Communication

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Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. Use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life: home, school, community, work, and beyond. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur. Communication is the articulation of sending a message, through different media whether it be verbal or nonverbal, so long as a being transmits a thought provoking idea, gesture, action, etc.

~ Wikipedia

Contents

Communication standards

  • Honesty and constructiveness forms the cornerstone of any viable collaboration.
  • Faith in transparency - As far as it can be applied, we wish to keep our project completely transparent. Unless you're dealing with sensitive information, please keep the line of communication public. Should input from unconcerned individuals not be desired, merely say so.
  • Keep it real, don't hold back - If you've got a problem on any kind of level with anything that is related to Radakan and it's members, tell us without second thoughts. Even though we might argue against you, that doesn't mean we're not carefully considering flaud you're pointing at.

Why communication is important

If we are all working on a different page, then it is very easy to get confused about what the end goal is, or indeed even the current milestone requirements. Even if the milestone requirements are met, they may not work as intended, due to differing visions. Communication helps us share our visions for the project and helps us to stop these sort of mistakes before they start. Below is an image illustrating the importance of communication.

Image:software_design_swing.jpg

Tools of Communication

Instant messaging

The quickest and most efficient means of resolving issues of most kinds. It encourages efficient exchange of thoughts on any subject, and is great for welcoming interested visitors, seeing as there's usually always someone around in the channel to provide some guidance.

IRC Server: irc.freenode.net, chat.freenode.net
Channel: #Radakan

Note: Please don't enter the channel ready to argue in a state of mind that makes you different from your normal state, such as being drunk.

Obviously, IRC should be used whenever one gets the chance. Every developer dedicated to the project should idle in the channel as much as possible, for the sake of skimming through past conversations at a later time. Important topics raised during live discussion should quickly find its way to the forum if it can be further discussed, or be put right up on the wiki if no more input is needed.

  • IRC - IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is by far our most preferred line of direct communication. Due to its room-functions and web-based clients, IRC is an excellent way for the developers to collaborate as a group, while opening the door for any interested visitors.
  • Other IMs - There are many IM clients out there, the one most widely used by us being MSN aka Windows Live.
  • Jabber - Jabber is similar to IRC and has got high potential. Only problem is that it's not as widely known yet, and there are no web-based applications that lets users log in directly from their web browser without downloading anything. In the future, we might change to Jabber, as it is outstanding for group-chat and much more.

Forum

Forums are great for establishing a user-community, and encourage elaborate structured feedback and timezone-independant discussions.

http://radakan.org/forums, bookmark it!

Ideally, every topic on the forum should at some point be discussed live between two or more participants. Once a thread holds information that is more or less concluded, it should quickly find its way to the forum as a summary, or on the wiki as a static article. Should it prove to not be up to the standards, a staff member can always edit it, though preferrably after consulting with another developer.

The easiest way of getting through the latest posts:
Image:Forum_showunread.jpeg

Wiki

Wikis are all about documentation; keeping it structured, clean and lucid. We're currently using the wiki for basically all kinds of articles related to the project, even introductionary pieces and tutorials. The wikis greatest advantage is its ability to present our design document pieced up, allowing readers to easily take a break and continue where they left off.

Blogging

Blogging is a very nice way of publishing a mix of casual news along with the more important newsreports. It could be anything from an interesting article found that is quite relevant to the project, or the showcasing of some significant progress in the code. Our current "Blog" is merely a sub-board of our forum, though it used to be designed as a blog thanks to an SMF mod. If you want to blog about Radakan, that would be great! Just let us know and we'd help by showing our support.

Further Reading

Retrieved from "http://www.radakan.org/wiki/Communication"
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