Workshop Agenda

If successful, this workshop should end with a set of concrete projects (or plans for projects) around synthesis infrastructures, championed by workshop participants. We'll aim for this end goal in two phases of activities: 1) pre-workshop onboarding and project formation, and 2) synchronous "live" working and sharing/feedback sessions.

Phase I: Pre-Workshop Onboarding and Project Formation - Friday Oct 28 to Friday Nov 11

Goals

The goal of this phase is to generate and converge on a set of ~6 project proposals that participants will be excited to begin working on during the workshop and complete after the workshop.

Projects are how we describe tangible outcomes to aim for. They can be (combinations of):

Resources, such as a system map/synthesis of the problem space, synthesis/directory of tools, essential reading list, case study library, or shared synthesis benchmark dataset
Proposals, such as a study or grant proposal, or an editorial/essay
Prototypes, such as a sketch of a common synthesis protocol, proof-of-concept of synthesis interoperability, or lo-fi/mid-fi prototype iterations around a common synthesis problem
Data, such as user feedback / testing of a prototype
Organization, such as a new organization, or convening of a community

You can see an example project page (in a state we hope for at the end of this pre-workshop phase) here: Example Project Page

Activities

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to:

Find a mission
Find some fellow travelers

We will do this through facilitated conversations and engagements on the Discord.

You will be assigned to an initial "table" with other participants to seed initial discussions. The tables are unnamed, but they are not random! The organizers have carefully chosen a mix of people that we think will kickstart a fruitful conversation that can lead to project ideas. NOTE: these are initial seatings, that you can feel free to change! You don't have to stay in your table either! Think of this as a potluck dinner party where we give you an initial seating, but you should feel free to float around, change tables, and start new discussions - whatever brings the right group together for the conversation you want to have!

Each table will have an assigned organizer who will moderate and scaffold the discussion to converge towards a project idea associated with 1) one or more champions and fellow collaborators, 2) a project channel on the Discord, and 3) a project page here on the wiki.

We estimate that participation per week should amount to (spread out across the days/weeks) ~1-2 hrs per week: one way to think about this is to divert some of the time you would spend thinking/discussing these issues on Twitter or in the lab or in your own notebooks/sketchbooks or elsewhere to the shared Discord and wiki for the ~1-2 weeks prior to the workshop.

Phase II: Synchronous "Live" Working and Sharing/Feedback Sessions - Saturday & Sunday Nov 12-13

Goals

The goal of this phase is to iterate on and gain momentum and progress on the project proposals.

There is limited time during the workshop, so priority is on achieving some escape velocity rather than "completing" a project. We will consider it a success if each project ends the workshop with 1) initial progress and momentum on the project's goals, and 2) concrete, energized plans for next steps (e.g., "let's keep working on X and [submit it to Y, etc.])

Activities

The intent is for progress on the projects to be documented on the evolving project pages, which may link to prototypes/wireframes/proposal docs/code repos, or contain reading lists, or other markers of progress to share. Progress will happen via a mix of work sprints (synchronous and asynchronous) over the course of Day 1, along with lightning talks and feedback from other workshop participants, and then culminating in a second/final progress report and closing call to action on Day 2.

We are still finalizing the exact timing of the schedule based on final participants' time zone mixes. The following is the current proposed rough schedule (in US Eastern time). The intent is to limit synchronous joint sessions to ~3 hours in the morning of US East timezone, to maximize overlap in schedules across our major time zones.

Day 1 (Nov 12)


When (US Eastern)	What	Where
09:30 - 09:40 your timezone	Welcome and kickoff	Together, on Zoom(commentary on Discord)
09:40 - 10:10 your timezone	Working groups finalize proposals	In groups, on Discord voice or Zoom breakouts, as preferred, and on wiki
10:10 - 11:40 your timezone	Work sprint 1	In groups, on Discord voice or Zoom breakouts, as preferred, and on wiki
11:40 - 12:25 your timezone	Working group proposal lightning talks	Together, on Zoom(commentary on Discord)
Various	Work sprint 2	On Discord and wiki

Day 2 (Nov 13)


When	What	Where
09:30 - 12:30 your timezone	Working group proposal progress reports and discussion	Together, on Zoom(commentary on Discord)
12:40 - 12:50 your timezone	Closing call to action, next steps	Together, on Zoom(commentary on Discord)