STEAM Camps Task Detail

Tasks

Rationale - the range of tasks needs to be documented for clarity of operational requirements. This needs to be done prior to communicating tasks to task managers. Whether the executors are admin, project manager, senior project manager, or executive comes later. Ie, Admin, PM, SPM, Exec.

Definitions, Roles, Stakeholders

• Instructors - people who deliver the STEAM Camps as individuals or as teams. Pool of 24 Instructors is the final goal - but this means 24 that are available every 2 months - so the pool may be larger. Instructors must be capable of teaching about open collaboration - to activate the OSE mission throughout the general public. The intent is also for Instructors to be involved in ongoing Curriculum Development, which improves over time. The intent is also that Instructors contribute to open source product development - as the 5 Project Days engage exactly in that. Instructors thus facilitate the development of open source products by their involvement in OSE STEAM Camps, which is intended to have economic implications towards the OSE mission.
• The Camp or STEAM Camp - this is our core offering, a 9 day event with 4 days of collaborative design training, and 5 Project Days. People learn open source toolchains and build open source tools during the first 4 days, followed by collaborative product design of a select product in the last 5 days. The STEAM Camp also includes an element of enterprise, in which the last 3 days are devoted to productization and product development. The goal is to create economically significant products for distributed manufacturing.
• Local and Global STEAM Camp - It is our goal to run multiple events at the same time - up to 24 events in 24 population centers around the world - with up to ~24 people in each location. Each one of the 24 events is called the Local STEAM Camp - and the Global STEAM Camp refers to the combined effort of all the 24 events simultaneously. The Global STEAM Camp is thus a collaboration of over 500 people doing collaborative design - because all the Local STEAM Camps collaborate with each other over the internet. This is intended to develop global collaborative techniques that can be used for all kinds of collaborative design projects.
• Kits - the kit of parts for machine builds and other build experiments that are done throughout the Camp. These cost about $300-400 in materials. The kits also serve as an experimental base for designing and building useful products. Thus, the kits are more than just a normal curriculum kit - they have direct implications for practical product design and development.
• Kit Production - the production of Kits, to be done initially in an open source microfactory using open source 3D printers and other open source production machines such as the CNC torch table. Part of the STEAM Camps is developing open source enterprise, and kit production can be a meaningful enterprise for Instructors as well. The kits are products used during the STEAM Camp - but these can be used for independent education, other STEAM activities in schools, and as working production machines - for bootstrapping to larger or more complex machines.
• Participants - People who actually sign up and participate in the STEAM Camps as paying customers. OSE's goal is to
• Customers - Both Participants and Instructors are our Customers.
• Schools and Universities - Schools and universities are potential clients for the Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp or other custom events.
• ED - the Executive Director of OSE

Outsource

• Marketing strategy - ED
• Marketing plan and copy - list of venues, copy, schedule, assets, process

Managing the Development and Organization of Curriculum

• Distribute Curriculum Requirements to potential curriculum writers, and to prototypers who build the experiments/ products/ machines used in the Camp
• Manage curriculum writers (Instructors and others) to write finished curriculum lessons as detailed content - sufficiently detailed so that other instructors can learn the curriculum, build any device/machine/experiment from the Kit, and deliver the curriculum in their Local STEAM Camp. The level of finish detail needs to be such that all Instructors deliver the same lesson and teach the same skill set - so that all Participants can collaborate effectively by using the same tool set - both hardware and software. The same curriculum is required so that everyone is enabled to collaborate fully with every single other Participant - by using common standards and tools.
• Collate all curriculum - consisting of actual lesson plans - on the Wiki for public viewing.
• Create a Curriculum Publications as an editable Google Presentation, which can be printed out or delivered as an e-Book
• Embed the Curriculum presentation on the wiki in Issuu or other embeddable format

Sourcing Instructors

• Search internet for potential instructors - interesting tech projects, STEAM camp instructors, Fab Lab Network, Hackaday, Youtube, blogs, etc.
• Editing an invitation to instructors based on existing assets, and contacting the potential instructors using this invitation copy
• Managing and tracking responses from potential instructors
• Publishing all organizing/tracking documents on the wiki as embedded, Google spreadsheets
• Creating an evaluation guideline and assessing candidates for approval by ED

Preparing Kits

• Coordinating with the OSE Microfactory on Kit Production to deliver kits to Instructors
• Coordinate with Instructors on any Kit feature requests, upgrades, documentation, and feedback

Certifying Instructors

• Sending the Kit to instructors for certification purposes
• Coordinate the acquisition of build data results from Instructors
• Evaluate the kit build regarding satisfactory results by evaluating performance data and samples

Coordinating Events

• Maintaining a calendar for coordinating all events, including certification of instructors
• Coordinating schedules with Instructors to put events on the calendar
• Coordinating a massive parallel event during the summer vacation, and coordinating for running events in parallel whenever possible.
• Coordinate with instructors on securing and paying for an event venue
• Post an event announcement and registration, and
• Attend a Local STEAM Camp every 3 months.
• Facilitate communication between Global STEAM Camps by coordinating a shared conference call throughout the event
• Make go/no go decisions on events if registrations are low in number

Outreach and Marketing

• Preparing an event announcement on the OSE website including event registration on Eventzilla
• Adapting or Editing advertising copy for social media, website, and other venues
• Creating and Managing Google Ad Words campaigns
• Sending social media marketing copy to Instructors.
• Managing an advertising budget
• Executes on a marketing plan. ED outsources marketing strategy and marketing plan.

