Community Overview

The Carpentries works to help institutions and individuals spread skills for data analysis, computational thinking, and research software development through building local and global communities of practice.

We do this through:

Executive Council

Governance of The Carpentries is undertaken by the Executive Council, to whom the Executive Director reports. The Council comprises nine members, from The Carpentries community or others, four elected by the community, and five appointed from the Executive Council.

The Carpentries Executive Council is the highest leadership body of The Carpentries project. It is responsible for strategic and organisational planning, selecting the Executive Director and evaluating their performance, financial oversight, identifying revenue streams and resource development, approving and monitoring The Carpentries programs and services, and enhancing The Carpentries public image. Members of the council also serve as advocates and ambassadors for the organisation, leveraging their networks to benefit the project’s reputation and fundraising. The Executive Council executes these responsibilities through a combination of monthly Executive Council meetings and regular correspondence and collaboration via email and online platforms.

More information about the Executive Council and current members is available on the Governance page.

Instructors

The Carpentries Instructors are the core of our community. Instructors organise and teach Carpentries workshops to spread data literacy and programmatic skills both locally and globally. Members of our Instructor community work together to actively grow their instructional and technical skills. Becoming an Instructor is a great step to leveling-up your own technical skills and helps you to become a more effective technical communicator.

Instructor Development

Instructor development is how our global instructors come together to support each other and develop new teaching and technical skills. We create an open and inviting environment through community sessions and project-based small group mentoring.

Mentoring Groups

Mentoring Groups support Instructors in a variety of ways. Whether you are a new instructor preparing to teach your first workshop, a seasoned Instructor hoping to launch workshops in a new community, or an Instructor excited about getting involved with lesson development and maintenance, mentoring groups will help you gain the confidence, technical skills, and teaching skills you need to reach your goal.

Instructor Development Committee

The Instructor Development Committee supports Instructors as they progress through training, teaching, curriculum development, and other community-related activities. They help promote community-building and networking, by providing virtual spaces where instructors from all over the world can share teaching success stories and discuss teaching strategies.

Trainers

The Trainer community is a group of experienced Instructors, local champions, and education specialists who inspire and prepare new Instructors. They work as a team to maintain and teach the instructor training curriculum. They also host teaching demonstration sessions to provide vital feedback as prospective Carpentries Instructors prepare to join the community. They showcase and embody the enthusiasm and conduct of our community as they prepare new instructors. Becoming a Trainer lets you scale your impact - sharing your own passion, experience, and enthusiasm with the next generation of The Carpentries Instructors.

Private resources for current Trainers:

Maintainers

The Carpentries Maintainers work with the community to make sure that lessons stay up-to-date, accurate, functional and cohesive. Maintainers monitor their lesson repository, make sure that pull requests and issues are addressed in a timely manner, and participate in the lesson development cycle including lesson releases. They endeavor to be welcoming and supportive of contributions from all members of the community. This community of practice is a great place to learn to collaborate effectively in Git and GitHub. Upcoming rounds of Maintainer Onboarding will be announced on our newsletter and blog.

Curriculum Advisors

Curriculum Advisors provide high-level guidance on the overall structure of a particular curriculum, including which tools will be taught and which dataset(s) will be used for the lessons. They bring domain-specific expertise to lesson development and help ensure that lessons stay up to date with advances in technology. Being a Curriculum Advisor is a great way to keep up-to-date about changes in your field and network with other domain experts in The Carpentries community. We are not currently seeking new members to the Curriculum Advisory Committees.

Lesson Developers

The Carpentries community is committed to a collaborative and open process for lesson development and to sharing teaching materials. We provide two avenues for community members to share lesson materials.

The Carpentries Incubator is for Carpentries community members to share Carpentries-style teaching materials at all stages of development, to receive feedback from other community members. These lessons are not officially endorsed by The Carpentries. Read more information about contributing to The Carpentries Incubator.

The Carpentries Lab is for sharing peer-reviewed lessons, vetted by The Carpentries. We are currently piloting an open peer review process for lessons entering The Carpentries Lab. Although the system is open for submissions, we can currently only commit to review those lessons that have been invited. If you would like to volunteer as a reviewer for The Carpentries Lab, please send an email to incubator@carpentries.org.

Those looking for ways to contribute to existing lesson material can find a list of issues in need of attention on the Help Wanted page.

Regional Coordinators

Regional Coordinators are the front face of The Carpentries, promoting our work and our culture in their geographical area. They manage workshop logistics, communicate with hosts and Instructors, and respond to general inquiries. They work together to support each other and ensure communities can thrive locally while maintaining quality and consistency globally.

Code of Conduct Committee

The Carpentries is a community-led project. We are committed to creating a friendly and respectful place for learning, teaching and contributing. The Code of Conduct Subcommittee handles reported code of conduct violations and works to keep our community welcoming for all.

Spanish Translators Team

The Spanish Translators Team translates and maintains Spanish-language lessons for The Carpentries lesson programs. They are a part of The Carpentries en Latinoamérica group.

Regional Subcommunities

For a full listing of Carpentries subcommunities, please visit our subcommunity registry.

CarpentryCon

The Carpentries hosts CarpentryCon, a community-organised meeting for our global community.

If you are interested in helping to organise the next CarpentryCon, contact The Carpentries.

CarpentryConnects

CarpentryConnects are community convenings, organised to bring together community members of The Carpentries that are in close proximity geographically for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and networking. The CarpentryConnect Planning Kit provides checklists, templates, recommendations for best practices and resources to serve as guides in planning and carrying out CarpentryConnect events.

Here is a list of all CarpentryConnect events held in the past: carpentryconnect.org/case-studies/

Champions

Carpentry Champions are an inactive subcommunity in The Carpentries. Champions used to meet quarterly to discuss ways in which they can help support the growth of existing communities and attract new communities to building digital skills capacity at research organisations around the world. Come and learn from senior community leaders and get support as you work to build your own local community. Here are resources with information about this inactive group:

Assessment Network

The Assessment Network is an inactive subcommunity in The Carpentries. It used to bring together those working on assessment within the open source/research computing space to collaborate and share resources. The network meets quarterly to discuss best practices and share resources.Here are resources with information about this inactive group:

Lesson Infrastructure

This is an inactive subcommunity in The Carpentries. Members of the Lesson Infrastructure Committee used to serve as Maintainers for The Carpentries lesson template and its documentation, as well as for The Carpentries workshop template.

Community events

There are many opportunities to join community meetings, subcommittees and debriefing sessions. Find links to them on this Etherpad, and subscribe to the Google calendar below or use this ics feed to watch all that is going on throughout our community.

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