Individual Consultations §

Pattern Summary §

Offer consultations to students, researchers and faculty about their open source projects.

Problem / Challenge §

There is inconsistent knowledge across a university of:

How to create and use open source software (OSS) effectively.
How to follow open source best practices / standards.
Additional resources and services available to open source projects.
Licensing frameworks and alternatives.

Students, researchers and faculty need guidance to identify the appropriate solutions for their specific challenges.

Context §

A university with diverse departments of varying levels of OSS expertise and needs.

An OSPO is in place.

Forces §

Students and researchers do not know how or where to access the information they need.

OSPO staff have the capacity/availability to meet for consultations and to provide follow-up support.

The OSPO or project lead has a working knowledge of and relationships with TTO, contract and other staff/faculty who are positioned to support students.

Solution §

Offer individual consultations as a service to answer questions and/or to provide support to open source projects.

This can be offered through a number of different channels:

Providing a contact email address on the OSPO website.
Booking a slot using a scheduling tool on the OSPO’s website.
Integrating and advertising OSPO consultations as part of a Department’s wider consultation services.
Providing individual consultations whenever requested.

Resulting Context §

Research teams and projects benefit from personalized guidance along with referrals to complementary university support services.

Additional Learning from Carnegie Mellon University OSPO §

We use this consultation template to guide the conversation with projects and to assess their needs.

Additional Learning from University of California Santa Cruz OSPO §

We meet with projects to offer advice and support as needed. This is often a one-time call but sometimes grows into grant proposals or longer collaborations.

Additional Learning from University of Vermont VERSO OSPO §

Most of our consultations come from internal referrals or the Tech Transfer Office.

Known Instances §

CMU Open Source Program Office, CMU Libraries, Carnegie Mellon University
GW Open Source Program Office, The George Washington University
Georgia Tech Open Source Program Office, Georgia Institute of Technology
Innovation Partnerships, MOSS program, University of Michigan
JHU Open Source Programs Office, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University
OpenSource@Stanford, Stanford Data Science Center for Open and Reproducible Science (CORES), Leland Stanford Junior University
Syracuse University OSPO, Syracuse University
UGA Open Source Program Office, Grenoble Alpes University
UC Davis OSPO, University of California Davis, UC OSPO Network
UC Santa Cruz OSPO, University of California Santa Cruz, UC OSPO Network
UT-OSPO, The University of Texas at Austin
Vermont Research Open Source Program Office (VERSO), University of Vermont

References §

Scroll to the bottom of this page to click the 'Book an Appointment' to schedule a consultation with the GWU OSPO.
Consulting services offered by Johns Hopkins University OSPO.
Scroll to the bottom of this page to request a consultation with OpenSource@Stanford.
Booking form Consultation services offered by the UT-OSPO.
Consultation booking form for the UT-OSPO.
Information about Consultations and other services offered by VERSO OSPO.
Consultation template for projects used by Carnegie Mellon University OSPO.