Michigan Open Source Support (MOSS) Tip Jar - BRAID: A Platform for Transferable Learning in Unstructured Environments

BRAID, developed by the Public Interest Technology - Knowledge Network (PIT-KN) Lab at the University of Michigan, is an open-access, open-source vocational storytelling platform and student development ecosystem designed to support learning, reflection, and collaboration in informal and unstructured environments, seeking support through the Innovation Partnerships MOSS Tip Jar initiative. The platform helps learners transform tacit, experience-based knowledge - the “unwritten rules” often gained through internships, community engagement, work, research, and lived experience - into explicit, transferable insights that others can learn from and apply in their own educational and professional journeys. A graduate student from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) reflected on how Braid helped make peer knowledge and vocational insight more visible through storytelling and discussion:

“One student wanted to use filmmaking to promote environmental justice and conservation efforts. I learned that through Braid and through sharing ideas with each other. We would read each other’s reflections first, and then we could have open discussions afterward.”

Braid is currently being used at more than 10 universities in the U.S. and Chile—including Big Ten institutions, HBCUs, and leading research and liberal arts colleges—with over 730 users sharing 1,200+ stories, across 450+ civic topics.

Grounded in the belief that complex human experiences cannot be reduced to simple metrics or data points, BRAID uses storytelling, narratives, and multi-perspective “braiding” to capture the richness and multidimensionality of learning and career development. Through intentionally designed digital spaces, BRAID offers a constructive alternative to mainstream social media by encouraging reflection, empathy, healthy public discourse, and community-centered knowledge sharing.

The platform enables users to create and engage with curated collections of stories, explore vocational pathways, and participate in collaborative learning communities. BRAID also supports a student co-creation cohort model that has operated for seven years, engaging students as designers, engineers, researchers, and product managers who actively shape the tools they use while gaining hands-on experience in public-interest technology and tech-for-good innovation.

Your contributions will directly support BRAID’s long-term sustainability and educational impact by funding a wide range of activities such as maintaining and improving the platform’s technical infrastructure, student experiential learning opportunities, storytelling workshops, and partnerships with faculty, student organizations, and peer institutions. By supporting BRAID, donors help sustain an open-source ecosystem where students not only share knowledge and explore purpose-driven career pathways, but also co-create the digital technologies shaping the future of education, civic engagement, and collaborative learning.

The MOSS Tip Jar initiative is an innovative program for open source and open access projects to accept donations and support from their community.