Iota Announces Collaboration with Space Telescope Science Institute
I'm thrilled to announce a new collaboration between Iota and Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). STScI is a research center that has led the science operations for the Hubble Space Telescope since Hubble's launch in 1990, and has overseen the science and mission operations for the James Webb Space Telescope since its launch in 2021. STScI is an international leader in providing open scientific and research data to the public, and the organization curates archival data from over 20 astronomical missions as part of the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.
As part of the 2022-2023 "Astronomy Notebooks for All" initiative, Iota will work with STScI to provide two full-day accessibility intensives for researchers, administrators, and technologists at the organization, including an STScI Day of Accessibility and an A11y Hackathon. These events are intended to develop an understanding of inclusive practices related to accessibility in STEM, especially in scientific documentation and outputs.
As part of the same initiative, Iota will work with scientists and technologists from STScI, Quansight Labs, and Project Jupyter to make HTML outputs from Jupyter Notebooks more accessible to people with disabilities. Our hope is that this work will be a step toward a more equitable, inclusive, and accessible scientific computing ecosystem.
Iota Expert Network
Since January, I've begun to develop and convene a community of tremendously diverse and talented individuals, the Iota Expert Network, who can speak and teach on matters related to technology and accessibility. In bringing together this group, we aim to provide an additional resource to Iota learners, clients, and partner organizations. The Expert Network will also contribute their knowledge and perspective to ongoing initiatives and collaborations. I'm looking forward to sharing more about this new program in the coming months.
More on the Horizon
The Iota platform is designed to be a flexible way to host modular, accessible curriculum. In the coming months, we'll be piloting use of the platform with a small number of partner organizations. If you'd like to work with us to host open curriculum on Iota, reach out to collaborate@iotaschool.com.
Iota will be offering public workshops on data manipulation, scraping the web, and modern Python programming practices in early fall. We'll be sending out announcements in late summer, and we hope to see you at a workshop soon!
If you or your organization are seeking to expand your technical or accessibility capacity, reach out to collaborate@iotaschool.com. We've got some great collaborations in the pipeline, and I look forward to continuing to share this journey with you. Thanks, as always, to Dr. Stacy Hartman and the Publics Lab at The Graduate Center, CUNY, whose support this year has made starting Iota School possible.
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