THE ARTEMIS PROJECT
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE ON THE MOON 		Technical Committees
Section 6.7.
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Using the Net for Team Communication

We're still learning how to use the network to keep our committees and teams informed. Here's what I've learned about it.

Put task lists, action items, and schedules on-line

Folks tend to think of email as something to be read once, responded to, and then forgotten. For on-going work, we need to have task descriptions on the web, along with descriptions of the projects people are working on, action items, and schedules. Then use the mailing list as you would a meeting: to review the status of the projects and remind everyone to keep an eye on the documents on the web.

Today we have to format action item lists and schedules by hand. However, automating these management tasks is on the list of future features for the suite of software.

Use full URLs in electronic mail messages

If you refer to a web document in an email message, you'll want to list the entire URL starting with "http://". If you do this, many electronic mail programs will have the URL show up as a clickable link, which makes it really convenient for looking up the documents you're referring to. And, of course, making it easy for folks to do what you want them to do increases the probability that they will do it.

Put permanent data on the web

Encourage everyone to put anything that should be saved for permanent reference in the Artemis Data Book. That's really easy to do.

All members of Artemis Society International can sign up for an account in the WebSite Director (nee TeamSite) system at http://www.asi.org/wsd. You can submit a document to the system either by uploading it through your web browser, or by emailing it to submit-doc@asi.org. If you send the document by email, the text can either be in the body of the message, or in an attached text file.

You can also submit image files this way, but we need to work on the procedures for getting Imagery Library numbers for them and putting them into the imagery data base. For the nonce, it's easier to email image files directly to Nanci Brasket at artemis@asi.org.

WebSite Director will take care of the headers and footers, and the ECTC can help format documents in html, so you don't need to worry so much about formatting the document. You'll also have copious opportunity to review, edit, and revise the document on its way to the web. It's best just to submit plain text into the system, and watch the magic happen from that point on.

So, if you think something needs to be available for permanent reference, just do it. If you just leave it as an email message, your work will be lost, buried in an ever-growing mound of thousands of email messages.

Technical Committees
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