Project PM internship
Subject: Project PM internship
From: Clark Robinson <robinsonchicago@gmail.com>
Date: 10/25/10, 13:55
To: mtracey8@gmail.com
CC: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>, Scott Mintz <scott.w.mintz@gmail.com>

Hello Michael,

Here is a lot of information that will enable you to work closely and  effectively with Barrett on Project PM:

Some of the information will be included in or linked from this message; however, most of it will be in Google documents that I will share with you after I send this message.

Instructions for accessing Project PM IRC channel (written by Campbell Vertesi, who set up the channel for us):


IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and it is one of the oldest communication methods on the 'net.  As such it's an appropriate venue for our talks, and to some extent, an appropriate example of a successful distributed information system (it was IRC networks that reported through media blackouts during the 1991 Soviet coup attempt and the first Gulf war).  Basically, it's a network of chatrooms all across the world.  You connect using a special IRC client, just like you used to have to have an email client to use email.   You connect to a public IRC server (in our case, irc.freenode.net), which hosts thousands of "rooms" and users jumping around between them.  Once you're connected to freenode, you join our room, which is called #projectpm (all IRC rooms start with a #).

Here are some specific instructions for those of you who are new to IRC, on either a PC or a Mac:

1) Download and install the Firefox (http://getfirefox.com) web browser if you haven't already.
2) In firefox, navigate to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/16/  and install the Chatzilla plugin. Chatzilla gives you IRC within the browser.  Firefox will prompt you to restart the browser.
3) Once the browser comes back, navigate to irc://chat.freenode.net  .  Note the irc:// at the beginning of the URL!  This is what tells firefox that you are connecting to an IRC server, instead of a website.  A new window will appear.  It takes a few seconds to connect, and it will give you a lot of text while it does so. Once it gets to 
End of /MOTD command.
Congratulations, you're connected to an IRC server! 
4) Now join our chatroom, by typing 
/join #projectpm
into the bar at the bottom of this new window, and hitting enter.  Note the "/" at the beginning: this is what identifies it as a command for your IRC client instead of just a regular message.  Your screen will display:
[INFO]Channel view for “#projectpm” opened.
And that's it! You're now in chat.  Type hello and hit enter. :)


The IRC channel is most likely to be active late in the afternoon and evening.  There may be participants from all four continental time zones, Europe and Japan.  Lately Project PM has been operating informally through discussions on the IRC channel.  Some information about nicks: it will be obvious who Barrett, me, and Scott are; some others you may see there are:
 
dynamic or dynamic uno = Tim, from upstate New York who has been working on website and widget development
ohthehugemanatee = Campbell, (originally a Floridian, now lives in Paris) who has been working on development of the widget system
lfzr = Sundeep, in California, who has also been active with Campbell on designing the widget system
There will normally be others in the channel, you can send a side message to Barrett, Scott or I, for information.

Lately, we have been having a weekly meeting on Wednesday night, starting at 6:30 Eastern time or when participants can join.
 


Project PM informational website:

http://projectpm.singingsites.com/

This website will be a place where the public can obtain information about Project PM.   Scott Mintz, Tim Ellis, and Campbell Vertesi have led development of the website.  This website will not host the journalist/blogger network, which will operate through a widget-controlled network which is under construction (more about that in the documents I will share).

The website contains succinct descriptions of the project and sub-projects currently underway.


Documents I am sharing with you (see other message):

PM

This is a spreadsheet of individuals who have contacted Barrett expressing interest in being involved in Project PM.  I have been doing most of the maintenance of this document lately, although Scott and Tim fully understand it.

You may get called on to update this spreadsheet with additional individuals since I will be traveling intermittently in November and throughout the winter and will only have mobile internet access.

This document should not be shared further since it contains personal information about potential participants.

We need to develop a more efficient way to receive and store information about participants.


Mailing list

This is just a text document in which are listed the participants' e-mail addresses in a format that can be copied and pasted into the BCC field of a message.  When the spreadsheet is updated, be sure to update this document concurrently.


Widget functional description, Network functional capability requirements, Technical details Project PM, Project PM initial release specs:

Scott and I wrote the first two (spreadsheets); Sundeep, in consultation with Campbell and others wrote the slide show documents more recently, the "initial specs" one is the latest.  As you can see there has been quite a bit of change as we go along with some features dropped and others added.  For what it's worth, I am also sharing an old slide show presentation that Scott and I wrote which gives a superficial overview of the blogger/journalist network.


Science Journalism Participant List:

This spreadsheet is updated as we receive additional inquiries about participating in the Science Journalism project; Barrett has been doing most of the maintenance on this document, but he may call on you to help him as we get busier in the coming months.


Task List:

This is a list of tasks needing completion by Barrett and others.  Scott has been maintaining it, but he may welcome some assistance with it as things become more hectic.


Lists of Barrett's writings related to Project PM:

Background reading if you are interested.


Project PM Africa Development Project:

This was a shared Google document which was difficult to maintain and was discontinued, but it gives you some background information about the Africa Project.


Clark Robinson
Chicago, Illinois
robinsonchicago@gmail.com