Conclusion

looking back and next steps

Talk About It

• We created this guide because nothing like it existed
  • It is incomplete, and we'd like your help
• Share what you've learned by giving talks like [DelBoca2024] or on social media
  • Preferably Mastodon rather than X or Bluesky, because the latter are single points of institutional failure
• Share what hasn't worked as well so that other people don't have to find those landmines the hard way
• And sharing your experiences during difficult times protects your mental health [Pennebaker2016, Cullen2022]
• Take time to grieve
  • The end of years of work will hurt, even if it is voluntary
  • Your colleagues may be suffering as well
  • And those who haven't been hit (yet) may have survivors' guilt
• Remember: people often become altruistic, resourceful, and brave in the wake of disaster [Solnit2010, Yang2024]

Organize

There's no point surviving today's flood if you drown in tomorrow's.

— variously attributed

• The best way for researchers to take preventive action is to become active in professional associations and push them to take meaningful action
  • Unfortunately, there aren't meaningful professional associations in the software industry to join and push
• The idea of doing this makes many people uncomfortable
  • Membership in voluntary organizations has declined over several decades [Putnam2020]
  • Which means we're out of practice
• Unfortunately, the bad guys aren't
  • Who is more likely to run for a school board seat: a PhD in epidemiology or an anti-vax conspiracy theorist?
• Right now we have to focus on preseving what we have
  • But playing defense is just a way to lose more slowly
• See Organizational Change for Open Science for ideas