Looking back on 2020:
Celebrating Massive Mobilisation
Against the Pandemic.
2020 has been a big ball of disasters, and none of us could have predicted how it would have unfolded. As our institutions were trying to figure out how to face these challenges, groups of citizens assembled and reacted with speed, intelligence and care. The COVID19 health crisis is going to go down in history as the situation that proved that local and global communities are more than capable of dealing with complex issues.
JOGL was created to facilitate the work of communities when it comes to use science and technology to better understand a problem and develop solutions to face it. As we launched the OpenCOVID19 program, we were blown away by how strongly the JOGL community has answered our call. Amazingly, thousands of volunteers have come together to retaliate against “the virus” developing more than 120 projects together! This is a huge achievement: last year, JOGL contributors went from 500 to 5000 and used the platform to connect, solve and propel open science to new heights.
Let’s break down this impact:
Here’s what we’re most proud of in 2020
Before the media even started talking about a pandemic, we had already launched an alert and an open call to our networks to mobilize fast. We knew our grasp of community organizing and our open platform was a crucial piece of tech to solve the mountain of challenges we’re facing now. That’s why we launched OpenCovid19. It now gathers over 1600 contributors, from healthcare workers to engineers, designers, scientists etc. This is HUGE. And this brave global community is working on hundreds of projects that help save lives.
Global community calls
To connect contributors from the JOGL community, we used weekly community calls to offer anyone to introduce themselves and share news, questions and updates about their work. Together, and amazingly rapidly, we started working on low-cost, open source solutions like:
- Cheap and quick coronavirus tests that can be used anywhere in the world
- Low-cost ventilators
- Use of data science to understand the impact of the pandemic on society and human rights
- Mobile apps that help users adopt good habits
- Tools to help students pursue their learnings
- And so many more
So much so that in 2020, we hosted a whopping 27 global community calls that gathered all the most active projects, helped exchange crucial information, and support each other to advance life-changing projects.
Impactful projects
Speaking of life-changing projects, here are a few that particularly inspired us at JOGL:
- The open source diagnostic tests (see below)
- Quantified Flu: It explores how wearable tech can be used for tracking our symptoms when we get sick
- Open Source Enzyme Production: Using beer to cheaply produce the enzymes needed for diagnostic tests
- AccuroLab: Fact-checking covid-related info on social media
- VoltSchool: Virtual STEM education focused in West Africa
- Basic respirator: A customizable open source design for a N95 Respirator mask
- Open syringe pump: Solving a shortage crisis through open source design
- Open source face mask challenge: Community-testing of the best and safest open face-mask designs
The open diagnostic community did an especially incredible job this year; four were selected in the semi-finals of the XPRIZE competition among hundreds of competitors, some of them being academic labs and established companies, thus proving the power of open-source collaboration.
A big congratulations to:
In December, one of these projects even made it to the finals and is now is clinical trials! The project ViralAlert is led by Ali Bektaş in California, with support from the JOGL open diagnostic community. This is a beautiful collective achievement which is making us hopeful for the future, and this wouldn’t have happened without this community!
Microgrants and open peer-reviewing
One of the main bottleneck for community-based projects to thrive is access to resources. Normal grant agencies don’t consider communities as legitimate personas to lead a project. This is where the JOGL microgrant and open peer-reviewing systems intervene. Thanks to our partners, the AXA Research Fund and the Vinci Foundation, we’ve been able to fund 33 projects after their evaluation for impact and feasibility by our community. This was facilitated by a pioneering process for community-based peer-review we launched this year and we’re so excited to continue testing: hundreds of reviews were produced and enabled to select which projects were advanced enough to get rewarded. The projects that reached a quality threshold of 3.5 or more out of 5 were automatically funded, while those that did not get funding received valuable feedback and could try again at the next round.
Advancing JOGL digital platform
We also worked furiously to bring new features to our digital platform in order to serve our community even better:
- On-site notifications, so that you immediately see what is relevant to you
- A refreshed design, so you feel more welcome
- A new navbar menu for mobile devices, because open science also happens on the move
- The ability to share posts, so you can communicate your incredible work
- A faster website, to save you time
- Better search features, so you find what you want, fast
- More languages, for a better diversity of collaboration
We’re constantly improving the platform — check even more of the new features we’re proud of! We also launched our FAQs Page with everything you need to know about JOGL. And we love when you get in touch with your feedback and ideas.
Best practices for community science
Amazingly, amidst all this chaos, the JOGL community also had the time to reflect on what makes open-sourced communities successful. We collectively turned these lessons-learned into the fantastic JOGL Open Community Playbook, an incredible resource for change-makers building communities to solve global challenges. It’s an ever evolving resource, so feel free to read and contribute!
2021 and beyond
2020 has been decisive for JOGL as we proved our community model was efficient and scalable. Our mission is to create and assist the largest community of contributors to open science and open source technologies in the world.
In 2021, we will be opening the JOGL platform to outside communities and organisations to help them grow and become more efficient. Be ready for more diverse opportunities to develop and contribute to impactful projects around the world thanks to JOGL!
In celebration of each and everyone of you,
The JOGL team ❤
