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Get Involved

Whether you’re new to open source or have been doing it for years, you’re welcome here. The UC OSPO Network is open to everyone across the UC system—you don’t need to be at a campus with an OSPO to participate.

First steps (for everyone)

No matter how you’re joining the community—as an individual or as a new institution—start here.

Join our Slack

Join our Slack workspace. This is where the community has day-to-day conversations, shares resources, asks questions, and coordinates events.

Attend events

There’s no minimum attendance requirement. Come to what interests you, when you can.

See our Contact page for campus-specific contacts and mailing lists.


Get involved as an institution

The UC OSPO Network is open to all UC-affiliated institutions—campuses, labs (such as Lawrence Berkeley National Lab), the California Digital Library (CDL), and other UC entities. Some of our member institutions have formal Open Source Program Offices; others have individuals or teams who champion open source work in various roles. Both are welcome.

Coming in as an institution goes a little deeper than joining as an individual: institutions join the Network as Member Organizations, which comes with a few commitments—an executive Sponsor, participation in a Working Group, and a delegate to the Stewardship Group.

Our Stand up an OSPO guide covers what membership means and walks through the practical first moves—declaring yourself an OSPO, building a web presence and mailing list, hosting a first meetup, connecting with local stakeholders, and where to go from there—in order, and with the trade-offs.

Start a conversation

When you’re ready to explore a closer connection to the network, get in touch:

We’ll talk with you about what open source work looks like at your institution, what you’re hoping to get out of the network, and how we can support you.