Origins Scientific Research Society 5208 Park Heights Rd NW • Albuquerque, NM 87120 • (505) 218-4000
Annual Report 2016 Draft Written by Melanie E Magdalena & Alex Vosburgh Reviewed by Anton Kozikowski
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Executive Summary Origins Scientific Research Society is an open science initiative which promotes the growth of scientific research by students and non-traditional learners via a free portal of quarterly science journals. The organization strives to make science freely available by publishing research and making data available to the public. Since the journal’s launch in May 2012, several hundred people have been approached to be contributors to the project’s success. In four years, each quarterly issue has an average of 500,000 visits with a cumulative 5 million visits for 12 issues. Readers have provided valuable feedback. Based on their input, OSRS now includes embedded video content in each issue, as well as hyperlinked source materials (organized by article) at the end of issue (rather than at the end of each article). Readers enjoy the 60% graphics to 40% text ratio and the current reading level of the content.
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Vision The goal for Origins Scientific Research Society is to be a one-stop internet destination to access scientific knowledge in the form of text, images, videos, and other interactive multimedia in a free, open format which can be shared and remixed by anyone in the community. OSRS will achieve this success by creating accurate media about scientific topics, share them via the site and social networks, and promote the open science content through other open science communities. OSRS will serve as a portal for anyone passionate about science to contribute and/or collect information for their own research.
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Market & Marketing Due to the current quarterly schedule, OSRS could be perceived as not as topical by competitors with a more frequent publishing schedule. Another limitation OSRS faces is consistency of contributors. Since sponsorships are still scarce at the moment, it is difficult to retain contributors without compensation. Due to the creative commons format of OSRS, experts in specific fields may feel reluctant to freely give out their knowledge as the open science journal format is still in the frontier of publishing solutions and is not well understood. OSRS customers include anyone who has a desire to publish their research and use data for future projects. The target group is students and non-traditional learners who are passionate about the science fields. OSRS is unique when compared to other science groups which are guarded by annual subscription paywalls designed for academia. Science, while it is a field intimately involved with academia, cannot grow to its full potential when many parties interested with a desire to be involved cannot afford to further its advancement. While the open science initiative is free by nature, visitors are encouraged to sponsor the site to continue its development and guarantee OSRS can provide additional content in the future.
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Operations OSRS is not limited by schedule or geographic location. All contributors work remotely via web based applications at times that suit each person best. Correspondence with other team members is held via phone, email, and Google Hangouts. OSRS is sustainable. With active interest by its current community and the exponential growth of the open science community, our organization has a bright future connecting scientists with open science resources around the world via the internet. The organization is limited only by the amount of science known to mankind and the abilities of technology. Since the founding of OSRS, there has never been a lack of interested individuals in this project, either as contributors or visitors. Since OSRS uses Creative Commons as its licensing tool, the organization works with the internet community to avoid infringing on others’ work. By making content freely available without needing explicit permission by the creator to reuse or remix content, visitors must only provide attribution to the source when utilizing the content.
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People There are sixteen primary roles which are fulfilled by the team each year. Many of these roles are best performed by a specialized individual but does not require sixteen team members. Each team member ideally performs two of these roles on a regular full-time basis, whereas part-time volunteer members perform one role on a quarterly basis. As of Summer 2016, all of these roles are performed by founder Melanie E Magdalena (full-time) and volunteers (ranging from one to five, from two weeks to three months). Most writers and artists are regular contributors to 2-3 issues per year.
Research Team
⸺ Research topics for articles, fact check sources used,
Scientific Researcher/Fact Checker
and curate articles used and of interest into Kifi libraries.
⸺ Involved in researching and monitoring marketing campaigns on
Market Research Analyst
Issuu, social networks, and other marketing mediums. In charge of developing and updating the quarterly media kit. Other duties include working with the social media team to develop strategies, issue and manage ad campaigns, and analyze campaign results.
