# Celebrating 15 Years of rOpenSci: Then, Now & Next

DevFeed: [Celebrating 15 Years of rOpenSci: Then, Now & Next](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/celebrating-15-years-of-ropensci-then-now-next-91217.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://ropensci.org/blog/2026/10/20/15yo-events/>)

Author: rOpenSci

Published: 2026-10-20T00:00:00Z

Content type: news

Language: en

Sources: [rOpenSci](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/ropensci-open-tools-for-open-science.md>)

Topics: [Developer Events](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/developer-events.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>), [meetings](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/meetings.md>), [Documentation](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/documentation.md>)

Tags: [2026](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/2026.md>), [about](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/about.md>), [also](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/also.md>), [anniversary](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/anniversary.md>), [approach](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/approach.md>), [celebration](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/celebration.md>), [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [contributing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/contributing.md>), [conversations](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/conversations.md>), [days](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/days.md>), [easy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/easy.md>), [event](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/event.md>), [events](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/events.md>), [extra](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/extra.md>), [feature](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/feature.md>), [first](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/first.md>), [fun](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/fun.md>), [future](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/future.md>), [ideas](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ideas.md>), [next](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/next.md>)

## AI overview

At rOpenSci's 15th anniversary gatherings, participants remembered the community's welcoming culture, unconferences, peer review, documentation, co-working sessions, and Champions Program as ways people find support and contribute. The two time-zone-friendly events used three 15-minute breakout rounds on the past, present, and future, with scavenger hunts to ease conversation and a shared document for notes and follow-up contributions. Ideas for what comes next included local and hybrid gatherings, contributor hackathons, career panels, broader platform support, partnerships, and better entry points for beginners. Participants also raised a tension between rOpenSci's careful, steady approach and the faster pace of GenAI, without settling on an answer.

## Source excerpt

In June 2026, rOpenSci marked its 15th anniversary with three community celebration events: a themed coworking event and two extra events. This post captures the reflections and ideas shared by participants across the two special gatherings named "rOpenSci Community Celebration: Then, Now & Next" that were held to accommodate different time zones. How the events worked Our goal was to create a space for people to have conversations, get to know each other and also reflect on rOpenSci's past, present and future. After a welcome and a brief introduction, participants joined three successive breakout rounds of 15 minutes each, one for each theme: the past, the present, and the future. Between rounds, attendees took part in a Scavenger Hunt (a regular feature of our co-working sessions), finding something in their physical surroundings that matched a given prompt. The Scavenger Hunt is a fun moment together, and we also used it as a natural prompt for introductions at the start of the next breakout room -- "what did you find?" becomes a nice and easy opening for conversations. As in our community calls, workshops and co-working sessions, a shared document served as the place where everyone could take notes in real time, add thoughts, and keep contributing for a couple of days after the event ended. Noam Ross named this "process is product" approach, caring about how things happen, not just what happens, as one of rOpenSci's defining traits. First event celebrating 15 years of rOpenSci Second meeting to celebrate 15 years of rOpenSci Round 1 - The Past: What made rOpenSci special? The first breakout asked participants how they first connected with rOpenSci and what their favourite memory was. Several people traced their connection back to a talk about rOpenSci or to a personal introduction from a community member who made them feel welcome from the start. The unconferences were remembered with particular warmth and excitement: the chance to sit next to people, see how the