GOAT Review Process

Why do you have a limit on the number of attendees?

The number of attendees at each GOAT primarily depends on host-location and funding availability to support attendees.

What is the role of participant location on their application?

We encourage people from all locations to apply, but due to funding constraints, we can only provide reduced-cost, no-cost, and travel support for U.S. participants. Historically GOAT conferences have revolved around topics specific to the U.S., but we acknowledge these are global issues and aspire to create a global fellows program that enables us to thoughtfully expand the scope of GOAT. We ask for your patience and input as we imagine this next phase.

Who is GOAT for?

We seek applicants who are actively engaged in open hardware and software for agriculture as developers, users, inventors, tinkerers and thinkers, and who can contribute to growing the community and movement. This event is for people working in all different forms of agricultural technology (ag tech), from farmers and food coordinators, hackers and food system activists, to those involved in academic research and industrial R&D.

Why do we have applications?

We have applications to ensure there is a fair and equitable process to select which applicants will attend GOAT and/or receive funding, and to ensure good representation of the diversity of stakeholders working at this intersection. The role of this application form is to learn more about who you are, why you want to attend, and your vision for open ag tech below! This application should take between 15 to 30 minutes. Your responses don’t need to be long, but it matters that you are thoughtful and consider how your work intersects with the open ag tech movement, both within the existing GOAT community and ideally, beyond!

How does the review process work?

We typically have three volunteers review incoming applications and rank them on a five-point scale across three criteria, with space for comments / additional context. We meet as a group, average the scores from each reviewer, discuss places where decisions needed to be made, and sort applicants based on those scores. We then send out rolling approvals or requests for more information.

What is the review criteria?

To ensure that there isn’t any unfair advantage to applicants, we review ALL applications using the same rubric, regardless of ticket type or funding request. Our rubric was developed in 2018, and has been refined with community consultation since. Applications are evaluated on the following qualities:

Skills & Experience: Demonstrates skills and/or experience relevant to Open Ag Tech
Commitment to Open Source: Engages in the topic of or demonstrates a commitment to open source or related concepts and values
Uniqueness: Engages is relevant, novel, or underrepresented subject matters

Why did I get a request for more information?

The email you received is a template email that is sent to all applicants that did not provide enough information for the reviewers to be able to evaluate using our common review criteria. If you received this email, it means we would like to accept your application but want to ensure we understand your interests and background to ensure a good fit for GOAT and help inform the agenda. We have limited spaces, and your application is our window into who you are, how and why you can be part of the open source agricultural technology community. Specifically we want to avoid passing on applicants that are a good fit just because their application did not elaborate on the review criteria.

Who are the reviewers?

GOAT is not a company, not a formal organization, not an entity. We are a loosely connected group of people with some shared visions for the future; that’s it. Reviewers come from a range of professions and organizations, but are typically on that year’s organizing committee. While the reviewers are a subset of the GOAT organizing committee, the entire organizing committee works together to ensure that diverse perspectives are brought together to consider how to engage in deliberate community stewardship as our community itself is not a defined, fixed group.

What is the refinement process?

Each year we ask for feedback on the application and registration processes as well as the event itself. We review and incorporate that feedback before the next conference. We also welcome in-time feedback, and often will make adjustments immediately. If you have any feedback regarding your experience so far this year that you’d like to see incorporated immediately, please contact us at [email protected].

By Juliet Norton | October 9, 2024

GOAT 2022: Program

GOAT is an unconference (days 1 – 3), where the schedule and activities are determined on site by participants, following the groups unique mix and interests. We roughly following GOSH’s Community Events Framework –> https://openhardware.science/gosh-community-events-framework/.

GOAT 2022 also has a Team Days (days 4 – 5), which is an opportunity for organizations to use the conference to organize too. Organizations can use time during the Team Day to have a retreat, brainstorm with the community, do design or feature reviews, or whatever else they want! Learn more here.

Link to the Methods Zine by Ankita Raturi and Prateek Mondan.

