The commons of a young researchers’ network
Helping the Red de Jóvenes Investigadores de Venezuela build the shared tools a distributed scientific community needs, and a public track record to go with them.
Four public tools, one track record
RedJIV, the Red de Jóvenes Investigadores de Venezuela, became a programme of the Academia de Ciencias Físicas, Matemáticas y Naturales in October 2026, and I have sat on its Executive Committee since October 2025. My contribution is the plumbing: a GitHub organisation with guides, a course programme, issue forms and a first-contribution exercise; a Discord server as the meeting place; a Zenodo community for outputs with DOIs; ORCID for every member.
None of this is glamorous, and that is the point. Kept public and used consistently, these four tools become a track record: when the network applies for funding, a reviewer can see work, people and outputs that already exist. The low-cost computing I run for LAGO in Mérida is the real-case example I use to show what a small group can document.
Exhibit 1DiagramRead left to right
A research network’s commons
GitHub for work, Discord for conversation, Zenodo for outputs, ORCID for identity. Each is free and already trusted by funders; together they make the network legible from outside.
Onboarding a network
At the network’s second meeting, on 12 October 2026, I gave a 45-minute session for a mixed audience, planned for beginners: what exists, how to join the GitHub organisation, how to pick a track and take a first task. An exercise from the Instituto de Ingeniería talk became the template everyone starts with.
The work has three threads: the tooling itself; a laboratory of ideas that continues a first pairing exercise between members; and a track dedicated to a remote, long-term response to the earthquakes of June 2026 in Venezuela, which is still a proposal under discussion. Members are also invited to CoAfina 2026 as hackers, challenge proposers or student ambassadors. I want co-owners for every piece, so that nothing in this reads as one person’s.
Exhibit 2TimelineFilled points are my milestones; hollow points are the context they sit in
Dates
- 2025Named to the six-member Executive CommitteeACFIMAN presents the committee of the Red de Jóvenes Investigadores de Venezuela, October 2025.Source
- 2026RedJIV becomes a programme of ACFIMANAnnounced on 14 October 2026, with the Executive Committee.Source
- 2026The second meeting: onboarding to GitHub12 October 2026, online. Choose a track, take a first task.Source
- 2026Members invited to CoAfina 2026As hackers, challenge proposers or student ambassadors.Source
Exhibit 3ResourcesOpen the thing itself, not a description of it
Where to go from here
- RecordACFIMAN incorporates RedJIV as one of its programmes, October 2026acfiman.org
- RecordThe RedJIV Executive Committee, presented by ACFIMANacfiman.org
- Repositoryvenezuela-org: the network’s GitHub organisationgithub.comSet up by me
- ArticlePrensa ACFIMAN in La Web de la Salud: a profile on joining the RedJIV Executive Committee, October 2025lawebdelasalud.com