Episode 267: Michelle Barker on the Research Software Alliance (ReSA)

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May 2, 2025

Michelle Barker, Director of the Research Software Alliance (ReSA), discusses her journey from sociology to championing open science. She highlights the importance of research software and ReSA's role in uniting global efforts for software collaboration. The conversation delves into building social infrastructure in the open-source ecosystem and the challenges of connecting various stakeholders. Michelle also shares insights on effective networking strategies and the significance of community engagement in advancing research software projects.

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ANECDOTE

Michelle's Early Internet Teaching Story

Michelle Barker started using the internet for research and teaching as early as 2000 in New Zealand.
She focused on leveraging new technology for organizational and cultural change in education and research.

INSIGHT

Need for Global Research Software Coordination

Research software lacked international coordination unlike research data, motivating the formation of ReSA.
Building international collaboration can reduce duplication and siloization in research software efforts.

ADVICE

Strategies for Community Engagement

Use newsletters, social media, databases, and forums to share knowledge widely and foster collaboration.
Facilitate task forces where community members identify and solve common research software issues together.

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Guest

Michelle Barker

Panelist

Richard Littauer

Show Notes

In this episode of Sustain, host Richard Littauer welcomes Michelle Barker, Director of the Research Software Alliance (ReSA), for an in-depth conversation about the critical yet often overlooked role of research software in open science. Michelle shares her journey from sociologist to open science advocate, unpacking how ReSA fosters global collaboration to support software developed for research. Together, they explore what it means to build “social infrastructure” in the open source ecosystem, the challenges of aligning international stakeholders, and how ReSA is shaping the future of research through strategy, connection, and community-driven solutions. Press the download button now to hear more!

[00:01:58] Michelle explains how she got involved in open science and open source software.

[00:04:35] Why Research Software? Michelle shares that ReSA was founded to coordinate globally on research software, which lacked unified international representation unlike open data.

[00:07:21] We hear about ReSA’s engagement strategy and the three main strategies: knowledge sharing, stakeholder collaboration, and governance evolution.

[00:09:37] ReSA includes RSEs as one of many stakeholders and works broadly across funders, policymakers, infrastructure providers, and more.

[00:10:26] Research software is defined as software developed within a research context to solve a research problem and most is open source but not all.

[00:13:12] Richard asks about tracking engagement, and Michelle shares it’s hard to quantify outcomes, but standard metrics include newsletter subs, citations, and forum attendance.

[00:15:08] Michelle explains the role of social infrastructure.

[00:17:37] What’s hard about being a social infrastructure? Michelle talks about the challenge of how to motivate groups of people to work together.

[00:19:52] Michelle shares her personal approach to networking: research, targeting key individuals, emotional engagement, and strategic planning for conferences.

[00:24:35] A new strategy plan is rolling out and Michelle shares what’s different.

[00:27:32] ReSA is working to establish research software as its own recognized field.

[00:29:57] Michelle recognizes shared challenges of both open source and research sectors. The keys to success are spotlight wins and demonstrate value through supported infrastructure and recognized contributions.

[00:30:40] Find out where you can find out more about ReSA.

Spotlight

[00:31:11] Richard’s spotlight is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
[00:31:48] Michelle’s spotlight is Softcite.

Credits

Produced by Richard Littauer
Edited by Paul M. Bahr at Peachtree Sound
Show notes by DeAnn Bahr Peachtree Sound

Special Guest: Michelle Barker.

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