In case you hadn’t noticed, OpenBehavior got a makeover! The goal with this website is to improve the way we have projects categorized and tagged so you can find what you’re looking for, and if you’re just looking for inspiration for your next experiment we wanted make it easier to browse projects by category.
We have a page for each broad project category: Behavior Apparatus, Behavior Measurement, Data Analysis, Neural Modulation, Neural Recording, and Video Recording and Analysis. Each category page which features a description of the kinds of projects you can find there, including descriptions of the subcategories! This should hopefully make it easy to narrow down your search whether you’re looking for a specific project or are perusing the site. Open source projects now each have their own page, which is a slightly different than the blog format we used to use. The content from all the projects on OpenBehavior so far have been included in this new site, so nothing has been lost in translation. (note: many of the project pages are undergoing some slight cosmetic changes, but again, everything you need to learn more about a project is there! please forgive any inconsistencies in how project pages are set up; we’ll have it done soon (-: ).
One of the things we’re excited about is the OpenBehavior Blog. With the old site, open source projects were wrapped up in the same format as blog posts. Now that each project has it’s own page, we can separate the blog out to give more open source content including OpenBehavior Team Updates (much like this post right now!), Community Calls to Action, Project Development Interviews, In the Community (open source community) updates, and Open Source Resources. In addition to taking project submissions through email or on our Contribute page, we’re happy to take ideas or drafts for blog posts (and of course you’ll get the credit you deserve for it!). And lastly, if you’re ready to start building your own version of these open source projects but aren’t sure where to find buy open source parts, 3D print components, or download software, we’ve put together a Resources page which should hopefully serve as a jumping point for you.
So what’s next for the site? One, finishing the project pages to make sure they’re pretty and chock full of all the information and links you might find useful! Two, soon we’ll be adding a page for the OpenBehavior Video Repository (announcement to come when that’s launched). And finally, in an effort to make the site accessible, we’re going to try to update alternative text on images and throughout the webpage to make it user friendly for everyone. If you have suggestions for improving the site, let us know! Send us an email at openbehavior@gmail.com or send us a tweet!
And finally, we owe a fantastic thank you to Marty Isaacson, an undergraduate at American University for her tireless effort to convert the old project pages to the new ones; to Kim Westemeier from the American University Center for Training, Research, and Learning for her guidance and support during this effort to improve the website; to Meagan Mitchell, an undergraduate at American University for insightful feedback on the website structure and content; and finally to the OpenBehavior community for the support and feedback which inspired this new site. We LITERALLY could not have done it without Marty, Kim, Meagan, and all of you. Thank you.
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