This document outline our current IT setup from an internal perspective, identifies core functions we require and explores alternatives.
We currently use:
- Confluence (Using the open source license (free.) https://yunity.atlassian.net)
- Good: Richly featured, pages (images + tables + bells & whistles) and hides complexity,
- Bad: Proprietary, bigger than needed, handles white-space terribly,
- Git (Used on various laptops.)
- Good: OS, very-light, version-tracking
- Bad: Local install, steep initial learning-curve for people unfamiliar with terminal
- Github (Organization 'kanthaus'. https://github.com/kanthaus)
- Good: Huge user base, nice UI/X, in-browser editing
- Bad: Proprietary, must pay for private repos
- Nextcloud (Shared folder and calendar, hosted by Matthias. https://nc.matthias-larisch.de/login)
- Good: OS, simple, does plain-text, 'rich-text', calendar, contacts and task editing in-browser, different lin-permissions, simple 'syncing'
- Bad: Self-hosted,
- Slack (Mainly #wupphouse-wurzen. Using the Complimentary Nonprofit Standard plan (free.) https://yunity.slack.com)
- Good: Richly featured, public and private channels, lots of nice yunity people already use it.
- Bad: Proprietary, bigger than needed,
- Etherpad (Temporary pads mostly through instances hosted by https://pad.riseup.net/ or https://pad.disroot.org/)
- Good: OS, simple plain-text collaboration
- Bad: Can't comment, no-linking between pads (loads of different links)
- Google docs (Occasionally some forms, spreadsheets and presentations. Rarely word documents.)
- Good: Richly-featured, plays well with other google docs, fine-grained permissions
- Bad: Proprietary,
- Foodsaving.world https://karrot.world/#/group/26
- Good: Everything!
- Bad: Nothing! Well, if you find something bad write a bug report/feature request/DIY.
Things we need:
- To collectively access/edit/create plain text files
- "I want to be able to quickly find the current version of the Constitution"
- "I want to take notes for this meeting and store them where others can find"
- To be able to chat simply without SMS/telephone
- "Can you send me a link to that site you were telling me about?"
- "Hi all, meeting notes from this morning can be found here: <URL>"
Things we want:
- To collectively access/edit/create calendar events, contact entries, geo-data, spreadsheets and rich text.
- To see version history of documents (e.g. the Constitution and Collective Agreements)
- To have a semi-public chat-point and not alienate all the nice people on yunity Slack.
- To have a
Aspects that should be optimized:
- ease-of-use (e.g. should be non-nerd friendly, avoid the terminal, nice UX, etc,)
- fewest separate applications,
- OS (i.e. Libre and Open-source,)
- Open-protocol (e.g. email, OStatus, XMPP, etc,)
- free (i.e. $$$,)
- Linux-friendly,
- integrates well with (the) other applications,
- hosted
Applications to consider:
- Gitter.im https://gitter.im/
- Quite easy to use, OS, Linux-friendly, integrates-well
- Free: "Limited to 25 users per private room" https://billing.gitter.im/
- Requires GitHub or Twitter account to log in right now, however "We ... will improve this by adding the ability to login with your GitLab.com account." (GitLab blog, 2017/03/15)
- GitLab (Community Edition, self-hosted) https://about.gitlab.com/products/
- Quite easy to use, OS, Linux-friendly, integrates-well
- Free: "Ideal for personal projects or small teams with minimal user management and workflow control needs."
- Can also easily host static pages: https://about.gitlab.com/features/pages/
- Matthias notes: Pretty bad experience with Foodsharing code, want to get off it asap. Problems with servers and software probably due to lack of $$$. Self-hosting takes a lot of resources.
- GitLab.com (Free Plan, hosted) https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-com/
- Quite easy to use, OS, Linux-friendly, integrates-well
- Free: "Unlimited private projects and collaborators"
- Matthias notes: Pretty bad experience with Foodsharing code, want to get off it asap. Problems with servers and software probably due to lack of $$$. Self-hosting takes a lot of resources.
- Gitbook.com (Open Source, https://www.gitbook.com/
- Free: "Unlimited public books, Unlimited visits and updates, 5 collaborators, 0 private books, Custom domains, Community Support" (n.b. a user it a Gitbook user, not a connected repo...)
- Mattermost (Team Edition, self-hosted) https://about.mattermost.com/pricing/
- Hubzilla
- Mastodon
Proposed maxims:
- If it can be written in plain-text, write it in plain-text. (p.s. incompatible with Confluence.)
Options:
- Conservative
- Stay with Slack.
- Fully adopt Confluence: move files on Nextcloud and GitHub to Confuence and assign relevant viewing permissions.
- Transitionary
- Swap Slack for:
- Swap Confluence for:
- GitHub (+ Gitbook) (public) and Nextcloud (private,) or
- GitLab (public and private) + static page(s))