wiki:Communications WG

Table of Contents

  1. WG Scope
  2. WG Policies
  3. Resources
    1. Shared Documents
    2. Mobile App
  4. Posting Announcements
    1. Posting Queue
    2. Posting Guidelines
    3. Posting Process
    4. Posting Media
  5. Channels
    1. EuroPython Channels
    2. EPS Channels
    3. External Channels
  6. Members
  7. Administration

EuroPython Communications Workgroup (Communications WG)

WG Scope

Manage and organize the public communication and community relations of the conference, in particular: press, community relations, diversity/outreach, announcements, social media, attendee tools (guidebook), volunteer coordination, mailing lists, loomio groups, wiki.

Please also see the Communications WG section in the Workgroup Concept and Workgroup Guidelines document for additional details.

WG Policies

These are some policies we use in the group which are not listed in the guidelines (but should end up these eventually):

  • Language: We try to use US English in English texts whenever possible. Some UK English here and these isn't a problem, though.
  • Style: Communication should be mildly formal/professional in general, but can play a bit more on the informal side on media that allow for this such as Twitter.
  • Images: We need to be careful with image data we use in communication. In general, it's best to only use CC BY or CC BY-SA licensed material, or material where we have the explicit permission from the owner to use in communication. We cannot use material that is not permitted to be used for commercial use (e.g. CC BY-NC doesn't work). For the owner reference, we have a photo reference page on the website (see the footer or the imprint). Links need to be added to that page. For blog posts, the links should go on the posting itself. For tweets, only use material that we own, that is public domain, or referenced on our photo reference page.
  • Social Media: Please see the ​EuroPython Social Media Policies page, which lists policies to follow when interacting with social media on behalf of the ​EuroPython organizers

Resources

Not used at the moment:

Shared Documents

Old documents

Mobile App

Attendify

Technical notes:

  • Since Attendify only supports credit card purchases, you need to contact Vahe Tonakanyan <vahe@…> (or someone else from their staff) to have them send an invoice. The invoice will then have an embedded payment link which can also be used with Paypal and other payment options.
  • When updating listings using spreadsheet upload, care has to be taken to always work on the most recent download of the spreadsheet from Attendify, since they add UID columns to the download and extra meta data to a separate sheet. In case of upload format problems, it sometimes helps to load the spreadsheet into LibreOffice? and save it back again.
  • The sponsor listings require logos (PNG or JPG) which are at least 180x120px in size. When converting them using IrfanView? care has to be taken to save PNGs with transparency, otherwise you end up with blackish logos.
  • If you need support, simply ping Vahe or contact Daria Riazanova <daria@…>. They are usually very fast in responding to requests.

Guidebook

Note: We used to use Guidebook as conference app, but have switched to Attendify in 2016.

Posting Announcements

Posting Queue

To better plan for postings and announcements, we have created a spreadsheet:

Idea: We should develop a timeline upfront, ideally one that follow some form of story telling.

Posting Guidelines

  • Posts will always have to be reviewed prior to posting. Please send the draft links to the mailing list and Telegram group to get feedback.
  • Please see the WG policies for details on language, use of images and tone.
  • Blog posts should always include "EuroPython 2017" as part of the title. This is important since the posts also get distributed via RSS feeds to e.g. PlanetPython and other syndication sites, which don't provide the EuroPython context as part of the posting location. Examples: "EuroPython 2017: We have liftoff!" or "Getting ready to launch EuroPython 2017".
  • Since blog posts with images usually attract more attention, we should try to have an image relevant to the posting at the top of the text, usually under the first or second paragraph. Twitter and Facebook will usually pick this up as image as well. If it's difficult to find an image, a screenshot of the website with an arrow pointing to the relevant menu section can be used instead.
  • Blog post signatures should mention the EuroPython team of the year and the EuroPython Society, e.g. 
    <p>Enjoy,<br>
–<br>
<a href="https://ep2017.europython.eu/en/europython/team/">EuroPython 2017 Team</a><br>
<a href="http://www.europython-society.org/">EuroPython Society</a><br>
<a href="https://ep2017.europython.eu/">EuroPython 2017 Conference</a><br>
</p>

Technical notes specific to Tumblr

  • To add images to Tumblr postings, you have to use the Tumblr rich text editor.
  • Switching between rich text and HTML often loses formatting, so it's usually best to start with the rich text editor to write the initial text and add images and then switch to HTML to enhance the formatting.
  • Tumblr's editor doesn't support centered text. We have added a CSS class called "center" to work around this. To center text, simply add class="center" to the paragraph when in the HTML editor mode.
  • Please avoid copy&paste from Google Docs into the Tumblr rich text editor, since GD adds lots of weird CSS to the HTML it exports, which then causes the blog post formatting to break. It's best to put the HTML through an HTML cleanup tool first, or use a text editor as intermediate copy&paste target to have this remove the GD CSS.
  • If you want to copy an older post, click edit on the posting in Tumblr, switch to HTML editor (if not already enabled) and copy the HTML. In the target, use the HTML editor mode. This preserves the formatting as much as possible.

Posting Process

Here's a guideline on how to use the posting queue and go about posting announcements:

Preparation

  • Set queue Author field
  • Create draft document
  • Set queue Status to "Draft" and URL to the URL of the draft document, set queue Date to intended posting date (if not already done)
  • Send link to draft document to Comm WG for discussion / review
  • Put document on Tumblr (as draft), if not already done
  • (Re)Add images (from within the Tumblr editor so that they are hosted on Tumblr)
  • Fix formatting, clean up HTML (e.g. when importing from GD), check links
  • Discuss final Tumblr draft with the Comm WG (there's a link to the draft in the top right corner of the Tumblr draft)

Posting to Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook

  • Prepare for posting
  • Set Twitter line (button next to posting button in Tumblr), post document on Tumblr
  • Tumblr will automatically send the posting to the EuroPython Twitter channel and Facebook page
  • Set queue Status to "Posted" and adjust queue URL to blog post URL

Posting to Telegram

Posting to mailing lists

  • Create a plain text email version of the posting based on the EMail Template for Announcements
  • Use the tweet URL at the bottom of the email to ask for retweets
  • Post email to lists according to our EuroPython Posting Checklist via an europython.io email account and using an @europython.eu email address as From-address

Technical Notes:

  • ​EuroPython blog posts will automatically get tweeted on the ​EuroPython Twitter channel as well as posted on the ​EuroPython Facebook account.
  • There is no good way to automatically convert blog posts into email announcements, so these have to be hand crafted to look right and then sent to the various channel lists.

Posting Media

Technical notes:

  • Tumblr postings need images which are 500-800px wide.
    Images wider than that will get downsized by Tumblr and can result in loss of information, so it's better to plan for this image size right from the start.

Channels

EuroPython Channels

EPS Channels

External Channels

These can be used to circulate announcements meant for wider consumption.

Members

Voting members:

  • Marc-Andre Lemburg (Chair)
  • Darya Chyzhyk

Non-voting members:

  • Alexander Hendorf
  • Oier Beneitez
  • Valeria Pettorino
  • Gilberto Gonçalves
  • Manuel Schipper
  • Leire Ozaeta

Inactive members:

  • Kerstin Kollmann
  • Chris Ward
  • Stéphane Wirtel
  • Vicky Lee
  • Raúl Cumplido
  • Kristian Rother
  • Fabio Pliger
  • Aneta Włodarczyk
  • Anthon van der Neut
  • Oier Beneitez
  • Miren Aldalur
  • Dougal Matthews

Administration

  • Established on 2015-01-07 by the EPS board.
Last modified 4 years ago Last modified on 05/09/2017 19:36:04