[talk-au] topic A: the platform itself

[David Wales]

I am a member of some international OSM Slack channels.

However, because it requires a whole different app (which I only have space for on my computer), I only check it monthly at best.

On the other hand, I read every talk-au message within a few days of original posting, because they all arrive in my email inbox on my phone.

If the number of talk-au emails reaches overwhelming levels, it might be necessary to investigate other solutions. However, I don't think we have reached that point yet.

If we ever did explore alternatives, I would prefer an open platform, which we can host ourselves, rather than Slack or some other proprietary system.

Regards,
David

On 20 September 2019 4:31:44 pm AEST, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
>Hi,
>
>On 9/20/19 03:14, Herbert.Remi via Talk-au wrote:
>> I will post several concerns and information on several issues, but
>the
>> first is this platform itself. 
>
>You call this platform a "forum" which is ok in the abstract sense, but
>note that there is actually an Australia forum in addition to this
>Australia mailing list
>(https://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewforum.php?id=24). The forum
>provides a slightly different user experience but is used less.
>
>In other countries, people have set up Slack channels or Facebook
>groups
>or even more esoteric channels of communication, in addition of or as a
>replacement for mailing lists - browse
>https://github.com/osmlab/osm-community-index if you want to get an
>idea.
>
>There's no strict rule about where the OSM community should discuss
>their issues, however media that requires prior registration with a
>third-party entity - like Slack or Facebook - are sometimes frowned
>upon
>as they give control over who can participate to that third party and
>might require the participant to agree to wide-ranging exploitation of
>their personal data by a commercial entity.
>
>In Germany where I hail from, the forum and the mailing list are used
>by
>about the same number of (but largely different) people, and since the
>total number of contributors is large enough to guarantee lively
>discussion on both, that's totally fine. Germany also has mailing lists
>for individual states but they are used very little, and even
>state-specific issues would often be discussed on the nationwide list
>to
>ensure they get enough attention.
>
>Speaking very generally, OSM has achieved the success it has with a
>"just do it" attitude: Instead of saying, 15 years ago, "BEFORE we
>start, let's come up with a good data scheme and a feature catalogue",
>people said "let's just start and then fix things as we go along".
>
>My recommendation would be to just stat discussing whatever needs
>discussing on the talk-au mailing list and branch out as the need
>arises. If something is worth discussing then a non-ideal UI should not
>be the blocker, and if it is, then maybe the issue is not so important.
>
>Bye
>Frederik
>
>-- 
>Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09"
>E008°23'33"
>
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