New Team Forum

Hi, all. This forum is a place to coordinate the creation of new teams. Feel free to use the forum to discuss any aspect of the Citizen Sky teams, including:

• Post ideas for team projects
• Recruit new team members
• Post your own interests so team leaders can find you
• Ask questions about the team building/management process
• Get advice from other team members/leaders

Background on the team concept is here. And a list of current teams is here.

The first year of the Citizen Sky project was focused on building the infrastructure and learning how to collect data (observing). The second year is focused on the formation of teams and the third year will be focused on helping the teams finish their projects and prepare publications.

A successful team has two critical elements: a good idea and a good leader. Ideas can be almost anything related to epsilon Aurigae or variable stars, just as long as it hasn't been done before. It can be a computationally intensive analysis of data or an artistic outreach project, and everything in between. As a leader, each team needs someone with initiative who can drive it. This means someone who can conceptualize a core research question/goal and also keep the team motivated. Luckily, we have plenty of time so this does not need to be a time-intensive endevour. However, the leader will need to be more than just a figure head, it needs to be someone who can "lead" the team to a finished product. Remember, research is only turned to knowledge when it is shared with others.

We have a number of professionals who are willing to act as liasons for teams. They will not hand-hold teams and walk you through what you need to do. But they will be there to answer any questions you have, provide feedback on ideas, check on progress, etc. Once your team is formed we will work with you to assign the appropriate liason.

Each team will be given a private wiki and forum to communicate in. However, also make use of these forums to ask questions on observing, data analysis, etc.

Publications that result from teams will include the team members as authors and (presumabely) the eam leader as the primary author. These will go into the JAAVSO, which is a peer-reviewed journal that is published and indexed in ADS - meaning that it will be included in search results that astronomers use.

A good starting point is to view the video and/or PowerPoints from the 2nd Citizen Sky workshop, which was focused on data analysis and scientific paper writing.
Don't be daunted! Almost everyone will be starting from scratch here. Rebecca, Brian, Dr. Bob, myself and many others are here to help you. If you have  an idea, post it. Even if it is just a vague notion of something to do. Sometimes the best ideas begin as nothing more than a tiny seed in the back of your mind.