Welcome to the OGGM Slack!

A little introduction

Posted by Anouk Vlug on October 11, 2022

The OGGM Slack is our platform for internal communication. Though internal sounds maybe like a closed, small, and secretive group. It is not. It is an open, inclusive and friendly environment, that is a little more closed than an open forum where everyone can read what you wrote and a lot less anonymous. But what is it about? We use the slack to get support, discuss and stay updated. With topics ranging from how to solve this error in my code and has someone done this already to who is going to this meeting/conference and plenty more… In addition the slack can contribute to a sense of being part of the community.

A little more on the practicalities of our slack.

Finding your way on the different channels

In this workspace we have a #general channel, that we use not surprisingly for general messages. The #general channel is also where the call for our fortnightly meetings are announced. The #support channel is often the best place to ask questions and #random is being used for chitchat. When asking a question in the #support channel it will (hopefully) be answered in the threat bellow. Once your question has been answered it would be great if you can add a check mark to the main question, using e.g. the ✅ emoji (you will see what I mean when scrolling through the support channel), so that the others know the question has been answered and won’t loose time reading the whole threat when offering their help. Aside from those channels that most people follow, there are many thematic channels that one can add themselves to based on there interest when being a full member (people with a guest status, have to ask for that). To name a few #surface-mass-balance, #hard-core-programming and #oggm-edu. Aside from the channels, slack can also be used to chat privately to one or more people at the same time. You can do that in 3 ways: the standard typing, video-call and huddle. The latter one is more like a phone call.

Meeting online

Everyone on our slack is very welcome to join the once-every-two-weekly-meetings, no matter your background or plans with OGGM. It is quite an informal meeting, so no reason to be nervous about joining it. Having said that, it might be more interesting to those actively planning to use/using and develop the model, than those who don’t. Either way being new to the community it might be nice to join the meeting once, so you will be able to meet some of the active members, and you will no longer be “just a name” for them. The starting time alternates currently between starting at 10:00 and 17:00 CEST/CET, to accommodate for different time zones and schedules. (The next meeting is on October 19th 10:00-11:00 CEST.) For the schedule you can checkout the calendar.

How to access?

Slack can be accessed through the browser and via a local installation. My personal preference is using the app, and I think that is the case for most frequent users. When using slack in a browser, you need to keep in mind that only Chrome supports the video calls.

If you’re interested in joining the OGGM Slack, please send an e-mail to info@oggm.org, stating shortly who you are and why you would like to join our slack.