In 2023, we hosted a series of Tools Trials that focused on the online tools community managers use to support scientific open-source communities – whether that’s by coordinating conference planning, collaborating on creating new resources together, or building out new technical documentation. Over the course of the series, GitHub came up over and again as a preferred platform for many, and there were a number of different ways of using the platform to build community (not just to collaborate on code!).
Today, we’re sharing a collection of outputs from these calls: A new tip sheet that lays out the features of GitHub that make it a useful tool for community managers, and six case studies that showcase some of its potential applications:
- Using GitHub to manage session proposals for CarpentryCon
- Using GitHub to plan community calls for rOpenSci
- Using GitHub to maintain a static website (CarpentryCon) or blog (Data Umbrella)
- Using GitHub teams to manage contributor access to Rosetta
- Using Read the Docs to collaboratively create documentation in GitHub for Zarr
- Using bots in GitHub to support The Turing Way community