Over the course of its first decade, GOSH has grown into a community that spans disciplines, organizations, and regions. Researchers, engineers, educators, makers, community organizers, hackers, and many others have contributed to its work over the years, each bringing with them expertise and priorities drawn from their local contexts. The diversity of those experiences, and the relationships built among them, are among GOSH’s defining strengths.
Throughout the course of the GOSH@10 series, many people have reflected on the centrality of connection to GOSH. It makes sense that Yan Kay Ho, long-time community member and current Community Council member, observed it with unusual clarity in our interview earlier this year, as she is an experienced community manager who found her way to the GOSH community through connections of her own. Introduced by colleagues she had met through another open science community, she soon found opportunities to connect GOSH with adjacent communities of practice whose interests overlapped. In time, those connections led her into the Gathering Working Group, the Community Council, and a broader network of organizations that were grappling with many of the same questions about participation, collaboration, and community building.
Working across initiatives including Reclone, Open Life Science, and the Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement (CSCCE), Yan Kay began to notice that many of the same people, ideas, and practices were moving between communities, creating knowledge and opportunities that no single organization could have generated on its own. Over the years, she became interested in connecting communities themselves, building bridges so that communities can learn with one another while still pursuing their individual goals. Looking back, she describes GOSH as helping her recognize the value of that work itself, creating relationships between the people and communities whose shared knowledge and experience can become resources for one another.
Yan Kay’s reflections point toward a form of community work that can go unnoticed – that of community stewardship. Stewardship can involve creating welcoming practices for newcomers, connecting established and emerging community members, and fostering relationships across organizations. Often undertaken behind the scenes of the community’s work itself, stewardship can remain somewhat invisible, however it is critical to communities like GOSH.
Indeed, looking back across the stories shared through GOSH@10, a common thread becomes clear: Dara’s opportunities grew through connections made across the Forum. Nicolás‘ work advanced through the connection of funding to technical expertise to community support. Yan Kay’s story reveals the community scaffolding that connects those experiences. The relationships between communities are themselves part of GOSH’s legacy, creating pathways through which people, ideas, and opportunities continue to thrive. Together, they illustrate how a community of connected communities can accomplish more than any one community could alone.