Customer Support

• Send registration welcome emails, preparatory email threads, and feedback request communications to Customers
• Respond to Customer questions and concerns
• Secure feedback and reviews from both Instructors and Participants

Borrowed

1. Highly Skilled Web Researcher - Able to uncover hard to locate information and potential speakers through smart queries and effective research techniques using platforms including Google, LinkedIn, blogs, and additional online resources - [1]
2. Borrowed all this - [2]

Evaluations for STEAM Camps and Instructors

Critical Evaluation Points for STEAM Camp Instructors

• Teaching - do they have experience teaching? This is visible clearly if they are a Youtuber, or have existing materials online.
• Public development - do they have a history of working on public-interest projects? Ex. open source repo, publishing instructionals, blog, other voluntary development, community service, etc. This is easily assessed from online resources.
• Openness, Working Openly - are they open to new ways of thinking and doing? This is marked by their willingness to work openly - logging collaborative work product. Ideally they understand the concept of scalable open collaboration, to the point that they are willing to try it with zeal.
• Collaboration - publishing work product effectively on work log. Effectively means that it be seen, used, improved, and sold - the 4 freedoms of open source
• Can they learn rapidly - This is evaluated by their capacity to build out the experiment kit successfully.

Experimental Kit Evaluation - Sold at Cost

Evaluation spreadsheet - with 0-3 grade. 0 is not done, 1 is partly done, 2 is marginally working, 3 is working excellent. Scorecard: from 0-21.

• Could they build the Universal Controller successfully?
• Could they print a 3D printed corner?
• Can they convert the Arduino Uno file to an Arduino Uno successfully? Steps from experting CAM files, plotting, etch and solder an Arduino using circuit plotter and Ecological Etchant?
• Can they upload their build video timelapse for each build using the Raspberry Pi documentation tablet?
• Did their 3D printed motor work?
• Did they weld a sample successfully?
• Did they provide quality feedback on the build procedure?

Event Evaluation

• Can they record their session using remote microphone and 2 Raspberry Pi tablets? These are published online, and a bonus is given to the best presenter. Instructors critique each other as part of their evaluation process. Critique requires documentation - hence the Pi Tablet.
• Writing a What Worked, What Didn't Work, and their improvements for next time if they are interested in continuing.
• Event planner adapts survey from Workshop_Feedback_Form and secures surveys from Instructors and participants. We can add granular (Not required, but Would Appreciate Your Feedback On) - on each curriculum item:
  • Intro
  • FreeCAD and design
  • 3D Printer build
  • Circuit Plotter Build
  • Arduino Build
  • Mill Build
  • Battery Packs and charge controller
  • Welder Build
  • Motor Build
  • Universal Power Supply - overall on power electronics part
• Event Planner - receives documentation, evaluates candidates

Decision Making Process

• Throughout this position - the candidate collaborates with the ED - foremost by publishing all progress on an ongoing basis for transparency. The goal is minimizing management requirement - not building bureaucracy. In an open organization, anyone can provide feedback - and that is possible via documentation of work product. It should be transparent from a person's log what work has been done, and what results have been obtained. This should be transparent from openly-published spreadsheets: candidates, evaluations, etc.
• The candidate follows an evaluation process to select STEAM Camp instructors. Decisions on accepting candidates are made based on evaluations which make candidate qualifications transparent. Evaluation of a simple scorecard should make go/no go decisions transparent. The candidate should be able to make clear and transparent decisions as such, and the ED should not be needed, in principle, to approve these decisions.
• Initially, the ED will oversee and sign off on the decisions of the candidate, and collaborate whenever decision-making steps are required. The goal is to establish trust so that the candidate can make these decisions fully autonomously - and always with the intent of learning from decisions to make better ones in the future. Pay incentive structures should reflect this.
• By undergoing collaborative evaluations on a post-event basis (every 3 months), the candidate will collaborate with the ED on making improvements.
• Event Planner produces schedules, quarterly budget projections, posts events, and makes go/no-go decisions on events.

More

Meta

1. It makes sense that a person who runs the STEAM Camp program has run a STEAM Camp themselves.

Qualities

1. Self-directed - not executive; managerial or intern.

Levels

1. Manager - managing freelancers.
2. Senior Manager
   1. Providing guidance to direct reports, typically comprising first-line managers and supervisors. NO.
   2. Ensuring clarity around priorities and goals for the entire functional area - YES
   3. Approving requests for investment to a certain level of authority. YES - approves certain costs for events. Matter of course.
   4. Managing overall financial budgeting for her function - YES - budget has to make sense to approve an event. Manages but doesn't create budget. Rought budget is already there.
   5. Approving instructors - ED approves.
   6. Guiding the talent identification and development processes for a group or function - YES, this is SOURCING and RECRUITING
   7. Working across functions with peers in other groups to ensure collaboration for shared goals YES
   8. Working with senior management and other peers for strategy development and execution planning - GROWS INTO THIS
   9. Communicating financial and goal results and key performance indicators to direct reports - YES.
3. Executive -

Recruiting instructors for the Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp

• Searching YouTube, Fab Labs Network, and other

Refining and finalizing curriculum for uniformity and ease of execution

• Curriculum delivery is a technical role.=

Coordinating with instructors and other proto-typers and subject matter experts on producing related prototypes and kits

• Requires doing this at first