(Speech Note) Why I nominated myself to be a board member for the Open Science Community Netherlands (OSC-NL)
Below are my notes for the speech. They may be different from what I actually said. Nevertheless, I wanted to share.
Good afternoon, everyone, my fellow open science and scholarship enthusiasts.
It's special that we gathered here today to think together about the future of our grass-roots, bottom-up Open Science efforts in the Netherlands.
My name is Nami Sunami. I am a member of Open Science Community (OSC) Eindhoven. At the university, I work as a Data Steward.
I nominated myself to become a Board Member of OSC-NL because I want to give back to the Netherlands' Open Science Communities.
In 2019, 6 years ago, I came to the Netherlands for the first time to attend an Open Science-themed conference, hosted by the Society for Improvement of Psychological Science. Up to that time, I had been doing open science practices in my PhD in the US. But I always felt like I was alone, a bit lonely, doing these practices in my own bubble.
At the conference, I felt first-hand the power of the grass-roots community. I was surrounded by people who are passionate about improving how scholarship is done, fighting for freedom and equity for knowledge. I was no longer alone.
The experience changed my life. The Netherlands became the place that I want to be. The rest is history. I decided to come to the Netherlands, and now I'm standing here in front of you.
I feel grateful to be part of the Dutch Open Science effort, and I do hope that it's inspiring many people, like it did for me.
However, I also would like to acknowledge that Open Science is becoming more and more institutionalized rather than community based, top-down rather than bottom-up efforts. Institutions require researchers to do open science practices. Often it’s a good thing, but sometimes doing open science becomes just another checkbox-ticking activity. Top-down decision-makers may forget about bottom-up community voices. For me, the recent consultation process for the Open Science Infrastructure document was an unfortunate example of this.
Open Science and Scholarship should be about bottom-up. It should be about people, not about institutions. I want to support the community effort by working as a Board Member.
My community, OSC Eindhoven has potential to offer to the national Open Science effort. I would like to represent OSC Eindhoven by first energizing community members to speak up about Open Science. I will gather these voices and bring them to the national conversation.
At OSC Eindhoven, I am a core organizing member of the community. I closely collaborate with the community manager, Kristina Korshunova, within and beyond the community. We are doing meetups and co-teaching Open Science courses for PhD candidates.
I will leverage these engagements to represent OSC Eindhoven so that the members will feel they belong to the broader, bottom-up Open Science effort in the Netherlands and beyond.
Thank you.