[Imc] General observations and comments from a newbie

[Brian Hagy]

travas, these are great ideas.  and i can think of noone better to make
sure these happen than you!  after all, the ideas that happen around the
imc are because of the efforts of those who have the ideas.  i'm certain
there are others who would love to help you with this (such as myself).
however, it would be useful if you'd be willing to organize and get this
idea underway.  i also know that sarah kanouse is also wanting to add some
structure to the message boards, so she would be another brain and hands
to tap (at least for brainstorming, and, uh, handstorming).

anyways, welcome to the imc.  it is great to have your input and energy
contributing to the place.

thanks,
brian


On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Travas Gunnell wrote:

> Hello all,
> In the brief amount of time that I've been hanging
> around the Urbana IMC (a little over a week), which
> has included two Steering Committee meetings, one
> Tech, and one Print meeting, I have some general
> impressions and suggestions that may be of value.
>
> Availability and Organization of Information:
>
>      While there is certainly no lack of information
> about the events, projects, and other happenings of
> the IMC, it takes a while to figure out where one is
> to find relevant information, or even to realize that
> such information exists.  Bits of useful information
> are spread around between various mailing lists,
> pieces of paper on cluttered cork boards, individuals
> brains, and who knows where else.  I think this is
> confusing to new people who are trying to get a real
> sense of how the IMC operates, what the IMC does, and
> how to get involved.  It also seems to occasionally
> confuse the core members, as has been pointed out by
> Paul Riismandel in reference to the recent happenings
> in the Print group.
>      I think that a central, easy to find, easy to
> read, easy to update, physically existing, well lit,
> general information board would help to alleviate this
> problem.  My suggestion would be a large marker-board,
> using lots of pretty colors, located near the front
> door of the IMC.  Taking into consideration the
> present arrangement of the IMC and the work involved,
> the area to the left of the bathroom, where the
> out-of-date FTAA stuff is, seems like it would be a
> good place.  I would envision this board containing:
>
>  - A small section for each of the existing groups,
> with each of these group sections containing a BRIEF
> description of projects being worked on, who to
> contact and how to contact them if you're interested
> in said project, and any pointers to other places to
> look for more information (i.e. corkboard, email list,
> etc.).
>
>  - Also, upcoming events; where to find the various
> IMC policies regarding equipment use, food purchases,
> space rental, etc.; any other pertinent issues.
>
>      Furthermore, all members would take pains to
> ensure that the board is kept up to date, and remains
> pretty and easy to read.  A further suggestion would
> be to have some post-it notes of different sizes
> always available so people could leave small,
> temporary, pertinent notes (though I could see this
> potentially leading to a cluttered board).
>
>      Also, this marker-board could be more-or-less
> mirrored online, but then, of course, there's the
> issue of who's going to maintain it.  Since the web
> stuff is mostly done by a small, overworked, group of
> people (one or two?), this probably isn't a terribly
> viable option right now.
>
> So anyway, that's my two cents.  I'm sure others will
> have something to say on this subject...  so, what do
> y'all think?
>
> -Travas
>
>
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