Communication
i3 Detroit's members have lots of ways to communicate with each other and with the public. This page attempts to catalog them.
Contents
The Wiki
Yeah, the one you're reading right now. Account creation is manual, but not actually restricted to members-only, because we've had a few outsiders interested in contributing. See Wiki. As with all wikis, Be Bold!
This is the entirety of our institutional knowledge. If you want to know something, look here. If it's not here yet, try to find someone who knows it and add it.
The Mailing Lists
Have their own page over at Mailing list. You should be on three of them after the onboarding process, if you aren't talk to the membership coordinator.
Domain Emails
We have a bunch of i3detroit.org emails, such as board@, advocate@, and treasurer@, ...etc., which can be found on the relevant wiki pages. For contacting officers/board, email is the main communication method.
We also have the Contact@i3detroit email. This goes to a handful of members, and is generally only used by external contacts when -public does not seem appropriate. Since you've gotten this far, you know that you can search this wiki for more specific contact information so consider this address a last resort.
A member may ask for an @i3detroit.org email, but this is NOT a guaranteed perk of membership. It is managed by the organization, and therefore the admins have access to all @i3detroit.org accounts and can see your emails, etc. (So far this has only been used to clean out Zone accounts before conversion to mailing lists, but you should be aware it's possible). It can simplify separating personal stuff from i3 stuff in the googleverse (Drive, Meetings, etc), but is mostly useful if you're communicating on behalf of i3 to other people. Ask in the #it_dept slack channel or email it.cabal@i3detroit.org if you need one, and include the reason you need it.
Slack (chat)
Slack is a chat platform that's organized into workspaces and channels. Our workspace is "i3Detroit", and within that workspace, we have a bunch of channels for different topics people are interested in. The name of the channel typically matches its topic -- so for discussing music, you'd go to the #music channel, and if you wanted to get authorized to use the table saw in Wood Shop, you could ask in the #wood-shop channel.
It's recommended to join *all* the channels you could be interested in, so you're aware of the conversations that happen within them and you can get involved in more stuff!
Slack is meant to fill a gap in our communication channels. While all members need to be on the mailing list for important updates and basic coordination, we don't necessarily want long conversational threads or multiple threads for big topics -- we can use Slack for this instead.
In regards to etiquette, Slack is designed for small-ish businesses, so it expects that you would be respectful: channel invites are auto-join. If someone behaves inappropriately, they can be removed from our Slack.
Member Access
To get onto slack, go into the #Membership Database (CRM), the "services" tab, and hit invite.
Once you have registered you will be emailed a link but here it is as well, and of course download links can be found here as well:
Guest Access
Guests are welcome on slack as long as a member can vouch for them. They can be invited as a Member or Guest account, whichever is preferred. The vouching comes with the understanding the guest will act respectfully and the member will respond to questions about their behavior. The guest should be familiar with our policy of 'Be excellent to each other'
Usage
- Are you coordinating an event or big/public project? You might want to make a channel and invite the stakeholders.
- Want to see what a SIG (special interest group) is up to? check out their channel
- Have a small project that you are working on with one or two other people? Make a private group
- want to stay up to date on general i3 business or be chatty? check out #space-business or #offtopic and talk about slack or get help in #meta or #new-members
After you have registered
Be sure to fill out your slack profile. Remembering 150 peoples names is hard, remembering all of their usernames too is impossible. To be extra helpful, you can also upload a profile picture.
Slack Tips & Tricks
- Use Keywords
- (on desktop) Click your picture, click Preferences, click Notifications:
- This is your general default notifications. It will apply to any new channels you join. (You can set different rules for each channel on the channel's menu)
- On the Notifications page is a box for "My Keywords". In that box you can put any words that you want Slack to notify you about. It will treat those words as though someone mentioned you, making it easy to spot when a conversation you are interested comes up. Many zone coordinators have terms related to their zones, and officers often have terms related to their offices (like the welding ZC has "steel, aluminum, welding", and the treasurer might have "money, donations, grants, dues", etc.) NOTE: Keywords only notify on channels that you are in! So join all the channels you think even might be of interest, and then filter them with the next tip...
- (on desktop) Click your picture, click Preferences, click Notifications:
- Sort channels into ones you care about and ones you don't
- (on desktop) Right-click on a channel. In the menu, hover over "Move channel". From there you can create custom categories by using "Move to new section", or just put the channels you really want to keep up with in "Starred" and leave the rest out. That way, only the channels you care about will be in that section, and all the others you can just collapse (by clicking the down triangle next to the category) and completely ignore them unless someone mentions you directly or one of your keywords is used!
- In the dropdown for each channel (when you're viewing the channel, the little down-carrot next to the channel name), you can star the channel, which has the same effect as the right-click method above for moving channels to Starred.
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- If you are accessing Slack from a device with a physical keyboard, try hitting Control + Question mark (ctrl+?). That should bring up the list of available shortcuts. These change sometimes, but the most common seem to be ctrl+k to open the "jump to channel" bar, shift+pg up/dn to scroll back a day, or holding ctrl while you click stuff to open it in the sidebar (ctrl and click a user to see their profile, click a message timestamp to see that message and all replies, etc.).
- Mentioning groups
- There are several groups that have been created so that you can "at" them all at the same time. Some of the most popular are:
- "@board" to get the current Board of Directors (or ask directly in #ask-the-board, but using @board is useful to draw attention to something in another channel);
- "@admin" to get the current Slack Administrators, useful in case there seems to be something wrong with Slack at the organization level (head to #meta to talk about adding channels or general "something about Slack itself" chat);
- "@advocates", especially useful if someone is being less-than-excellent and might need formal intervention (typically a short timeout to cool down in the case of minor flare-ups, since we all have tempers); and
- "@expansioneers" to get all the folks who have self-selected to be most active with the expansion activities (feel free to volunteer if you're interested in helping get this done faster!).
