As a means of enabling distributed collaboration, open-source enables people from many different disciplinary backgrounds to participate in research projects to which they would otherwise not have access. Additionally, open-source allows for reconfigurable expertise, or the ability to combine people from different backgrounds in ways depending on the task at hand. This talk will discuss the challenges associated with spontaneous interdisciplinary, in addition to opportunities provided by reconfigurable expertise. Examples from three open-source communities: OpenWorm Foundation, Rokwire Community, and the Orthogonal Research and Education Lab. The community building aspects of maintaining members for this type of adaptive and resilient resource are also addressed. When applied to academic-based communities, the ability to reconfigure working groups based on both the immediate and long-term needs of expertise is a valuable model for project management.