Editorial Team
⸺ The Editor-in-Chief is responsible for deciding on a quarterly topic, reading
Editor-in-Chief
article proposals, editing accepted articles, and working with the Creative Team to pick graphics, videos, and other media which enhance the reading experience. The Editor-in-Chief works with the rest of the Editorial Team to create and maintain the organization’s style guide.
⸺ The copy editor is in charge of reviewing all articles slated for publication.
Copy Editor
Duties include reviewing final drafts and ensuring the production copy contains no errors (i.e., grammar, spelling, hyperlinks, formatting). The copy editor works directly with the Editor-in-Chief to quickly and accurately preparing articles for publication.
⸺ Authors with various scientific backgrounds are selected to write articles based on a
Writer
quarterly theme. Writers are awarded for their work with a print copy of the issue their article is
7 included in. Writers work with researchers to ensure articles are accurate at the time of publication.
Creative Team
⸺ The Creative Director oversees and works with the Creative Team to
Creative Director
incorporate innovative media technology into the quarterly publication. The Creative Director has experience in all the Creative Team roles and can contribute where needed.
⸺ Graphic artists produce raster and vector imagery for use in animations,
Graphic Artist
videos, and static works which can include: photography, vectors, line art, drawings, icons and logos. The graphic artists are responsible for produces raster images on social media as well as any graphics needed for quarterly publications.
⸺ Videographers produce short videos for use in quarterly publications, video
Videographer
series on YouTube, and direct live streaming events. Videographers will storyboard, record, edit, and encode all film for multiple uses.
⸺ An augmented/virtual reality developer will work with the rest of
Augmented/Virtual Reality
the Creative Team to produce innovative experiences for users including, but not limited to, Google Cardboard, Layar, interactive overlays for web content, NFC business cards, and more! These developers will strive to create something that no one else is doing yet.
⸺ An interaction designer strives to incorporate interactive processes
Interaction Designer
that are intuitive to users for a more wholesome learning experience. The interaction designer works close to the web team, UI/UX specialist, and Creative Director to incorporate interactivity where necessary.
⸺ The web designer is in charge of all the front-end visual aspects
Web Designer/Developer
of the website. The web designer works closely with the web developer to ensure the website performs efficiently, accurately, and securely.
⸺ The UI/UX specialist works with the Creative Team to
User Experience/User Interface
ensure the user interface is optimal for the desired user experience. The UI/UX specialist performs tests and modifies interfaces accordingly to improve user experience.
8 Social Team
⸺ Social media marketing includes, but is not limited to, posting
Social Media Marketing
content to social networks, answering comments, authoring posts that encourage viewers to interact with the posted content, and create analytic reports for the Market Research Analyst. This role will also work with the web team to integrate social media on individual pages for easy sharing.
⸺ The SEO specialist studies the popularity of key terms for use
Search Engine Optimization
on web pages and publications, update the key terms in use, and perform tests to ensure the key terms are performing well in searches.
⸺ The feedback moderator is involved in
Public Relations Specialist/Feedback Moderator
moderating and responding to comments on the website, social networks, and Patreon account. The feedback moderator also acts as a Public Relations specialist and will respond to other media outlets for interviews, guest blog posts, and more. Overall, this role is the public voice for the organization.
⸺ The sponsorship manager is in charge of updating and maintaining
Sponsorship Manager
all monetary outlets. This position is focused around the launch and success of the Patreon campaign. The sponsorship manager will also reach out to other organizations and businesses to acquire funding that will support the future financial success of the organization. The combined skills, knowledge, and experience required are:
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web design and development
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scientific research and writing
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design of multimedia assets
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deep understanding of how the internet works and the psychology of internet users
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teamwork and collaboration with interested parties
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passion for open access, open source, and most importantly open science
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knowledge of copyright laws, creative commons licenses, and asset management
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how to use cloud-based software (web tools)
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the passion to make a difference in the dissemination of scientific information
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Finances Since OSRS is a web-based experience, it’s annual cost is low: $5,000 for its mere existence. With a paid team working full-time for its success (creative team, editorial team, and marketing team), OSRS would be free to expand its current offerings making the journal more frequent and provide an enhanced user experience. Since May 2012 is has been funded entirely by founder Melanie E Magdalena with no paid staff. She has invested over 60 hours a week into its success, unpaid, while simultaneously working as a freelancer and on payroll. Acquiring a start-up budget would enable herself, and Co-Founder Alex Vosburgh, to make a living wage at OSRS, acquire a group of talented individuals to grow the organization’s infrastructure, and build a sponsorship group to keep this open science initiative going for years to come. The following are OSRS’s current monetization strategies.
