I have volunteered for many initiatives and was always happy to do so. Recently I started to realize that being able to volunteer is a privileged position to be in. To be truly fair and allow all enthusiasts to join an initiative we have to rethink the way we do things. A constructive criticism. |
I've got to get this off my chest, you all! I've received yet another email asking whether I could speak at an event. For free. "Why for free?" you ask? It's an event from and for enthusiasts. I am a fan of a lot of the volunteer-based initiatives in the research community, but I think we have gone too far.
Enthusiasm for something does not mean that you can and want to work for it for free. How do we fix it?I'm gonna be honest: the first version of this newsletter was an angry rant. It felt good to write, but it wasn't true to my goal of creating positive impact (in a positive way). So let me try to provide constructive criticism and share some ideas on how to fix the over-reliance on volunteer work. What do you think? Do these make sense? How does the Digital Research Academy do things?If I know a group of enthusiasts, it's the folks in the DRA community. We're in this, because we believe that research could be better and we want to make it so. But - and this is important - we don't want to do it for free. Why? Because not all of us can work for free. Basing what we do on volunteer work would hinder our endeavor of being an open and inclusive community. Two of our guiding principles are:
Have we figured it all out? Of course not! Some of us have to volunteer for now to get the Digital Research Academy started until we earn the money to pay ourselves. Also, we are struggling with reactions from our training clients who did not expect our prices (which would be a cheap in industry, especially since our courses are custom). Some folks want to volunteer their time. That's ok, too. We just don't want to be dependent on it. I hope that I managed to turn the post this week into something constructive and I am happy to discuss with anyone to find even better solutions. Because I think we can. All the best, Heidi P.S. If you're enjoying this newsletter, please consider supporting my work by leaving a tip.
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Heidi Seibold, MUCBOOK Clubhouse, Elsenheimerstr. 48, Munich, 81375 |
https://heidiseibold.com
All things open and reproducible data science.
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