Governance Structure

Photo of attendees listening to a speaker at the 2018 GOSH Gathering held in Shenzhen, China. Source: Gathering for Open Science Hardware

Community

GOSH is an international community of artists, makers, hackers, scientists, designers, organizers, educators, and entrepreneurs working to make open source science hardware (OScH) widespread across the globe. There are also several regional and self-organized OScH communities, such as AfricaOSHGreat Lakes GOSH, and reGOSH (which is based in Latin America). Read more about these communities here!

Image Caption: Photo of attendees listening to a speaker at the 2018 GOSH Gathering held in Shenzhen, China. Source: Gathering for Open Science Hardware

Community Council

The GOSH Community Council oversees or delegates all tasks, questions and issues related to governance of the GOSH community, and coordinates the allocation of community funds to activities like regional events and collaborative hardware development programs.

GOSH Community Council elections are held annually. Those elected to the Community Council are referred to as Community Council Members. Generally, GOSH Community Council membership persists for 2-year terms, with the exception of several 1-year terms seated in the first election, enabling a staggering of terms year over year.

2022-2023 GOSH Community Council Members: 

Liz Barry
Laura Olalde
Pierre Padilla-Huamantinco
Pen-Yuan Hsing
Thomas Mboa
Harold Tay
Valerian Sanga

Contact the GOSH council here. Read more about the 2022 GOSH Community Council Election here.

You can find out more about the Community Governance Working Group that set up the Community Council structure here.

Community Coordinator

The GOSH Community Coordinator works with the GOSH Community Council and the wider community to support them in organising activities such as Global GOSH Gatherings, writing sprints, collaborative development projects, and regional events. They play a key role in supporting the GOSH community to reach new audiences, and providing an enriching and dynamic environment for existing projects and community members.The Community Coordinator also serves as the Election Secretary during annual GOSH Community Council elections. The Community Coordinator is contracted by GOSH Inc, a US-based 501c3 nonprofit and is supported by a grant from the Alfred P Sloan Foundation.

The current Community Coordinator is Bri Johns. Click here to contact them.

Organisations supporting GOSH

GOSH community activities and events have been fiscally sponsored and hosted by a number of organisations over the years. There is currently one organisation (GOSH Inc) with a specific focus on supporting the GOSH community built into its mission and more may emerge in the future.

GOSH Inc: US-based 501c3 Nonprofit

In 2020, GOSH Inc. was established to open up new possibilities for the community, like administering funding, fiscally sponsoring open hardware and related community projects, hosting community initiatives who need a legal entity, and more. See this post for more information on the 501c3 nonprofit.

The current 501c3 non-profit board members are:
Shannon Dosemagen
Jenny Molloy
Julian Stirling [Community Council Board Seat]