Documentation:Emerging Media Lab Communications Channels

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Emerging Media Lab
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About EML
A collaborative space for UBC faculty, students and staff for exploration of emerging technologies and development of innovative tools and solutions. This wiki is for public-facing documentation for our projects and procedures.
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Overview

This document is intended to give context and guidelines for the various modes and channels of communication used at EML whether by our team, to communicate with partners, or for use with the general public. It lives on wiki.ubc.ca to ensure that all EML members including volunteers and faculty can access it.

This document will continue to grow and change as we evolve our channel usage, and should be kept up to date with our current practices.

Channels

Email

For What:

  • External communications: profs, other organizations, etc.
  • All official communications
    • HR
    • Finance
    • Policies, etc.

Best Practices:

  • All official correspondence should be from and to UBC address
  • Everyone should be aware: Anything people put in email is a public document
  • Standardized EML signature files
  • When to to / cc / bcc
    • Refrain from using bcc as much as possible. (exception: bcc after introduction, but mention it in that email for transparency)
  • If you want documentation on any direction you’ve been given / are giving, send a note about it by email.
  • Action items need to name recipients - who is supposed to do what. (e.g. “Dante: Can you ……”)
  • Action items should also get copied to a relevant Trello board if it’s not something that’ll be instantly done.
  • If many recipients (e.g. mailing list), triple-check the email and have someone else vet it before it gets sent.
  • Do not share passwords by email

Mailing List

For What:

  • Communications out to communities
    • EMBC CoP (355 people)
      • Public Workshops
    • Internal EML (108 people)
      • Worklearns
      • Volunteers
    • EML Updates (External, 9 people. All Faculty in Residence)
      • * Change name to “Faculty in Residence”

Best Practices:

  • EMBC CoP messages need to be approved by EML Executive Producer (Saeed)
  • We use UBC’s mailing list system for all mailing lists.
  • Triple check & have someone else vet the email before sending
  • For workshops, ensure internal EML team knows before the public.

Slack

For What:

  • Casual, quick communications (project check, tech questions, etc.)
  • Checking in on tasks generally
  • Announcements, Resources, Links to Zoom calls
  • Q&A

Best Practices:

  • Only have active EML members on the Slack Channel (check each Term)
  • Use a channel unless it’s a quick conversation or one for a specific person.
  • For succession and clarity, use channels whenever possible.
  • Generally, use public channel unless for confidentiality reasons a private channel should be used.
  • DO NOT post any personal information on slack.
    • Full names & Contact info (except Staff)
    • Use a shortened version (or pseudonym in non-UBC channels). Students can choose to use full name, but it’s not the default.
    • For onboarding, use UBC accounts for Slack, not private emails (esp. Staff)

Zoom

For What:

  • Meetings

Best Practices:

  • Use official Zoom account for all EML zoom
  • When to record
    • Where are recordings kept
    • Where / when recordings can be shared (and prep process, e.g. anonymization)

Trello

For What:

  • Managing all EML related tasks

Best Practices:

Google Docs

We are in the process of migrating away from Google Docs. This section needs to be updated accordingly.

For What:

  • For “living” documents: collaborative documents currently under revision
  • Templates for Google Docs or Folders (for example: a Project Folder Template)

Best Practices:

  • Documents and folders should be made under UBC accounts, ownership transferred to EML account.
  • Any confidential documents should have that marked in the footer
    • Generally, minimize confidential documents on Google Drive - they should be on team share.
  • Who has view / comment / edit
    • Generally everyone can view / comment, only point people / active collaborators for doc can edit
  • When a “living” document becomes static, it should be transferred to Team Share, Confluence or wherever is appropriate.

Team Share

For What:

  • For static documents (incl. Admin, photos, social media assets, etc.)
  • Project Builds
  • Keypass database
  • Admin materials (limited access)
    • Contracts

Best Practices:

  • Project working files should be on GitHub
  • Rotate passwords each term

Confluence

For What:

  • Internal documentation and resources incl. Operational Manuals, etc.

Best Practices:

UBC Wiki (wiki.ubc.ca)

For What:

  • Overall: Institutional knowledge base
  • Public facing documents and resources
  • All documentation
    • white papers
    • findings based on data
    • user test results
    • Best practices (project related, design)
    • Technical documents / guides

Best Practices:

  • Ensure new projects get added / updated
    • Detail what project details go into wiki - more than website.
  • Ensure wiki stays organized and its function & structure are documented

EML Website (eml.ubc.ca)

For What:

  • General public information
  • EML overview, project list, team
  • Event information

Best Practices:

  • Ensure pages are updated periodically.
    • After onboarding (refresh team)
    • When projects are finalized (refresh projects)
    • Whenever staff / faculty are onboarded / offboarded
    • Events updated as needed
  • Vet content:
    • Vet consent is present for all media
    • Vet all media to confirm it’s suitable, it confirms to branding and design guidelines by UBC Studios Liaison (Nadia)
    • Vet content by Executive Producer (Saeed)
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