As with all of the organizational documents, this is not intended to be followed rigorously. These are simply guidelines around best practices that we hope people will update with their own experience and findings.
Some guidelines about creating and taking on the role of project guide.
The project guide provides the single main point of contact for a project to people inside and outside of the project. Guides are more cheerleader then task master. Remember, that the people who work on projects are volunteers that choose which project they make contributions. While guides may coordinate the direction of a project and its team, they also have a responsibility to those who volunteer their time for the specific project and recruit other that may be valuable to the project.
The tasks involved can range in scope, and can be as self-contained as asking for a specific formatting of data or as wide-ranging as hunting down entire datasets to be analyzed. Think of this role as equivalent to "Manager of Data Science" or "Lead/Senior Data Scientist".
Never done this before? Great! No previous experience required and we are here to help out.
Some projects naturally require project guides from the outset - such as those with external partners - but not every project is created equal.
Other times, the need for a guide might emerge over time. Let's say you've been goofing around with your ideas. Someone thought it would be interesting to try to collect and build a pipeline for <insert shiny data>, and you hack something together. The project gains some real momentum and people start piling in to help. Maybe it's time for a guide.
Responsibilities that should be
- Setting up a project README
- Coordinating the technical work of the team
- Managing list of project priorities
- Communicating the process
- Act as point of contact
- Communicate with project stakeholders
Depending on the exact nature of the project, you might also want to include
- Formalizing a pull request review process
The project guide should have administrative level permissions on the GitHub repo.
For projects where an external partner is involved or with specific deliverables, guides may be appointed by Citizen Labs.
To be filled by members