Code of Conduct

Program Details

See more here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1I_XOL5Vo3BwWeEYYDUVNaMZSg2poeXtVlgfjtZbXkWc/edit?usp=sharing

Find notes after each session: https://forum.goatech.org/c/open-ag-technology/goat2022/29

Late Night Worksessions

Ad hoc sessions coalesced in the café Tuesday evening outside the formal schedule! There was a Decision Support Tool for Decision Support Tools planning group and a Co-op and Mutuals discussion group.

Artifacts

To find photos, additional documentation, files, and other fun stuff, check out the GOAT2022-Public folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UQz7zQ61WfBmQuX0W-OcxEl9vGKuopNo

By Juliet Norton | July 14, 2022

Sponsoring GOAT 2022

We are looking for one year of funding from a diverse group of sponsors to build out the technological, community stewardship, and governance infrastructures that foster long-term community organizing, and host in-person and virtual gatherings.

GOAT is set up to receive individual donations through Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/goatech

Large donations (i.e., sponsorships) will be handled differently. Please contact Ankita Raturi ([email protected]) if you would like to make a large donation (>$1,000).

Technological and Community Stewardship Infrastructures. We intend to refine our existing technological infrastructure towards more accessible and engaging online presences with the capacity to reach a broader audience and lessen barriers to participate. We will employ community stewards that will work to foster new and more diverse leadership within the community. As super users of GOAT technological infrastructures, the community stewards will facilitate the pathways for new members to get connected, curate and host their own online events and activities, and engage in leadership.

Governance Infrastructure. Attention and intention will be required to transition GOAT from a point-in-time event to an evolving community that supports GOAT’s goals and the people in the community and to sustain the momentum established by the online and in-person conferences. The formative work done this year will result in the identification of a community-agreed upon governance structure that meets the needs and reflects the values of the community. Functions supported by this approach include funding acquisition and distribution, providing a sounding board and venue for new ideas, conflict resolution, strategic planning, and outreach.

Gatherings. The 2022 in-person gathering is scheduled to take place at the Omega Institute in New York. Much of the gathering will have an unconference format so that the topics discussed are derived directly from the values and needs of the attendees, whom will be asked to “take off their institutional hats.” The objectives of structured components of the gathering include completing our community manifesto, introducing the governance structure and begin nominations for the biannual board, creating a curriculum for how to engage in work within the community, and scheduling future hackathons.

Virtual gatherings will both ramp up participation for the in-person event and encourage continued activity after the in-person event. Pre-events include an introduction to GOAT technological infrastructures, a workshop to determine governance structure, a workshop to begin the manifesto, and a social hour. The post-events include a constant fair (e.g.., six-to-twelve-week sprints of building and executing ideas), hackathons, and elections.

Why Sponsor? Your sponsorship will illustrate a strong commitment to Open Ag Tech, and help us achieve our aim of bringing together a diverse group of 100+ researchers, farmers, developers, and policy professionals from the U.S. and beyond.

Benefits of Sponsorship: All sponsors will be acknowledged in the 2022 conference program, acknowledged at the conference, and be listed on our website.

Sponsorship Goals: The sponsorship goals table should be read from the bottom upward, like a sponsorship thermometer. The first $15000 raised will go towards travel stipends for attendees, the next $10,000 will go towards attendance stipends for in-need attendees, and so on. Our total sponsorship goal is $61,000.

Where the funding goes:	Cumulative Sponsorship Goals
Tee-shirts and Merch for all Attendees	$61,000
Materials Expenses and Website Fees	$59,000
Community Steward Stipends (for elections and pre-/post-conference coordination and events)	$58,000
Conference Space	$53,000
Marketing towards improving diversity and inclusivity	$45,000
1 x Child Care Professional	$42,000
2 x Organizer Cost of Living Stipend	$40,000
25 x Attendee Cost of Living Stipend	$38,000
25 x 50% Attendance Stipends	$30,000
25 x 100% Attendance Stipends	$25,000
30 x Travel Stipends	$15,000

GOAT is set up to receive individual donations of less than $1,000 through Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/goatech

If you are not able to donate via Open Collective or you would like to be a sponsor (donating >$1000) please contact Ankita Raturi to set up an alternative mechanism: [email protected]

By Juliet Norton | July 1, 2022

GOAT 2022

September 25th is the last day to register for GOAT 2022

GOAT 2022 will be a 5 day gathering of diverse developers and users of open ag technology. Technology is broadly defined, and includes both traditional hardware and software, but also mechanical tools (tractors, implements, etc.) and any domains relating to the creation of that hardware (intellectual property + open licenses, data management, model development, etc.).

