Application

Application process:

A Call for Makers (or artists, designers, creative people, ecc.) is a good way to spot and gather people or groups interested in joining the acceleration program.

In some cases it may not be necessary to work on the promotional aspects of this step (if the possible participants have already been spotted and selected). However, it is important to share with all the stakeholders the core values of the initiative, the offering and the expectations.

The call should include a brief overview of the program itself, and it should clearly point out:

  • who it is intended for e.g. individuals and/or teams of makers working on an open source and care-related concept or project;

  • what is offered and what are the benefits for participants e.g. accomodation, tools and machines, in-house skills, budget for materials, feedback from experts and from users, agile development environment, maker community, visibility of the project, final event exhibition.

  • what participants are expected to do e.g. project development, open source, transparency, community involvement

  • what is the selection process (this topic will be addressed in detail in the following chapter)

  • how to apply e.g. step by step procedure

The application process may vary drastically and be deployed in different forms or on different platforms.

A public online form, whose results would be available to a selected audience (e.g. online community) could regard general information about the project, need to solve, beneficiary, solution, stage of development, technologies adopted, exc.

An additional private form would concern personal and privacy-related information, such as personal data (name and surname, age, country, phone number, email) and project/residency plan (Maker in Residence expected achievements and support, period of availability).

Needless to say that it important to establish an opening and closing date for the call, in order to communicate a defined time frame in which the applications will be accepted and reviewed.

Makers’ Vademecum

These information (“who it is intended for”, “what is offered”, “what participants are expected to do”) could be further explored and explained in a document directed to makers/applicants. As for the opencare Maker in Residence, a booklet with these summary statements was designed and shared digitally. A printed version, in addition, was handed over when teams arrived at the makerspace, as a part of a welcome kit.

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