What keeps people coming back?

[Christopher Monaco]

Hi all,

Those of you out there who have started or currently runa  DIYbio space, I have a question: how do you keep people coming back?

Long story short, I started a small lab out the makerspace I'm a member of about 4 years ago. We have a dedicated space and have acquired some pretty nice equipment along the way. But from the beginning I have struggled to keep people engaged. I've hosted events, classes, workshops, etc.; connected with local universities and makerspaces; built a social media presence, but still it's just me. I do have regulars that come out to events but beyond showing up for a meeting or a class I can't seem to get much more interest. Even people who are excited and enthusiastic to offer help don't want to respond to requests for it.

The lab is not nearly as far along as I was hoping it be this many years in and I'm getting burned out always being the only person making an effort. I have a full time job and family and try to dedicate as much time as I can to it, but all my time goes into planning events for others I don't have time to pursue any of my own interest. I'm considering shutting the thing down and giving up, but if that happens we'd loose the only DIYbio effort being made in my state.

Anyway, enough complaining! The ppint of my post is to ask for advice. I'm out of ideas on how I can get people interested and, beyond that, involved enough to use the lab on their own. I want people to be excited to prove to me that all my effort is worthwhile and I want people to take the lead on some things so I'm not the only one advocating for this. If you run a successful lab I'd love to hear your experiences. What have you found works to get people engaged and what doesn't? How did you get started? And how do you get people to come back?

Thanks!

[Frank Kiefer]

Hi Christopher,

I'm new to DIYbio, but I've participated in other community spaces.  I have found that you need a very large community before you can expect to have other people who participate in a substantive way.  I think of it similar to a conversion funnel for a website or online community:

Jacob Nielsen article describes 90-9-1 Rule for "Participation Inequality"...

Summary: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

I have seen the same in real-world communities where a lot of people come to events and just a few people make everything happen.  I find it helps to set my own expectation that it is a success if 10% of the people who attend a class come back for another, then if 10% of those repeat students volunteer to help in some way, that's amazing.  So it goes like this:

Suppose you have ~1 class per month...

10 classes per year * average 10 students per class = 100 students per year

Over the course of a year, 10% return and keep coming to classes / events

of those 10% get involved in some way => 1 volunteer after a year is a HUGE success!

It's super hard, but keep doing it and you can build momentum.  It helps to just expect that you need ~1000 people to come do anything in order to hope that you might create a crew of 10 people who help sometimes, then maybe you'll have 1 who wants to be a leader and do the kinds of stuff that you are doing.

Hope that helps.

Frank

 

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[Dakota Hamill]

Interest in hobbies come and go.  People buy a musical instrument, get frustrated, quit within a month or two. 

People read something about "bio-hacking" in the news and want to do DIYBio stuff, so they do some science, realize it can be hard, quit within a month or two.  

And it's not just difficulty that can lead people away, it's exactly what you said yourself; job, family, other interests. 

There are people that will do this as a 2-3 month hobby and lose interest.  There are people that may take a few classes out of curiosity and move on.  If it's really someone's passion and they're super dedicated, they'll probably move on and get a job in the industry because they have to survive and it pays better.  

I think its been a means to an end personally, doesn't mean it is for everyone.  A Do-it-yourself lab isn't a cool hip "hacker" thing to do, it's a necessary step to validate an idea and turn it into a business or a product or something bigger. 

I think to really keep people interested and engaged they need to feel a part of something bigger, that will turn into something more than just learning something. 

But for many, the journey is better than the destination.  Not everyone wants to publish a journal article or start a company, they just want to learn a new skill or hobby much like any of the other available ones.  However, even if it's designing experiments to teach local classes and make a little money, it can be a stronger driver than, everyone chip in $500 for reagents, we're going to run this experiment, and that's the end of it.  Oh and by the way you need to come in on Sunday to check the plates etc.  A lot of work for little reward will make people lose interest.

Come up with an end goal that has a clear deliverable milestone with some value (intrinsic or monetary) and I bet more people would dive in or commit longer term! 

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[Jonathan Cline]

On Thursday, September 19, 2019 at 3:46:31 AM UTC-7, Frank Kiefer wrote:

 

Jacob Nielsen article describes 90-9-1 Rule for "Participation Inequality"...

Summary: In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

I have seen the same in real-world communities where a lot of people come to events and just a few people make everything happen. 

Burning Man avoids this trap.  Among others.

Some MOOCs (to use an educational example) have also been successful as highly participatory groups.

The downsides of biotech are the recurring costs and that project difficulty does not scale.