Accomplishments in 2023

• Created over a dozen paid positions in research, development, and design to support career growth, community development, and open source.
• Helped multiple people find full-time jobs and supported their continuing education.
• Worked with fellow OCF collectives Data Umbrella and BuildJustly to build open-source software for their communities and technology initiatives.
• Developed a partnership and memorandum of agreement with Of Ash and Fire to enable more opportunities for collaboration on a broader range of projects, including a long-term engagement with Rocketship Public Schools.
• Published new issues of the Journal of Engaged Research on feminism, equity, and neurodiversity.
• Released a new version of SPEC's website https://specollective.org/.
• Completed our partnership with the RAND Center to Advance Racial Equity Policy, including releasing a dedicated project site https://carep.specollective.org.
• Released a special edition of the JoER on Equity Standards.
• Successfully built and tested the open-source Insights Agent project in partnership with BuildJustly.
• Developed an official partnership with Rocky Mountain Communities (RMC) and hired a community member to support their computer lab initiative.
• Released a proof of concept event board site for Data Umbrella.

Challenges & Learnings

• Finding sustainable funding has been the biggest challenge in 2023.
• It has been difficult for SPEC with its limited resources and part-time team to effectively secure grants.
• The collective reached 75 people who have joined our Slack channel over the last 3.5 years.
• We have 25 active members in our Slack channel, and our core team has grown to 11.
• We experimented with using the open-source Mattermost messaging platform as an alternative to Slack, but the maintenance overhead was too high.
• We have received a lot of positive feedback that SPEC's community and peer support network have been really impactful for individuals joining SPEC to further their careers; not just in their job search but also in mental health and wellness.

Plans for 2024

• Releasing a website redesign project for Luskin Orthopedic Institute for Children.
• Beginning to work with Open Source Medical Supplies to re-envision their website and device library.
• Continuing to publish new issues of the Journal of Engaged Research.
• Growing the open-source Tilly farming robot project.
• Collaborating with RMC to develop a community website and computer lab program.
• Supporting Data Umbrella with the continuing development of the event board project.
• Developing new learning resources and initiatives to engage learners.
• Looking for new projects and partnerships working on sustainability and social impact!