Episode 2: Sayeed Choudhury on using Open Source at Johns Hopkins University to map COVID-19

Guest Sayeed Choudhury Show Notes Today, my guest is Sayeed Choudhury, who works at Johns Hopkins University and lives in Baltimore. He tells us the interesting work he’s done with his open source program office at Johns Hopkins. He also talks about the four pillars of academia, and all the work that Johns Hopkins has done in helping with COVID - one being the COVID Map, which started as a research project and has become a worldwide resource. Also, we learn how Johns Hopkins is helping the St. Francis Neighborhood Center in Baltimore. [00:00:51] Sayeed’s been doing some interesting work on setting up the OSPO at Johns Hopkins, so he tells us what that is and how he’s done it. [00:03:50] Richard wonders if the law was made yet regarding uses of open source, and Sayeed explains there is a whole broad category of open access and open scholarship which the conversation has focused around articles. [00:09:25] Sayeed talks about how OSPO fits into the four pillars used to measure university impact. [00:13:58] We learn that Johns Hopkins University has done a tremendous amount in helping with COVID. Sayeed explains further about the group he led that supported the COVID Map and something they are piloting with the city of Paris, France, to help out the St. Francis Neighborhood Center in West Baltimore. [00:17:55] Richard wonders how Sayeed incentivized the university to work on live tests, and how that worked. [00:21:42] Sayeed talks about a group of students at Hopkins focused on open source that did research on homeless shelters and more specific questions that need to be asked before placing them in a shelter. [00:23:38] Sayeed talked about how Lutece is being used for homeless shelters. [00:24:51] Richard asks Sayeed what else can OSPOs do for the city at large and is there anything you can do besides collaborate with local places like St. Francis, or are there ways of getting citizens more connected with the university. Sayeed mentions something that they just recently launched with the hospital. [00:31:47] One of the classic problems in open source is how to incentivize maintainers in the long haul. Sayeed gives us his feedback. [00:35:24] Sayeed tells us about the COVID Map and where it’s used. This is a great example of research is having tremendous impact and a great example of how openness can be an important dimension in it. [00:39:56] Sayeed tells us where you can follow Johns Hopkins University open source program office, where you can follow him on the internet, and where you can get plugged in and learn more. Links Sayeed Choudhury Twitter JOSS (Journal of Open Source Software) [Library Lutece Unit Testing-GitHub](https://github.com/lutece-platform lutece-test-library-lutece-unit-testing) St. Francis Neighborhood Center COVID-19 Map-Johns Hopkins University ESRI Baltimore Washington Open Source People’s Homesteading Group-Baltimore, MD Credits Produced by Richard Littauer Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound Show notes by DeAnn Bahr at Peachtree Sound Special Guest: Sayeed Choudhury.