2. Communication
This page covers three important aspects of our communications with others within CodeDoesGood, namely:
- Procedural - how to chat with each other; what's relevant, what's not
- Technical - which tools to use
- External Communication - what to do if you are contacted about CodeDoesGood (ex a potential client)
(Communication styles and things to remember)
Lead Mentors should expect to get questions from Assistant Mentors, Developers, Designers and Hatchlings as they go. Discussion is to be encouraged wherever possible, until decision time is necessary to resolve conflicts and disputes, to bring to resolution a project's milestones, goals, and ultimately the project's completion itself. Mentors may discuss sensitive topics to get advice on how to handle the situation from other Mentors in the #general-leadership private channel on Slack.
For all levels of CDG staff, keep your discussions as concise as possible. Do describe your issues, but strive to keep your emotions in check when talking about your project with your peers, juniors and superiors; strive for balance and objectivity wherever possible and appropriate. Consider your peers' comments in good faith. Respect differences in viewpoint as legitimately based. Remember we are all hear to learn.
You are expected to assume responsibility and claim autonomy for yourself through your activities at CodeDoesGood. On a practical level, that means you should not expect to have duties assigned to you, but that you should apply yourself towards those goals you feel you can achieve. You determine those goals in discussion with your project's Lead Mentors, Assistant Mentors, Developers, Hatchlings, Designers and any other Staff, together, during the planning and estimates stage.
Once you've assumed some goals to work towards, the project begins, and everyone settles in and gets to work. Project communication should occur on Slack so that there is a record of it for liability reasons when working on client projects.
Keep aware of differing work modes, time zones and climates when planning times for project updates and meetings. Once you've settled on a chosen set of tools to use and when, keep to them. Expect to use Slack as your way to keep in touch. If work forbids you from accessing our Slack team during work hours, that's fine, but do try to touch base at least once a day or every other day if you are assigned to an active project.
If you experience or witness unacceptable behaviour - or have any other concerns - please report it by contacting one of the co-founders (@abbey, @massimo, @renato, @shahin) on Slack. You may reach out to one co-founder individually or you may send a group message. All reports will be handled with discretion. In your report please include:
- Names (real, nicknames, or pseudonyms) of any individuals involved.
- If there are additional witnesses, please include them as well.
- Your account of what occurred, and if you believe the incident is ongoing.
- If there is a publicly available record (e.g. a mailing list archive or a public IRC logger), please include a link.
- Any additional information that may be helpful.
After filing a report the co-founders will either act immediately or if it is a less time sensitive issue will discuss together and follow up with any additional questions as well as make a decision as to how to respond. If the person who is harassing you is part of the co-founders team, they will not be part of the initial discussion. We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse.
See the Code of Conduct for more information.
- Slack
- Screenhero (screen-sharing)
- Google Drive (for project documentation, project assets, draft documents, and other paperwork specific to a project)
- GitHub project pages (for internal documentation; you're soaking in it, so to speak ;) )
- Google Hangouts or Skype (for video calls)
- Email (when other modes don't work / are not appropriate)
First and foremost, Slack is the one communication tool everyone at CodeDoesGood is expected to be familiar with and the default to use when talking with others in the organization while performing his/her duties [when not face-to-face or via telephone, etc].
All volunteers are expected to have a Slack identity and to use it when communicating with anyone else in the organization. This is not negotiable, CDG must have a consistent internal communication tool and this is the one we are using. Moreover, all volunteers must list their roles front-and-centre in their Slack bios, so that these can be easily found on demand, as well as their platform.
- Lead Mentor
- Assistant Mentor
- Developer
- Hatchling
- Designer
- Volunteer Coordinator
- Social Media
- Co-Founder
etc
Lead Mentor, Android
Hatchling, Javascript
Designer
Once you get started with our Slack team you will see a number of teams listed:
#dev-android
#dev-ios
#dev-web
#general
#general-design
#general-devhatchery
#random
#updates
#worldnews
(... among others including project specific channels)
Feel free to join as many or as few as you like. If you are an observer of a project that is not utilizing your skills, please refrain from commenting unnecessarily in other projects during crunch times (milestones and other deadlines).
Team leads are free to add volunteers to their team channel. However, they must make sure to notify @peterwitham of the volunteer's new role so it can be added to the volunteer spreadsheet.
Slack comes with a built-in program called Screenhero, which provides distributed screen-sharing and communal interactivity together with integrated voice calling. It is easily the simplest video-conferencing tool in existence and its built-in status within Slack makes this a no-brainer to use and recommend.
You can suggest other screensharing options for your own project such as GoToMeeting, VNC remote viewer desktop, join.me and others, but make sure your entire team is on board.
We have standardised on Google Drive which you will be invited to. We have written an informational page about it. Please make sure to use Google Docs for word documents, your spreadsheet and other tabular data in Google Sheets, and presentation slides in Google Slides. Do not upload MSOffice files without converting them -- best practice is to simply use GoogleDrive to create your document to avoid conversion issues.
Q: What if I am asked about a commercial or a free web or mobile app (ie costed, or for-profit / low-profit projects)?
A: If you are approached by your own client to do an app, and you want to do it at CDG to utilize our great team structure, be aware of the following:
We welcome your clients. We are quite specialized, however, in that we want to build software for the non-profit sector, and we want to develop our staff as a workforce.
We must ensure that apps designed for profit do not take resources away from, or overtake our core responsibilities. Unlike a for-profit company, consultancy or design agency however, profitability is not a core goal of CodeDoesGood, which means we do not prioritize it over helping other non-profits or developing our staff.
CodeDoesGood reserves the right to decide on which projects to pursue or not pursue as an organization. While for-profit activities and projects are certainly not refused at CodeDoesGood, would-be commercial clients should be aware that here, profitability is not more important than social good.
Talk to us first.
If there is feasible, tangible merit in collaborating, we will discuss next steps with you and your clients.
Refer to this page for information about who we will work with and what the potential costs could be.
Q: What if I am approached by a non profit organization?
A: Answer any questions they may have that you know the answers to. If you are unsure please refer them to a staff member.
Additionally refer to this page for information about who we will work with and what the potential costs could be.
Q: A political website / a newspaper / a pressure group / reddit / Facebook community / some guy on Twitter plans on covering CodeDoesGood and wants to talk with me / you. What can I say, and not say?
A: Speak with Massimo, a founder or a staff member first please. Our public reputation is important and must be protected. In fact we have a wiki article we wrote specifically about this topic - that's how important it is.
In the current political climate the new political default is to be slanted or biased in one direction or another. Therefore we cannot be asleep when we encounter the media, we have to be alert to bias whether we agree with it or not.
We make no bones about our left-leaning viewpoint. However, we accept that we won't be able to convince everyone, and we should not wish to do so. Do not enter into arguments with any person, media outlet, or organization on behalf of CodeDoesGood. This is grounds for removal from CDG.
If we speak with the media source, we'll need to figure out where they're coming from, both literally and figuratively. Any information you could pass along would be very helpful.
Once we've determined where they're coming from, we'll contact the media source ourselves with you. We encourage in-person, face-to-face meetings wherever possible. If not, telephone calls via regular long-distance, and/or videoconferencing via Screenhero, Skype, Google Hangouts or other tools is supported. Talk with us for details at the following form page: Contact Us
We would prefer if the news source would reference a specific project to highlight. While some general publicity is fine, promoting our own efforts should always be in conjunction with a current project, to focus people's attention on real-world work.
We will contact you first to discuss the matter in detail, determine level of comfort with the project (for both you and the client).
If you need to directly contact any of the teams or people involved in CodeDoesGood, please visit our Contact page for details.