Group Meeting #1 (Tuesday 30th September 2008)

On Tuesday 30th September, the individual members of the team had an introductory meeting to become acquainted with each other. Through the meeting, the aim of this live project was concluded to be to develop the library information foundation of Shelter Library: the Global Resource for Humanitarian Community’s existing work. Shelter Library serves as a source for the humanitarian sector.

As this was the first meeting, it was not surprising that all team members raised questions as to the objectives of the project and tried to clarify the brief. The client has not specified any definite brief based on the information we had at this stage of the project. However it may seem that the client has expectations from the project group in terms of contributing to the contents of the online resource centre. [see Brief for the University of Sheffield Department of Architecture ‘Live Project 2008’]

Some of the questions raised and thoughts for debate at that stage were as below:

• What is the best way to communicate with the client and to run this project?
  
• Where will our work go beyond the tagging and entering of data?
  
• How can we introduce the availability of technologies/mobile technologies?
  
• How could training be integrated?
  
• How can we find funding but not waste time fundraising?
  
• How can we ensure that the online library is geared towards agencies as represented by Shelter Centre? And ensure that this does not become a branding exercise?
  
• How can we test our strategies /presentations before making them open to the public?

Communication with the Client

It was reassuring to know that Tom C would be available for a conference meeting on 3rd October. The fact that the client is based in Geneva, Switzerland means face-to-face communication is limited. But we the team has agreed to take a trip to Geneva for the chance to meet the client and to vary the method of communication with the client. At this moment in time, emails are being used as the main form of contacting the client and for sharing information.

Perhaps we were starting at the deep end with these thoughts and needed to focus on our planning and agenda for the entire project. [see minutes 30.09.08]