems thinking and adaptive/agile governance apply to off-world communities? What is the nature of citizenship and democracy in future off-world communities? What are the elements of successful constitutions, and what are the foundations of future plausible constitutions? What are the theories of constitution building?
Arts and Design: How does the form of the “box” influence how people perceive and use it, and in turn how do potential interactions influence the nature of the box? What might an interplanetary community in a box look like from a design perspective? How do arts and design integrate with other areas of expertise to ensure the box has value? How might the metaphorical nature of a community in a box be revealed and explored through creative and performing arts? How will the arts feature in the box contents?
Technologies and Media: How can emerging technologies be used to create a resilient, accessible, responsive and adaptive interplanetary “community in a box”? What is the potential role of emerging digital, biological and materials technologies in developing innovative box concepts? What are the challenges around archiving, resilience, accessibility, and interpretation/meaning, and how can emerging technologies address these? How will interplanetary communities hundreds or thousands of years in the future have access to and make sense of the media used and the contents they contain? How can the nexus between technology, media and society lead to innovative ideas around what an interplanetary community in a box means?
Education: What are the interdisciplinary skills/knowledge-sets needed to understand off-world community building? How can the “community in a box” concept be used in exploration learning? What are the formal and informal learning opportunities around the historic nature of community building, and off-world community building? What would students put in a “community in a box”, and why?
Engagement: How can the concept of an interplanetary community in a box (and the resources within it) be used to engage publics and other constituencies/stakeholders around space exploration? How does this tie in with informal education in science museums? How does it extend to casual learning in online environments? What mechanisms are available — or could be developed — for meaningful engagement with and input from members of the public on what goes into an interplanetary “community in a box”? How can art and design be used to engage different groups and stimulate innovative ideas?
Transdisciplinary collaboration: How can the Interplanetary Community in a Box stimulate high value interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration? Where are the risks of insufficient interdisciplinary in designing an interplanetary community in a box, and how can these be overcome? Are there innovative ways of collaborating across areas of expertise that will substantially increase the value of the box to specific stakeholders?
Application: What would a practical interplanetary “community in a box” look like? What would it contain? What would be the differences between a physical and a virtual box, and where would the boundaries around the contents lie? Who would be the target users? What type and level of material would make sense to them? How would the applicability to specific users be gauged and evaluated? How would resources that are based on scholarship, evidence and expertise be translated into high-value resources for investors, project leaders, team leaders, and explorers? How will the challenges of information overload and information mining be overcome?
Author Guidelines
Submitted thought-pieces should:
- Be written at a level understandable by a high school graduate or undergraduate without specific knowledge of the subject area;
- Be engagingly written;
- Provide new, novel, creative and even provocative, insights into how we can think about building sustainable and resilient communities in space;
- Be grounded in evidence; and
- Be around 800–1000 words long.
They can cover any of the dimensions listed above and more. Creativity, innovation, and transdisciplinary approaches are encouraged.
Published thought-pieces will be promoted through various social media routes, as well as through the Interplanetary Initiative more broadly.
Images
All articles will be published with a header image. Additional images that illustrate and enhance the story are encouraged. In all cases, the images should be licensed for public use, either through a creative commons license or similar, or through an explicit agreement. Note that the presence of an image on a website does not mean that it can be freely used. Where appropriate, image sources should be acknowledged and linked to.
Three good sources for potential images are:
- NASA — an extensive collection of public domain space images
- Unsplash — a collection of free-to-use public domain images
- Morgue File — another collection of free-to-use public domain images
Tips on writing a strong draft
What’s the point?
Make sure your draft is relevant, with a clear point to it and a clear and compelling narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.
Keep your eye on the main story — you don’t need to include everything you know in your piece; just what is necessary for the story you are telling. Remember the adage “kill your darlings” — not matter how much you like an idea or a section of writing, if it doesn’t add to the central story, get rid of it.
Remember that, as a writer, it’s your job to persuade someone that your writing is worth their time to read within the first few sentences, and then to keep them hooked. Never assume that someone is obliged to read what you have written. And if the reader has to work hard to understand what you are trying to say (and why) you have some way to go!
Clarity & focus
Make sure it’s clear to the reader what your piece is about and why it’s relevant to them. The reader should understand why it’s worth their time reading what you’ve written within the first few sentences.
Organization & narrative
Present information and ideas in a logical flow that helps the reader understand their context, nature, relevance and credibility. Use a narrative structure that helps the reader understand what you are conveying. Make sure the reader doesn’t have to work hard to understand what you are saying, and why.
Coherence
Make sure that ideas are developed logically, and that the information and ideas presented make sense as a whole. Ensure each sentence and paragraph flows from what came before it.
Accuracy
Make sure that any information provided is accurate, and backed up by evidence as appropriate (link to sources wherever you can). Double and triple check facts and figures — especially where they strongly support arguments, and when they rely on calculations. Ensure that the final piece is grammatically accurate, and always proof-read your work multiple times.
Readability
Write in a style that is easily understandable by readers, without them having to work hard to make sense of what you are trying to say. Use simple, direct language. Avoid jargon, and clarify technical terms and acronyms where they are necessary. Use short sentences and paragraphs to convey information clearly. Say what you want to say, simply, and without embellishment. Read drafts aloud, and where the text sounds awkward and convoluted, change it.
