03 - Project Pythia: Empowering Geoscientists through Open-Source, Open-Science Collaboration#
Presented by: Julia Kent
Abstract#
Open science enables inclusive, accessible, and reproducible research, fostering a stronger global scientific community. Project Pythia (https://projectpythia.org/) is a thriving open-source Python learning resource that is the flagship educational initiative of the Pangeo community.
Project Pythia, founded three years ago, has always aimed to empower geoscientists to enhance their Scientific Python Ecosystem literacy. It began with the development of a free, online Jupyter Book “Foundations”, covering essential skills in software environment management, Python packages, and version control. We expanded to provide a gallery of Python resources, sample datasets, and a Binderhub Cloud instance. Project Pythia’s is now building on “Foundations” with “Cookbooks”, which leverage the Jupyter notebook format to house crowd-sourced collections of domain-specific workflows.
An open-source project that teaches open-source skills, Project Pythia sets an example by bringing together scientists and developers from diverse institutions to collaborate effectively in accordance with open-source software and data access best practices. We encourage underrepresented groups to actively participate by contributing to the Pangeo community or by leveraging our material for tutorials. This collaborative mindset led to enriching partnerships, such as with Climatematch Academy, a summer school that introduces computational methods for climate science to underrepresented communities.
In this talk, we will demonstrate how to navigate Project Pythia’s resources, provide an overview of the project’s long-term goals, highlight community-building methods and achievements, and invite conversation on our greatest challenges: findable citations of community contributions, data storage solutions, and outreach efforts. Together, we aim to strengthen the global open science community through open-source collaborative geoscientific education and discussions of common challenges in open science ecosystems.