Patreon Patreon is our primary monetization method for OSRS. Patreon collects monthly donations determined by the patrons’ tiers. There are 4 tiers for revenue and 1 tier to support our annual scholarship fund: $1, $10, $25, $100, $500. Each tier includes promotional content that will be provided the the patron as a thank you for their financial support. Each patron is also given a digital badge that can use to show off their support on social media, in emails, personal websites, or wherever else they choose. The Patreon campaign will be activated in June 2016. Patron of Science Rewards Tier 1: As a Virtual Traveler ($1) your funding supports all aspects of Origins Scientific Research Society. As a thank you for your support: ●
Your name goes on our permanent Patrons of Science list on our website.
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Your name will be featured on the Patrons of Science page in the next issue.
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You will receive a monthly science experiment you can do at home. If your share your video with us, we'll include this in the experiment results along with the next experiment!
Tier 2: As an Explorer ($10) your funding supports maintaining our interactive web-learning content. As a thank you for your support you will receive all the Virtual Traveler perks, plus:
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You will receive a weekly science comic.
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You will get a sneak peek at new content before we go live on the website.
10 Tier 3: As a Pathfinder ($25) this funding supports publishing new issues of Origins. As a thank you for your support you will receive all the Explorer perks plus: ●
You will receive a commemorative edition of the next issue using NFC technology.
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Tune in for Behind-the-Scenes exclusives to see how we make Origins happen.
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You also get a personal thank you video because you are that awesome!
Tier 4: As an Adventurer ($100) your funding supports OSRS participating in and hosting science events. As a thank you for your support you will receive all the Explorer perks plus: ●
A quarterly mystery science gift.
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Join us live on Google Hangouts to be featured on camera and ask us about science, give us your feedback, tell us what you want next, or anything else that comes to mind.
Tier 5: As an Experiencer ($500) this funding supports sending scientists out to do field work and buffer their lodging/travel costs. As a thank you for your support you will receive all the Adventurer perks plus: ●
Your contribution will go towards our annual scholarship fund: Scholars of Science.
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You will get the chance to meet the recipient the scholarship, if you so desire.
Amazon Associates Our secondary monetization method is through the use of Amazon Associates. Articles feature Amazon products which generate advertising revenue and commission for sales. This advertising enables us to tailor ads that are relevant to the content presented and our users in a non-intrusive manner.
Zazzle Associates By offering our designs through Zazzle, users can customize a product they love. The Zazzle referral ID provides a 15% per sale referral payment to OSRS.
Peecho Merchant Each issue created for web is also created in a print-optimized form that allows users to customize their print copy of any issue. Users can also print posters or canvases of featured art. As a Peecho Merchant, OSRS can choose an additional dollar amount for the final price to collect as internal revenue.
11 Science Shop OSRS will host an e-commerce portal that showcases the products available for users to purchase. While many will redirect to Zazzle and Peecho, the shop will also have products. The first public product will be NFC Commemorative Editions of the Journal. Customers can purchase one or many of a single issue or multiple issues for their personal collections. These will be mailed to the customer via the Postal Service, with an additional international shipping fee if applicable.
Traditional Web Advertisements Lastly, OSRS will host advertisements on its web pages to generate revenue (i.e. Google AdSense). Advertisements that apply to an article in the Explore! Blog will be featured on the page of the article. Advertisements that may interest our users but do not fit into our content will be featured on our “Ads This Week” page where users can choose to browse in order to support OSRS.