2i2c and ICSI: A New Stage on Our Journey

August 4, 2021 | By Dr. Lea Shanley, Executive Director and CEO of the International Computer Science Institute, and Chris Holdgraf, Executive Director, 2i2c.org

One of the most exciting parts of our work at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) is how we empower other organizations to lead the way in opening science and research to the broader world. Specifically, over the past year, our team at ICSI has been honored to serve as the host organization and fiscal partner for a startup non-profit organization called The International Interactive Computing Collaboration or, more creatively, 2i2c.

Their mission is to harness the power of interactive computing to transform research and education, by managing cloud infrastructure and supporting the open source ecosystem around it. We have been thrilled to help them launch and start this work as a young, inspiring organization.

Over the past year, both of our organizations have benefitted from this partnership. At ICSI, we’ve connected the team at 2i2c with mentorship and crucial administrative and strategic support so they could negotiate and win their first two grants, bringing in more than half a million dollars to this effort. 2i2c, likewise, has provided assistance with agile development, user-centered design, and cloud computing. There’s an old saying that you can go fast alone, but you can go far together and, together, ICSI and 2i2c have gone very far.

We have gone far enough together that today we can mark a new milestone for our collaboration. 2i2c has reached a stage in their development where they have a functioning governing body, an organizational handbook, an Executive Director, staff, and an operating budget. So at ICSI, we are handing the baton of supporting this vital work to a new fiscal sponsor, Code for Science and Society, a group focused on providing legal and operational support to help organizations achieve and sustain nonprofit 501c3 status.

We are so excited to watch the work of 2i2c flourish in this new stage, and grateful for our partnership. And rest assured, we’ll continue on this journey together as we partner with 2i2c on various ways to support the open science research community. It’s a new phase of our work together, but an exciting one building on a strong foundation. We can’t wait to see how far we can go.