Diplo Space
Contributor cohorts

A six-week sprint, a real byline.

The lab runs as small, time-boxed volunteer research cohorts. They're built around a credentialed, mobile, badly underused workforce: military spouses and Foreign Service family members. We offer the one thing the work usually can't: a published byline that travels with you.

Why a cohort

Diplo Space runs as time-boxed volunteer research cohorts, about eight contributors on a six-week sprint toward one batch of public goods: a governance explainer, a verified scenario record, a tabletop module. It's built around a credentialed, mobile, badly underused workforce: military spouses and Foreign Service family members. Spouse unemployment runs several times the civilian rate, even though half hold a bachelor's degree or higher. The commonly cited DoD survey figure is around 20%, though that number is methodologically contested (closer to ~14% under standard federal definitions). What the pool lacks is published bylines: exactly what a cohort offers.

How a cohort works

Eight people. Six weeks. One batch of public goods.

  1. Eight people, six weeks

    Big enough to split a real deliverable across distinct skills, small enough for one founder to coordinate and for everyone to earn genuine credit. Short enough to finish, long enough to ship.

  2. Async-first, remotable

    Work happens in GitHub on your own hours, relocation-proof by design. Deliberately not a gig marketplace: bounded, team-based, public-interest.

  3. The verification flow

    A contributor drafts; a second corroborates against the primary source; the cohort lead does first-line quality control (QC); the founder signs off last. The gate protects both the work and your byline.

  4. The flywheel

    Each cohort yields three things: public goods (the mission), credentialed people (a real byline and references), and an alumni roster (a vetted pool that recruits the next cohort and, when grant-funded work exists, staffs it as paid contractors).

The roles

Five seats, all credited.

Every seat maps to the CRediT contributor taxonomy, the same byline standard scholarly journals use.

Cohort leadProject Administration; SupervisionCoordinates the sprint and runs first-line quality control.
ResearcherInvestigation; Writing: Original DraftRuns searches, opens primary sources, drafts and corroborates.
Subject expertConceptualization; ValidationBrings domain depth: space law, orbital mechanics, a region.
WriterWriting: Original Draft & EditingTurns verified material into plain-language public goods.
DesignerVisualization; SoftwareBuilds the figures, the scenario, the navigable view.
What you get for the work

Real credit, portable proof.

Conspicuously not “exposure.” In return, the lab asks for verifiable hours, byline-level accountability, and submission to the verification gate.

Named credit

Every contribution is logged with the CRediT contributor taxonomy (ANSI/NISO Z39.104-2022).

Citable output

Your work publishes openly, with a DOI where applicable, and you may reuse it under CC-BY 4.0.

A portable résumé

References and a portable record of your contributions: proof of work that moves with you to the next posting.

Lived experience, handled with care

These families have lived through evacuations, communications blackouts, and repeated career restarts: the lived analog for the resilience the lab studies. Where that experience informs the work, contributors are credited co-authors, consent is written and revocable, and no one is identifiable without written permission.

The guardrails

The rules that keep this fair.

Volunteer status is preserved under DOL FLSA Fact Sheets 14A and 71: contributors freely volunteer for a public-service nonprofit and don't displace paid staff.

The federal Volunteer Protection Act (42 U.S.C. §14505(6)) and Virginia Code §8.01-220.1:1 immunize uncompensated volunteers and directors for ordinary negligence in scope.

Copyright is handled by a signed, revocable agreement; work publishes under CC-BY 4.0. Cohorts produce public goods, never client deliverables. Paid work is a separate track under a separate agreement.

Recruiting runs only through independent military-family channels, never a State Department family-liaison office.

We refuse work that should be paid, and we don't dangle exposure in place of wages where wages are owed.

For funders: The cohort program is fundable twice over: by the space-security and governance funders who back the mission, and (separately, on its own merits) by milspouse-employment and workforce-development funders. Two distinct pipelines, named explicitly in applications.

The commitment

Six weeks, written out.

Plan for about 4 to 6 hours a week. Async, on your own hours, in writing. No standing meetings you have to be awake for; nothing that breaks when you move.

  1. Week 1
    Pick your lane

    You get the deliverable, the source list, and a seat. You choose the piece that will carry your name.

  2. Week 2
    Open the primary sources

    Read the treaty text, the filing, the notice. We work from documents, never from coverage of documents.

  3. Week 3
    Draft

    Write your section plainly. Assume a smart reader who is not a specialist and has ten minutes.

  4. Week 4
    Corroborate someone else's

    You check a teammate's claims against their sources, and they check yours. This is where the work gets good.

  5. Week 5
    Revise against the gate

    First-line QC comes back with specifics. Nothing publishes on one person's confidence.

  6. Week 6
    Ship, and get credited

    It publishes openly with your CRediT roles recorded, and it stays citable with your name on it.

What you would be adding to: the explainers, the verified record, and the rehearsals. Published work, openly licensed, with names on it.

The roster

Contributors & alumni.

No cohort has run yet, and we won’t pad this page to look bigger than we are. Cohort 01 is forming. The first contributors’ names will appear here, by CRediT role, the moment they ship, and stay here as a permanent, citable record.

Cohort 01: forming

A byline that moves with you.

First batch: a governance explainer and a verified record increment. Open for expressions of interest.

Tell us your background, your interests, and how much time you have. No account, no form to fill out. We read every note and reply as the next sprint forms; accepted contributors are admitted to the workspace. We also recruit through these independent networks:

AAFSW · Foreign Service family network (Livelines)Hiring Our Heroes: MSPN · Military Spouse Professional NetworkInstant Teams · Remote military-spouse talentVirtForce · Remote-work community for military spousesBlue Star Families · Military-family chapters
Express interest →See contributor credits

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