Communication and working mode

About Communication

Communication, i.e. transported information, can happen via different channels with different properties. We differentiate between synchronous channels in which all communicating parties are interacting at the same time and asynchronous channels, in which communicating parties are not required to work on the communication at the very same moment. Examples for synchronous communication are personal meetings or (video-)calls while asynchronous communication is often text-based like mails, Slack, Issues or this Handbook.

Also do channels differ in their persistence: While personal meetings and calls only exist for this very moment, information in a Handbook can be easily found again. Text messages like Slack also tend to get old and are thus considered non-persistent.

— This page and the whole SK Handbook is highly inspired by the Gitlab Handbook about Communication.

How we communicate

Internal

Language

On-spot communication at SK happens in English or Swedish. If you're not fluent in Swedish, don't hesitate to ask for a conversation in English.

Persistent internal communication is always done in English.

The language of communication with externals depends

Remote working style

Smartakartan is a partly-remote initiative, mostly based and grown in Göteborg, Sweden. We mostly work independently syncing via Slack and have a bunch of regular meetings.

Similar to other remote initiatives, we highly value asychronous communication.

Channels

We use different channels for different level of information shared and the sychronosity

Synchronous communication

Llama:n i GBG
- For meetings in real life, we mostly use the co-working space Llama Lloyd on Hisingen, Göteborg, Sweden. https://www.llamalloyd.se/coworkingspace/
Jitsi
- For online meeting, we typically use Jitsi. https://meet.jit.si/smartakartan
Standups
- Typically we have standup meetings Mondays and Thursdays 8:45 in Jitsi.
Working Wednesdays
- Often, we meet Wednesdays at Llama:n for co-working or meeting.

Asynchronous communication

Slack
- Slack is our main channel of short-lived communication. We use the namespace https://kollaborativekonomi.slack.com. This namespace is shared with many other topics in KES
- The most relevant channels for SK are
  - #ke_om_smarta_kartan most general channel around SK
  - #ke_smarta_kartan_dev channel around the technical development of SK
  - #sk_ux channel for UX discussions
  - #ke_aktivamedlemmar general channel for the active KES team
  - #sk_ + some region. Channels for discussions specific to this client / region
Handbook
- You're reading the handbook right now. Yay! This is our Single Source of Truth containing all information of persisting relevance.
- This is our all's document. Please fix any typo you find, clarify any confusion and update every piece of outdated information. Also don't hesitate to put in new content.
- Our handbook is a very new piece of our communication strategy, but it'll be a vital and major part soon.
Google Docs & Drive
- Traditionally Google Docs is a tool that we use very often for collaboratively create document and store file. There are at least two drives I'm aware of and some more random docs.
- Currently I don't know whether there is a good structure and dare to doubt this. This just documents the current state.
- For the future I assume that a lot of persistent information (e.g. guides) will move into the handbook.
  - For documents or information that are created wrt. specific event, we'll see, whether we keep them in google docs and link them here or move some information into the handbook.
- The drives and docs I'm aware of
  - KES Drive https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-JYAK6Z2JdkUGJqVU5qWExrZ28?resourcekey=0-mMEjhJCQcM7jNw1S0ecBpA
  - GDrive SK4 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15xD7PqmqnNJkf_RsjQqBVDT2auBkkfuN
  - Krav SK3 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MerETncgN8kq5oeXADo5M_3h4R3SN-02BW9_AoC-X7c/edit#heading=h.n8tpigfqj523
  - Drive of Chaos https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14ZR2LeJ2ii_a41APoXRLX6LhhhmUXYhP
Gitlab Code
- The repo where the code lives is https://gitlab.com/kollaborativ-ekonomi-sverige/smartakartan/
Gitlab Issues
- All communication around development of the software is done in issues in the repo https://gitlab.com/kollaborativ-ekonomi-sverige/smartakartan/issues.
Trello
- KES uses Trello for its workflow. Thus typically all SK tasks that are not related to coding are found in KES's Trello board https://trello.com/b/og5ER96p/kes-styrelsearbete