GetOrganizedBK: getorganizedbk.org

[anniehirshman]

What problem are we trying to solve?

The Digital Team is a source of technical expertise and ideas for the local #GetOrganizedBK movement. Our mission is to create opportunities and tools for communication, rapid organization and timely action. The team accomplishes this by building digital infrastructure and providing design and development skills across platforms.

Our first project is the ongoing maintenance and development of new features for GetOrganizedBK's website: http://getorganizedbk.org.

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from this project?

We work on projects that directly support the 15 working groups within the GetOrganizedBK network. GOBK volunteers are Brooklyn residents working together to defend democracy and human dignity, shine a light on corruption, resist hate and injustice, and love and protect our neighbors from harm posed by the Trump Administration.

The goal of improving the website is to mobilize the several thousand GOBK activists to learn more about actions happening locally across GetOrganizedBK, and get involved in upcoming actions.

GetOrganizedBK is working with resource-partners and allies to stand up to racism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia and misogyny. To fight changes that would allow Wall Street to concentrate wealth and run roughshod over consumer protections. To preserve the social safety net that protects so many of us and our neighbors. To protect our planet from the devastating impact of climate change. To defend freedom of the press and voting rights. To strengthen our democracy.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

Our website: http://getorganizedbk.org
Our personas: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d4-qIIGAjgFzzuCUTndeAV79vQJXstD1wbC0WyXihWg/edit?usp=sharing

What help is needed at this time?

Join the Website Maintenance Board
Help GetOrganizedBK maintain their website by joining their Website Maintenance Board! The Board is a small group of developers who will mainly be concerned with site updates. Secondarily, you would be called to help with implementation of features and troubleshooting for getorganizedbk.org. You should be knowledgeable of Wordpress core and plugins, server environments and ftp. Ideally you would also have some experience with WP hooks and actions and SSH/shell.

This role is flexible, so that the Board members can rotate their volunteer responsibilities as their schedules allow. Time commitment: about 2-3 hours/month, as you’re able.

By volunteering, you’d help GetOrganizedBK have consistent access to knowledge and help that doesn’t require too much commitment from any one developer, and to better spread the word about Brooklyn activism via the website.

Website Technical Lead
The Technical Lead, along with a Project Manager, would be responsible for scoping and setting requirements for any new features or bugs that are requested for getorganizedbk.org. You would help determine whether a feature needs to be built, or if it can be addressed by tools that already exist. You’d determine the MVP and any additional components, and note a general estimate of time and possible solutions -- outline what’s needed to get the job done.

This is a great role for someone who would like to lend their technical expertise, but doesn’t have a lot of time to build features. Ideally this would be a person who has a strong software development background. Time Commitment: 1-2 hours biweekly, but flexible.

By volunteering, you’d help make it easy for other volunteers to jump on board and make improvements to site, by breaking down features into manageable tasks.

Sprint/Scrum Master
We are looking for a friendly and reliable sprint/scrum master to engage with our volunteers and guide our features to reality! You would take the lead on creating a sprint plan, determine appropriate timeframes, and what can be done in that timeframe. You'd gather relevant people from our Digital Team and Progressive HackNight, and check in with volunteers periodically to identify blockers and point them in the right direction.

This is a great role for someone who wants to contribute regularly, is a creative problem-solver, and enjoys connecting with others and encouraging them to lend their skills. Open to those who want to gain experience in this area.

Designers
We are always looking for designers to help improve our website visual design, and UX-ers to improve the overall experience of our site! We are looking for:

• UX researchers and designers to develop our in-progress personas.
• UXers to map and design the best way for new volunteers to sign up to join our mailing list, donate, volunteer their skills, and join a working group.
• Visual designers to iterate on our logo and branding, and create a style guide of visual patterns we can use for the future.
• Visual/UI designers to create modular templates that we can use to create new pages on our website as GOBK adds new groups, projects and actions.

Everyone!
Our site is built on WordPress, and we use the Divi page builder engine by ElegantThemes. This enables a drag-and-drop visual editor. We are always looking for anyone familiar with Wordpress and comfortable digging in to create modules and pages using Divi.

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

We are currently in the process of updating our website to the latest Divi theme. We are also in the process of transferring our feature tickets to a more agile project management tool.

Some of those upcoming features include:

• Create a page/modules that allow volunteers to sign up for the mailing list.
• Create a module that allows volunteers to donate.
• Embedding and linking social media feeds on the home page and working group pages.
• Designing and creating a global footer.
• Creating new working group page design and templates.

How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?

Contact [email protected] for any questions and to join our Slack.

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Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas 👶

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing Progressive HackNight community. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

• Create this idea issue
• Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
• Start the conversation about this new idea on Slack (this project uses #general )
• Respond with at least one update on this issue within the next month

Checklist for ACTIVE projects 🔥

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Progressive HackNight Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

• Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
• Create a GitHub repository and Slack channel for work.
• Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
• Create a team for your core contributors
  • This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
  • You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
  • Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
• Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files
  • Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
  • Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team with an email to [email protected] or come find an organizer at a HackNight. We're here to help bring great ideas to life!

[rapicastillo]

Announced that @anniehirshman and GOBK will be at the May 22 hacknight!