- If you want to see all the groups we currently have, in the left-hand menus click "People & user groups", and then near the top click "User groups".
- There are several groups that have been created so that you can "at" them all at the same time. Some of the most popular are:
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Google Calendar
Find a way to add Calendar to your personal calendaring system. It's important!
To make it work in google calendar, go to add calendar -> add by URL, and paste in the ical feed.
Every member is allowed to post stuff here, but setting up the credentials is manual so it's done on demand. For write access (as with most of i3's online stuff), ask on the members-only Mailing list.
If you only need to post infrequently, and would rather not bother getting access, you can email Nate B, the current Vice President of Activities and Classes or (other volunteers here) with the following info:
- Date, time, and duration.
- What part of the space (zone, commons, classroom, off-site)
- Any blurb you'd like to include or link to (email thread, eventbrite, etc)
- And if it's a recurring event, how often and when it recurs. Though in this case you should probably do it yourself so you can manage cancellations, etc.
Other Events Calendar
This isn't for official i3 stuff, but rather, events that have some overlap/interest with our community. A lot of members might go to these, so you might not want to schedule your stuff opposite them. Or these might be events put on by members, whatever.
Calendar ID: i3detroit.org_gnvon2hdhkla1vu1h1oiilqot4@group.calendar.google.com
Public URL to this calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=i3detroit.org_gnvon2hdhkla1vu1h1oiilqot4%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York
Public address in iCal format https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/i3detroit.org_gnvon2hdhkla1vu1h1oiilqot4%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
If you'd like write access to this calendar, email Nate B.
When posting events here, assume the reader is from a different shade of geekery than you. If the event's own name isn't perfectly obvious, put a little (parenthetical note) at the end of the name. In the description, include the event URL if it has one, then paste the first paragraph of its own description, or if that's not actually very good, write something yourself. Include enough info that someone can decide if they want to click the URL for more details.
EventBrite
EventBrite is for listing classes or workshops. It helps us publicize events so non-members can sign up as well, lets us set limits for how many people can attend an event, and shows us who + how many people will be attending ahead of time. It can be set to accept donations or to charge admission, which is generally done to cover zone and material costs.
More info at HOWTO Host an Event at i3detroit.
TV Bulletin Board
The rotating announcement slideshow, running on a TV in the commons, has its own page.
Social Media
IRC
Like most open-source projects, we're on Libera.chat. Channel is #i3Detroit. Say hi, then be patient because not all of us are at our keyboards all the time! "Drive-by greeting" is considered poor IRC etiquette, so stick around a few minutes! If you can install and run a real client, or use a shell session for persistence, that's better.
The Blog
There is a wordpress blog at http://i3detroit.org/blog that features articles written by members. ANY MEMBER can post! Suggested topics include:
- Upcoming events
- Event recaps
- Project kickoffs / work-days
- Project write-ups
- Project featured elsewhere so check it out
- Opinion/editorial
To get a Wordpress account created, post on the members' mailing list and ask for it. Wordpress lets you pick your own public-facing name which will appear at the top of all the posts you write, so specify this in the request, otherwise the person creating the account will make one up for you.
There are some posting guidelines over at HOWTO make a blog post.
YouTube
We have an @i3Detroit YouTube account. It contains past livestreams for combat robotics events held at i3, project videos, and more recently, informational videos about equipment we have at the space.
Facebook Page is here: https://www.facebook.com/i3detroit
Twitter / Xitter
We used to have an @i3detroit account, but it is not active and rarely checked. We also used to have Twitterbot, but it is no longer active.
Pictures and Videos
There is a google shared drive for internal stuff that can't be on the wiki like drafts multiple people are working on, or google forms. (There are also private shared drives with private information, which belong to individuals or specific cabals)
Shared Drives:
- i3 general share
- Access to any member by request, or directly to any email@i3detroit.org
- leadership
- Any ZC, officer, or board
- has the old admin share with waivers, guest sign in, old leases and insurance, and some other old stuff.
- list of credential holders
- board
- Members of the Board
- board+advocate
- Members of the Board and the Member Advocates
- advocate
- Member Advocates
- backup
- This is backups for gsuite stuff like emails from deleted accounts
Membership Database (CRM)
This is at https://www.i3detroit.org/crm/ and runs Seltzer. Use it to look up members' phone numbers and emergency contact info, see who mentors whom, etc. Also it might be useful for making Dues Payments
If you've never logged into it before and thus don't *have* a password yet, or if you've *forgotten* your password, just use the "reset password" link on the login page, and supply the email you used when signing up for membership. It should email you a new password and then you can log in.
The Telephone
Goodness! An old-fashioned telephone?
Yes! Well, not exactly, there's VOIP 'twixt the two ends. But still, it's accessible on the PSTN, so it counts. It's at +1-248-556-9995 and rings inside the space.
If you hear the phone ringing, it’s best to let it go to voicemail. It's most likely spam or some official government / business call, from an entity too behind the times to use other communication methods. There are people who monitor the voicemail who can take care of official business, and it's better to let them handle it properly than to have random members answer and give business partners / government officials the impression something has been handled properly when it most likely has not been (or to risk important information not getting to those who need it to avoid government sanctions or other bad things happening).