Why?

For the motivations behind GOAT, see the About GOAT page.

This second in-person gathering will reconvene the open ag tech community to meet, learn, share, and formalize our common vision for creating open technologies for our food system.

Much of this gathering will have an unconference format so that the topics discussed are derived directly from the values and needs of the attendees. During the unconference format, members of the ag tech community will “take off their institutional hats” and participate simply as members of the open-ag-tech community. The objectives of structured components of the gathering include completing our community manifesto, introducing the governance structure and begin nominations for the biannual board, creating a curriculum for how to engage in work within the community, and scheduling future hackathons. Finally, we will have a demo session in which attendees “put their institutional hats back on.”

The last two days of the conference are designated for co-working. This time is for attendees to start working on actionable items inspired by the conference or enabled by the conference because we are all co-located! More details about co-working days, and how to sign up to host an activity can be found in the program and application form.

When?

Applications close – Deadline passed but rolling applications may still be accepted pending space and funding –> Apply Now!

Acceptance Notices – Rolling acceptances through September 24, 2022

Full program available – October 2022, Overview available now!

Conference – Mon – Friday, October 3rd – October 7th, 2022. Registration + Soft Opening + Lodging on Sunday, October 2nd.

Where?

The 2022 conference will be held at the beautiful Omega Institute, an hour and a half train ride north of New York City. Arrive via NYC airports and take the train or rent a car, or it is within driving distance of most of North East.

The Omega Institute 150 Lake Dr Rhinebeck, NY 12572

Who should apply?

Apply Here!
We’re looking for people who are actively engaged in open hardware and software for agriculture as developers, users, inventors, tinkerers and thinkers who can contribute to growing the community and movement. This event is for people working in all different forms of ag tech, from farmers/DIYers to academic research and industrial R&D.

Let us know who you are, why you want to attend, and your vision for open ag tech! Forward this application to people you think would be great additions to the GOAT community. We hope to select a combination that will best represent the diversity of projects in the open ag tech movement.

Note on GOAT 2022 demographic goals: In the application form we are asking about demographics because we are working to make GOAT 2022 as representative of the movement as possible, democratic and equitable. What do we mean by equitable? Check out this visual reference to equality vs. equity.

While we are accepting applications from outside North America, we cannot provide extensive support for complex visa applications. Be aware that you are responsible for paperwork related to getting to the US if accepted. We hope to make the conference more international in the future as we have more organizers and more funding.

What is the cost?

We don’t have any major grants backing us. As such we are encouraging those who can afford to pay for registration to do so. Registration includes lodging, but not travel. We will be creating a small donation pool to provide travel offsets for those who cannot afford registration. The registration tiers are as follows:

Full cost-applicant (e.g., folks with funding from industry, gov, academia): $500 registration
Reduced cost-applicant (e.g., folks with limited funding): $375 registration
Need-based no-cost applicant: $0 registration
Need-based no-cost applicant (US only): $0 registration + I need travel support

You have the option to bring family members for the week ($375/week/per person). We hope this makes it easier for everyone to participate in hack sessions after the conference without messing up family schedules. If you are a reduced-cost or need-based application, please contact us to inform us you need support for this as well: [email protected].

If you or your organization has the means to sponsor a need-based no-cost applicant, please see our sponsorship memo.

Can I get involved before the conference?

Yes! We will be posting pre-conference activities in June 2022. See the forum for details.

If you have ideas or suggestions on programming (speakers, activities, nearby locations to visit, etc.) that you think are a great fit, please contact: [email protected]! We are still actively setting the program and activities.

Who is organizing GOAT 2022?

The organizing committee for GOAT 2022 is:

Ankita Raturi, Purdue University
Greg Austic, OurSci
Laurie Wayne, Open Food Network
Jamie Gaehring, FarmOS
Juliet Norton, Purdue University

If you are interested in supporting or sponsoring GOAT 2022, please contact: [email protected].

By Juliet Norton | May 11, 2022