Text Chat Space for Labs - IRC or Slack or XXX

So, my thoughts on this are:

IRC I think we’d all like it if IRC was … something it is not. Only the technically inclined use IRC, and even then, I know many programmers who simply see no value in it at all, when there are other communication channels with less friction. I like IRC, but it is not convenient.

Self-hosting {Slack Clone} It is quite honestly not a great use of time or resources for OKI doing this. I’m also of the personal opinion that doing so does not somehow ensure that data is safer or protected.

3rd party hosting {Slack Clone} Why? sandstorm.io looks cool to me as I’m a developer, but I can’t see why buying into sandstorm.io is inherently better than just using Slack.

I don’t have any particular preference for Slack. I have a preference for OKI executing better in the area of community engagement.

From all the options I see in front of us here, Slack has the mindshare, and user experience to help build more inclusive communities. Of course, the real work will be when we just take such a decision and then use it as a tool for us to do better community engagement.

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Slack is my preference. It works well and is understandable for a broad variety of people in a way that IRC really isn’t.

What about Gitter? It could be another option.

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About Slack lock-in, you should also consider that beyond 10k messages, you cannot search the chat history. This can be a real annoyance in terms of accountability.
And, if you want to search history, Slack becomes very expansive for a large group, 6$/user.

I would suggest using an open alternative to Slack.

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I just came across Babble, a Discourse plugin for chat. It’s not ideal, but it’s been in development since around May.

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Something like http://www.mattermost.org/ I can imagine… We are going to test it for our open Summer of code 2016 project and see whether it is good enough to replace slack :slight_smile:

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Babble seems ideal: no need for a tool, open, included in Discourse…

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Interesting, let us know how it turns out

I am not sure if you are still pursuing for any text chat, but I truly recommend Gitter. It is not entirely GitHub dependent and the freemium plan is very flexible. The main downside is that you cannot have more than 25 users. For my case, that is more than sufficient for now.

@gsilvapt i am +1 on this in fact when you compare pricing to slack.

I say we do this :smile:

As an experiment I’ve just gone and booted the space: - Gitter

@danfowler @samgta - babble seems interesting and something to keep an eye on but functionality seems a little far from what we need atm.

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There’s a chat for OKFN-OE. It’s /okfn-oe, feel free to join :slight_smile:

Best regards/Com os melhores cumprimentos,
Gustavo Silva.

Sent from my Nexus 5.

@gsilvapt i wonder if it would be better to create this as a channel “open-economics” within the “okfn” organization as per: https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200178951-Gitter-rooms

What do you think? If you need relevant permissions either I think we can sort that :smile:

I have also, as an experiment, gone and created an open room: okfn/chat - Gitter

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Well, the problem is that I created Gitter from our GitHub account and that is also as okfn-oe. We can have both, I guess. Changing it now would have several implications… As you guys prefer :slight_smile:

Hi all,

cc @Mor

Just to say, definitively, we are now testing out Gitter.im as a chat platform around technical product at Open Knowledge.

This test will go for around 3 months, and be centred on 4 major areas, and more may follow:

The current IRC channels for Labs and OpenSpending remain (even though they are barely used).

If we see this works well for tech communities, we will likely look at using Gitter for tech communities going forward and deprecate IRC.

Our experience so far with Gitter has been great, and the integration direct from GitHub repositories is seamless and intuitive. I think it is a winner, but we’ll assess in 3 months.

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What is your feedback so far on Gitter? Do you think we can use it for non-technical projects or local groups?

@samgta we think it has been really good so far - really easy with all the basic features and easy to create public channels and for people to join.

BTW: if you want a channel we can easily create one under gitter.im/okfn/ org (which is nice as it makes stuff easy to find).

/cc @danfowler

Thanks I think it can be useful for OK France core team cc @pzwsk

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Confirmed. Gitter is quite cool. What should the OK France chat be called: okfr, ok-france?

@danfowler i would avoid prefixing everything with “ok” so just france would seem to be good e.g. gitter.im/okfn/france.

@samgta wdyt?

This is great, I just need the approval of other members or otherwise I’ll be chatting alone :wink:

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