Recap: Open Science Shop & Open Flexure Microscope Working Group Meeting (July 2024)

Written by Brianna Johns and Jo Long for the Open Science Shop Newsletter

Each month, we share a summary of our most recent Open Science Shop & OpenFlexure Microscope Working Group (OSS-OFM WG) meeting as we continue to work together to enable distributed manufacturing of the OpenFlexure Microscope (OFM) on a global scale.

The Open Science Shop convenes these working group meetings on a monthly basis. Keep reading below to learn more about what happened at this month's meeting!

Sales & Marketing: Creating Directories for Products and Manufacturers

We kicked off the meeting with updates from the Sales & Marketing task force, which is focused on improving the website so that the Open Science Shop can better market itself to users. To do this, the task force is developing a directory to help users find the relevant products or manufacturers around the world. During the meeting, the task force shared their preliminary ideas about the directory and gathered feedback from the broader WG that included:

1. Organizing products by manufacturer
2. Integrating visual maps into the directory
3. Creating a sign-up form that automatically adds manufacturers and products to the directory.

The group also shared concerns about the challenges associated with selling high-value capital equipment (>$5000 USD), suggesting that direct vendor conversations may be more applicable in these situations.

The task force also plans to create user personas based on the target customers (e.g., K-12 educators, start-ups, etc.) identified by the working group.

Creating Template Agreements

Creating template agreements such as MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) for Open Science Shop has been a recurring topic, dating back to the original 2020-2021 distributed manufacturing group. At the previous OSS-OFM meeting it was proposed that we revisit this topic again with members of the stakeholder management and network building task force continuing the work of drafting template MoUs and/or other agreements. The first meeting was held in late June as recapped below:

1. Discussion of why agreements like MOUs would be beneficial. The group discussed what types of agreements would be needed to support the OSS network. Clarity & trust were highlighted as reasons the group might benefit from simple template MOU resources. In particular, clarity on how we work together as a group, and trust-building as we create an environment where people in this network feel comfortable working together.
2. Next steps: Identifying roles and points of agreement. Before drafting MOUs, it was proposed that we first define the various roles in the network as these would likely be the "heads of agreement". Within the network, we have lots of different roles, including project creators and manufacturers, as well as people who may want to contribute to projects in other ways, such as software development, fundraising, documentation, and marketing. Defining roles also means we must determine what points to agree on, such as attributions, licensing, and branding.
3. IoPA and funding possibilities. The group also heard from Andrew Lamb at the Internet of Production Alliance (IoPA) about possible future funding opportunities. IoPA is currently applying for continuation funding, and there may be overlapping interests as any agreements created by the OSS could also benefit the wider Open Hardware community. Funding could potentially help with the development of agreements, although this would be in the future. In the meantime, the group will continue working on draft agreements.

Next Steps

The Open Science Shop will continue hosting these meetings every month. The next meeting is scheduled for August 5th at 4 pm UTC. These monthly meetings serve as an opportunity to share updates from the various task forces and work together on actions the group can take next.

The group also seeks to invite external organizations to join future meetings and share their experiences working in a distributed manufacturing network for open hardware. More to come soon!

Interested in bringing your open science hardware design to market? Connect with Open Science Shop

Open Science Shop's role is to facilitate connections between open science hardware project creators and a distributed manufacturing network. In addition to the OpenFlexure Microscope, we are also seeking to pilot distributed manufacturing initiatives with other designs. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, the format we are developing is a space where anyone in the open science hardware community can bring a Product Proposal to the group for consideration. If you are interested in collaborating with Open Science Shop to support bringing your open science hardware design to market, please let us know by submitting this form, and we will follow up with the next steps.