Tone of Voice

5 Rules for Communicating as the Icarus Project A practical Tone of Voice guide to create a unified voice.

1. We speak as a collective.

The Icarus Project isn’t just a solution, it’s a community. Our Voice is collective and inclusive and always open for more members or more discussions around the topic of censorship, which in turn, influences the shape of the project.

Do:

  • Use the plural collective: “We”, “Our”, “us”
  • Write the Call to Actions as invitations.
  • Speak of “practises”, “processes”, “efforts”
  • Engage people with “Join”, “discover”, “learn”, “explore”
  • Pose questions

Don’t:

  • Write as an “all-knowing” entity
  • Speak in third person
  • Write in Commands

2. We are politically plugged-in and technically informative.

We assume knowledge at the political, not the technical level. Our community knows ensorship can be used to shut down participation in the space of politics and society, but are not familiar with GitHub and only a handful might understand or know the what a mirror site is and how it can restore the ability to join the discourse.

The Icarus Project is anti-censorship, not anti-government.

Do:

  • Express our Point of View and Opinions
  • Use accessible language, especially in blogposts, newsletters, on the website, on social media and in the GitHub ‘Read Me’
  • Be conversational in our communications
  • Be transparent by linking to sources where relevant

Don’t:

  • Use technical jargon
  • Use bureaucratic language
  • Bash governments

3. We are journalists, first and our communication reflects that.

To be informative, we have to keep our community in mind when creating our content. Our headlines are “signposts” that support navigating our information and our copy starts with a lead sentence that summarizes what is to follow. This means we use structured texts and are happy to break down ideas so that our community can grow and be empowered to use our technology and we can collectively achieve our goals of combating censorship.

Do:

  • Write with catchy but informative headlines
  • Start headlines with a noun or verb
  • Ensure every sentence has a purpose
  • Limit sentences to a maximum of two ideas; anything longer should be broken down or turned into a list
  • Use step-by-step numbered lists for instructions; maintain a single hierarchy in these lists

Don’t:

  • Use serial commas
  • Use technical language in headlines or at the start of a paragraph
  • Make texts longer than absolutely necessary
  • Employ metaphors or unnecessary adjectives
  • Assume technical knowledge

4. Our success is measured by the success of the community.

We make information and infrastructure available as the Icarus Project, but we are only successful in combatting censorship if our community knows they exist and how to use them. It is important that our community is up to date and open so that our products are always up to the challenge of censorship.

Do:

  • Always provide structured information, with user testing where possible
  • Provide regular updates to communicate that the Project is up-to-date, live and active
  • Share well-sourced information on where censorship is happening and how on social media and on the blog page
  • Provide solutions, whether our own or crowd-sourced
  • Respond to comments and replies on social media in a timely fashion

Don’t:

  • Go “dark” on social media, giving the impression that the Icarus Project has fallen into the sea
  • Be “exclusive” with our knowledge and offerings – anyone combatting censorship is welcome
  • Use combative language

5. Our brand is inspired by the inventiveness of Icarus and Daedalus.

We’re aware that the myth of Icarus is more popularly known for its tragedy – but what is overlooked is the inventiveness and the Daedalus’ creations. To maintain this narrative, we will continue to draw inspiration from the myths around these inventors. All major activities will be named for the people in the Myth. Products and solutions will draw their names from the inventions of Daedalus.

Do:

  • Relate the meaning of the person or invention to what it lends its name to
  • Explain the relationship
  • Stay focussed on the mythological world around Icarus and Daedalus
  • Be clear in our communications as to what product we’re featuring

Don’t:

  • Rename other people’s work to make it look like it’s part of Project Icarus
  • Name anything else Icarus
  • Expand into further branches of Greek Mythology where Daedalus or Icarus were not involved
  • Refer to other mythological realms (Roman, Norse, etc.)