Journal #5

I often think about the concept of spreadability during my compositions.  This year, I am serving as president for the team of Florida State Quidditch and in order to ensure proper information is passed throughout my wonderful teammates who often need it repeated multiple times to remember, it has to be, for lack of a better word, “spreadable.”  This means when I post a message on one platform, say our private team page, it needs to be short enough to be screencapped and shared by other officers.  They then take this message and will individually send it to any members it concerns, and from there it may also be sent in our group chat, reposted in the Facebook group, and so on.

Take, for example, jersey orders.  Our PR contacts the company, who sends us a clear graphic of our design and a chart of sizes.  This is texted to me (because the file is made small enough to do so), where I then post an update (pinned the top of our Facebook page) including price, a list of numbers/names that have already been claimed by veterans, options of payment and number/name claiming, and the files.  This message is made with spreadability because of a variety of reasons.  The secretary takes the number/name/size list and shares it with players who are picking those requirements.  The treasurer screencaps the info to remind everyone of payments and uses it as evidence to start a chart of who has/hasn’t paid.  Our team as a whole shares the graphic of the design to show how awesome the jersey looks and how excited they are.  Since the post can be pinned to the top of the page, it’s easily reviewed and consulted.  By compacting all these items into one post, but also making it as short and efficient as possible, the spreadability of the message increases.

Without keeping spreadability in mind, these compositions would be a mess.  If I made a separate post each for the jersey design, size chart, name/number list, price, and payment options then there would be five posts listed on the page.  They would be buried beneath other updates and all of the above qualities that make them “spreadable” would be lost.