SENSORICA's communication infrastructure
Internal communication
Sensorica used Gmail and Google Groups as formal communication channels.
The SENSORICA general mailing list is private. The most active affiliates share ownership of this tool. Less active ones have manager status. All members can post. There is no moderation.
Sensoricans have also tried Slackfor a while. See here.
Most recently, Sensoricans have moved on Discord. See here.
Problems
- Sensoricans have been reluctant to use the Working Space (implemented on the old website)
- Some people, those who are not regular contributors, have complained about the volume of emails received from the mailing list, before migrating to Discord.
- Sensoricans have not used the Google Groups interface for this mailing list, thy rely on their email. This has reduced functionality. We don't use the full capacity of Google Groups. Many other concerns can be resolved if people would communicate from the Google Group web interface.
- Some people have complained that the Main Mailing list is private. The argument for it to be private (invitation only), has been to reduce the amount of noise. Currently, Discord is wide open.
More open communication
Sensorica also has an open forum that is not very used. This forum is also a Google Group, customized like a forum with different preset categories or topics. The forum is easy to find on the website, it has a tab in the menu called Forum.
Open communication
Sensorica website The website has many functions. first, it is a collaboration and coordination tool for participants in Sensorica ventures. Second, it is a window into the OVN's activities and, in that sense, it is used to communicate with the external world. You can explore the website to get acquainted with its structure.
News
Previously called "Announcements", and was implemented as a list of blog-style posts, a feature of old Google Sites. The current implementation is a blog called News, which is also accessible from the home page. moreover, every project has an announcement page associated with it. All these announcement pages are also aggregated into one page called All SENSORICA news. All these announcement pages produce a RSS line, which can be used in other media outlets.
Limitations:
- As the network grows the noise level increases.
- Communication was more difficult, more noisy with the Mailing list than it is now with Discord.
Social media
- Facebook page - communicate information of general interest
- Twitter - contributors use their own Twitter accounts
- Sensorica Youtube channel - also acts as a video database
We are also distributing content on other social media outlets like Multitude Project, p2p foundation.
Problems
There is very little integration between all these social media channels. IFTT is currently used to automate propagation of content between social media channels.