A brief treatise on communications

This post is a sort of postscript to an interview I recently had, in which I was asked about one of the missing basics, and how its inclusion in iFoundry made for a better experience.

I'm sure everyone has fond memories of group projects--everyone always showed up, knew what they were supposed to do, and went above and beyond expectation.

Yeah, in our dreams.

In reality, group projects were much much more of a hassle: member attendance was spotty at best, nobody seemed to have more than half an idea of what the group was doing--let alone what they themselves were supposed to be doing--and more often than not, what they did show up with was half-done ten minutes before class. The crux of all these issues hinges on one simple thing: communication. For the most part, group members were largely unreachable, which means nobody knew when the meetings were, nobody knew what to do, and consequently did a poor job on it.

Currently, I have two projects underway: one in ENG 198 (with a group of all iFoundry members) and one not in ENG 198 (with a group of no iFoundry members--myself excluded). The difference between the two is quite apparent. With the group not in iFoundry, all I've been able to obtain are email addresses, one group member has shown up to fewer than a quarter of our meetings, and the only way to ensure that anything gets done is to hunt them down in class and force the assignments into their hands. With the group in iFoundry, I have multiple means of contacting all the group members together or individually, all members have so far attended every meeting, and we are making marked progress on a difficult project.

The difference is clear: communication is key. Do YOU have the key?




PS: My deepest, most sincere apologies for the ending; it was just too cheesy for me to resist.