Projects
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A lot of CrisisCamp technical work happens in projects: sets of tasks to create or improve a crisis information tool, with a team, a project manager and a user-defined set of goals. CrisisCamp projects are designed to make a difference to people in trouble, and you can help make that difference too.
The rest of this page tells you about how you can get involved in CrisisCamp projects. This all revolves around the list of project work that needs to be done. Which is here Project Statuses July 2010.
[edit] Suggesting a CrisisCamp project
If you have an idea for a CrisisCamp project, or are an NGO looking for technical assistance, please fill out the CrisisCamp request form. Include as many specifics on the form as you can, but at a minimum include contact information so we can talk to you about the project. Example CrisisCamp projects can be found on this page and the Requests page.
At this point, the project's status will be Proposed. The CrisisCamp coordinators will then look at the project forms and either approve the project or come back to you for more information.
When a project is approved, its status becomes New.
[edit] Starting Work on a CrisisCamp project
A CrisisCamp project starts when it gets a project manager. This is someone who's responsible for keeping the team together, the end user involved and the project information up to date.
If you want to run a CrisisCamp project, check the projects list for a project without a project manager then follow the instructions here: How to Manage a CrisisCamp Project.
When a project gets a project manager, its status becomes Active.
[edit] Joining a CrisisCamp project
If you are here looking for something to do for CrisisCamp, these are the two places you need to look:
- The latest project statuses page (above)
- Actionable Tasks - what needs doing right now
You can also help us by adding your details to the Skills List so project managers can find people with the skills that they need.
[edit] What happens when the projects complete?
When a CrisisCamp project meets its goals, or it's no longer sensible to continue with the project (e.g. the crisis it was designed for has passed), its status is set to Closed.
Most projects create Tools (that we can use for future crises) or services (e.g. websites for people affected by disasters). We check these over every so often, using a Projects Taxonomy to see if we have what we need for CrisisCommons to respond to any future crises. This will often create new projects to improve the tools, and we're back to the start of the project cycle again.
Some projects will never reach their goals because they'll always need to be done; examples include wiki gardening and translation. We call these Evergreen projects - we manage these slightly differently, but we're always grateful for extra help on them.
[edit] Who's making up all these rules?
Sorry about all the instructions chaps. It's just that without a bit of structure, coordinating project teams that are spread out across the world can get a bit kinda messy. The projects list itself is managed by the Projects/SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) working group, led by Kate Chapman. This is open to contributions from everyone, through comments on the Projects/SDLC page, emails to the CrisisCommons Projects google group and weekly half-hour conference calls every Sunday morning.
[edit] Quick Links
If you know how CrisisCamp projects work, here are the links:
