Communication platforms

[cmbarton]

A discussion in another project reminded me of another platform that is Slack-like, open source, and cross platform. This is Gitter (https://gitter.im/). It does forum-like chat, allows file uploads, does video conferencing, etc. You can use it via browser or get the Elements app to run it locally on the desktop of phone/tablet. It also connects with Slack and Teams (I think Discord can do this too). You can log in with existing GitHub, Google, Apple, or other accounts, or make a new one. If there is interest in exploring this as an alternative to Discord or GitHub platforms, we can create an OMF Gitter community.

Importantly for all choices, we need to think what we want to use which platform for.

1. An alternative to email, for sending text messages and documents to selected colleagues?
2. A place to post and store documents that we want to share with others?
3. A quick videochat environment so that we don't need to set up a Zoom (or other) meeting?
4. A place to communicate with a broader community beyond our immediate team (e.g., EC, Working Group, etc)?
5. Something else?

While each group could set up its own platform of choice, there is some benefit to settling on a limited number that everyone will use to enable better cross-communication among different groups. With that in mind, and since we have not yet settled on platforms, I am also posting this to a discussion thread on our GitHub platform so that everyone can weigh in without a multiplicity of emails that might leave someone out.

[alee]

The Turing Way is building a chapter on this that doesn't make explicit recommendations but does provide a nice framework for how to evaluate / consider communication options:

https://the-turing-way.netlify.app/communication/os-comms/os-comms-channels

There's also an Open Communication Platforms google doc that's a work-in-progress to assess / evaluate the different options available (also still open to contributions, I think?)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11KXGJDOv15QcV4enSrHU-MEEwvM10FMh84B6AmdEnKA/edit#heading=h.2dycacmk0tsx

My personal vote tends towards Slack despite the challenges of managing many, many, Slack workspaces.

As another minor anecdote, ONNX (https://onnx.ai/) recently moved from Gitter to Slack... From a longevity perspective, Slack might be a safer bet? Though Gitter's transition to Matrix is a good thing too...

[cmbarton]

My main frustrations have been with ASU's implementation. If you think that is still doable in spite of the layers of complication that ASU piles on top of an already complicated process to bring people in, I'm happy to not learn yet another platform.

[libcce]

As mentioned on our call, @sandragesing and I use Slack for a variety of projects and hope that this is something OMF can support for our WG, other WGs.

[cmbarton]

Allen is working to set up an OMF workspace at ASU. It is a very useful platform. In the past I've had issues with inviting non-ASU people to participate, especially from other countries. This may have been a function of my lack of understanding of the complexities of Slack (quite possible) and ASU Slack may be more user friendly now (I'm skeptical). So we'll see how it works out.

[alee]

The request went into ASU's servicenow maybe-a-black-hole-of-a-bureaucracy on the morning of 10/2, so I guess we'll just wait for a bit and see if the three approvals it needs to go through decide to approve it. It appears omf.slack.com is already taken unfortunately so we're looking to pick up openmodelingfoundation.slack.com