Engaging scientific users at project launch

Questions:

What are my expectations for the community of this project?
Who will be most interested in my software?
How do I approach this target audience?

Objectives:

Understand the distinction between an open-source software and a community project
Describe the target audience and selling point for my software
Convince early users that the project is worth their time

Launching a scientific software community

Community vs Open-source

Defining your userbase

An important challenge that many scientific software projects face is the step from an internally developed to a widely available software. This transition can happen at different stages of a project, e.g. when a mature software project decides to switch to a community organization, after finalizing a Ph.D. project, or right-from-the-start when a researcher decides to develop a new software for the community. A common social problem at this stage is to acquire and hold a userbase, and many SSPs stay at a single contributor forever. This might be intentional though, so when releasing your software you should ask yourself what are realistic expectations for the community of this project, and who will be most interested?

Exercise: Write down the target audience of your project. Be specific (scientific discipline, career stage, application, skill level). How many people approximately fit into this target audience? How strongly will they benefit from your project?

Finding early users

Take it seriously
Do not force the issue, understand their point of view
Focus on a limited number of users
Sell either a feature, or a vision

Exercise: Write down an elevator talk for your (or a made-up) project. Think about balancing the excitement for your project, with arguments why the person you talk to should take the project seriously (more than just a fleeting idea).

User commitment

Having many potential users is not as useful for an early stage project as having a few committed users that stick with the project through its early phases. An ideal scenario is a fixed commitment by somebody to use your software for their scientific project. However, this also means a significant risk on their side. You therefore need to make sure that these users can actually succeed, because they are the most likely candidates for long-term members of your community and ambassadors for your project.

Exercise: Put yourself in the position of a user to a brand new software project. Think about what you expect, and do not expect from such a project. Does it need have a polished interface? Do you expect it to be correct?

BSSC

Better Scientific Software Communities