ApRES unit sharing

[jkingslake]

@rdrews-dev suggested having a place where we can share information about who has ApRES units that they might be willing to share.

Maybe a simple starting point is to simply have an open google sheets that we link to from the community repo. Time can go horizontally and each row can be an ApRES unit that the owner is willing to share. Then horizontal bars can indicate when the unit is currently planned to be in use.

We might want to add info on what antennas are available with each unit too.

Some questions:

• who pays for shipping and insurance when a unit is lent?
• and is the understanding that the owner could ask to be involved in the science in anyway after data is collected?

[rdrews-dev]

In our case shipping and customs is usually done by the party lending it. Insurance is always tricky, but as a German university we are self-insured and it is in my experience very difficult to find a formal insurance agreement for this. Often an informal agreement that the lending party will fix the ApRES with local funds is the only way to go.

I think it is fair to ask to be involved in the science because typically a meaningful scientific contribution can be delivered from the lending group.

[jkingslake]

Just a clarification: by lending party, do you mean the people who are borrowing the ApRES, or the people who own the ApRES and are giving it temporarily to someone else to use?

[rdrews-dev]

Good question. I think I used both definitions non-coherently :-). I meant: Fixing if possible by the party that borrowed the instrument and used it somewhere. Scientific contribution (if possible) by the party who owns the instrument and gave it to collaborators.

[jkingslake]

Maybe the next step is to add a folder to this community repo with a readme.md explaining the idea, then link to a google sheets that people can start to add any available ApRES units to and note down if they require a unit.

Another approach would be to add some text somewhere prominent suggesting that anyone who is looking for units to borrow start a thread in this discussion and also if anyone is willing to share any that they should look at these discussions to find people.

What do you think, @rdrews-dev ?