Navigating Open Science - when you don't know what you don't know

The year 2023 was declared the year of Open science by the White House and the impact on me was rather inconsequential, until I was asked to lead the Transform to Open Science Mission (TOPS) at JPL. The first requirement from the program was that I get certified as an instructor to teach the modules that we were developing in parallel called Open Science 101 (OS 101), through The Carpentries, an organization that I had never heard of before. Once I looked up what The Carpentries was about, I wanted to run the other way. I am not a developer and I am going to fool no one! But working with them was a valuable and humbling lesson, and a testament to the power of how an open and inclusive community can help shape the future of the open science and open source communities.

My talk will provide a personal account of how I was asked to step into the Open science world and how navigating among my job requirements, learning new content and expectations opened my eyes to how segragated and fearful we can become in the research world. I will include an overview about Open science at NASA and the federal level as well as the different opportunities that are forthcoming. I will also talk about the benefits and impact of open science to the research and academic world. I will talk about the NASA mission TOPS and how my introduction into being certified as a Carpentries instructor provided a new road map to how I would approach my work as well as how I would work with others in the future.