Plugging in to the Comms Infrastructure:

The Tin Can Comms Collective has gone to great lengths to create an infrastructure that will help provide affinity groups and individuals with timely and accurate information that they can then use to act more efficiently. We've spent a lot of time setting up a system whereby reports can come in from the street, get categorized and verified, and then be dispatched out to individuals interested in that type of information. This system will be primarily implemented through sms txt messaging. Users will need a cell phone (we HIGHLY recommend a prepaid phone without the users name attached to it; we are suggesting Virgin, Boost, or AT&T as carriers) capable of receiving sms txt messages. Individuals will receive information based on groups they subscribe to and post reports back to comms team operators. The specifics of this are all very neat and complex; luckily, though the set up should be pretty straight forward, and will be provided through twitter.

For user trainings and information on how to help with comms, click here.

Understanding the Comms Groups:

We have created a number of groups that individuals will be able to subscribe to. These groups all represent a different type of information, some are geographical (like sector 3 of I-35E) others are used for working groups to make announcements(such as legal, or food). When plugging into the system you should look over the group list read their descriptions and select the groups that will provide the information that you are most interested in. It is important that you only select the absolute minimum amount of groups that you think will apply to you. This is for several reasons, first, you want to prevent yourself from becoming flooded by too much information that is not pertinent to you. The most important reason though, is that due to limitations in the software architecture we are using, there is no way for us to prevent a user from getting the same message multiple times if they are subscribed to multiple groups that all receive the same message. So, for example, if you're subscribed to a group that sends out information about people that are being arrested and a group that sends out information about sector 1, if there is a report about people being arrested in sector 1 you will receive the message twice. Once because it's relevant to sector 1 and once because its relevant to the arrests group. For this reason, it may make the most sense for most individuals to subscribe to the group relating to the sector(s) they're planning on being in, any announcement groups they want (legal, food, etc), and not too much more.

Subscribing to twitter groups

The easiest way to subscribe to one of the twitter groups is to send a txt message to the number 40404 with the message “follow <group_name>” Remember to put a space between follow and the group name. If this is the first time you have used twitter, the system will respond asking for you to send them a message with your user name. Reply to this message with whatever username you want to use. This will now be your user name if you ever log on to the twitter web site.

Sending reports to the comms team:

There are two ways to send reports back from the streets to the comms team. The first method, which we highly recommend. Is to txt message the report in through the twitter system. To do this you must be subscribed to at least one of the comms twitter groups. As a member of a comms group you can send a txt message to the number 40404 in the form of “@<group_name> <message>”

<group_name> should be the group that you think the information applies to and <message> is the message you want to send. So, for example, if I sent this txt message: “@fire_station my house is on fire”-- the group “fire_station” would receive the message “my
house is on fire.” If you are unsure which group to send a message to, please send it to @rnc08.

Alternatively, individuals will be able to call reports in to the comms team we can be reached at the number (651) 314-RTFM (651 314 7836). This is not the preferred method as it is likely that in high volume situation phone operators will experience a reasonable level of congestion.