Communication with the architects

The Reef
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17

After an initial meeting with the architects, some comments on my initial proposal and a review by team Building, this is the latest proposal on S+F and The Reef will communicate. We will revisit this way of working as the need arises.

Communication channels

The Reef and S+F both have their own internal channels of communication. In communicating with The Reef, S+F are willing to use the tools of The Reef in the way we use them:

  • Edgeryders (collaboration forum) (with an “architects only” private category)
  • NextCloud (file storage)
  • Signal (direct messaging)
  • Protonmail (communication with outside world)

Document filing

  • The Reef and S+F have their internal own filing systems. We’d like to align their structure and naming conventions as much as possible, even if they serve different audiences. This applies to the folder of Team Building only.

  • File naming conventions

    • File names are the same on both filing systems. This avoids confusion and error-prone manual renaming.
    • Because the architects are at the source of most documents, we rely on them to make the file names meaningful and unique.
    • We propose to use the suffix YYYY-MM-DD for versioning, either at the folder or the file level

  • Folder structure

    • At the top level of the filing structure, we have folders that represent the various phases of the project. We propose:

      • scouting
      • feasibility
      • sketches
      • concept (=“avant-projet”)
      • permit
      • RFP
      • construction (=“chantier”)
      • project management (a folder that contains planning and other overarching documents)

    • The structure under each of these top-level folders is not yet standardised, but each folder representing a phase is likely to contain a folder “plans”, because in each fase, different types of plans are being produced.

    • In each folder sit the most recent version of a document. Each folder also contains a folder “archive” that contains old versions of the documents.

    • We abandon the separate “Stekke and Fraas folder” but instead keep some folders within the Team Building folder “Reef only” (for example our internal meeting reports)

    • to improve findability, we create a readme at the top level

    • To refer to a file, by default, we point to its containing folder. This makes the reference more stable

    • See the end of this post for a representation of the above.

Protonmail

  • S+F puts building@thereef.brussels in cc in all their communication about The Reef to external parties (e.g., commune, builders, etc.)-
  • The first recipient of an attachment puts it on NextCloud if necessary

Action items

  • Create Signal account for S+F [S+F]
  • Lie delivers a short training to the architects on how to use EdgeRyders and NextCloud [Lie]
  • Create this folder structure in the team Building folder [Joannes]
  • Migrate the information into this folder structure (best done by two people) [Joannes + ??]

Questions

  • Is it necessary to distinguish RFP & offers? (>S+F)
  • Is it necessary to distinguish sketches & avant project (>S+F)
  • Does NextCloud support Windows-style shortcuts, to improve findability while keeping a single source for every piece of information (>Alberto)
  • What about building-related information in the finance folder (>team finance)

The folder structure would look something like this:

  • team-building
    • readme.odt [with explanation of the folder structure]
    • project-management
      • meetings TB [reef-only]
      • meeting S+F
    • [phase]
      • plans
        • archive
      • …
    • [phase]
      • plans
        • archive
    • …
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