Proposal by Ali Hugo on behalf of OpenCraft
Topic
Indicate which topic your proposal falls under:
- Enhance Core Contributor Onboarding
- Improve Collaboration, Communication & Reporting
- Improve Fulfilling Commitments and Planning Processes
- Improve Review Processes
Overview
55% of Core Contributors think we use too many communication tools, and 79% believe we could streamline communication by combining some of these tools. CC’s identified the following as their preferred tools, in order of popularity:
Discussion Forum
Slack
GitHub
Atlassian Wiki
Open edX Blog
This proposal seeks to confirm which tools we should use, evaluate each tool, understand its strengths and weaknesses, and create an easy-to-follow guide on when to use each one.
Solution
To ensure the right decisions are made about which tools to use and when, we propose a thorough investigation period. Some key steps include:
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Finalize Tool Selection: Based on the survey results and the outcome of the “Consolidate Communication Tools” proposal (if approved), confirm the list of chosen communication tools with key stakeholders before proceeding to the next step.
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However, before we can decide which tools to scrap and which to merge, we first need a clear understanding of how each tool is currently being used
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Research Best Practices: Study how other communities manage their communication tools and identify useful strategies.
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Draft Guidelines: Based on the research, create a rough set of guidelines on when to use each tool.
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Gather Feedback: Share the draft with CC’s and gather feedback.
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Create Final Guidelines: Use the feedback to adjust and expand upon the first draft until we have a simple, but thorough set of guidelines outlining when to use each tool. Consider adding links to each service’s docs so that CC’s can refer to them where necessary.
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Get Guidelines Reviewed & Approved: Give Core Contributors the opportunity to vote on the guidelines (either a yes/no vote on all guidelines at once, or for each individual one, with the majority of the votes deciding).
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Add Guidelines to Open edX Handbook: Should the proposal to create an “Open edX Handbook” be approved, these communication tool guidelines may live within it.
Impact
A clear set of guidelines on when to use each communication tool will:
Make it easier for CC’s to know which tool to use for specific tasks.
Help ensure important updates are not missed.
Improve collaboration across time zones by matching tools to the needs of the community.
Support transparency and public participation.
Once the guidelines have been circulated, we will allow the community a few months to adapt their communication habits. Following this adjustment period, we will assess the level of adoption to decide whether CC’s need reminders about the new standards, or if adjustments to the guidelines are necessary.. We should also explore the tools used by other online, open-source, async communities to identify those that might be a good fit for our needs.
Solution
This proposal aims to compile a comprehensive list of the communication tools we use, along with an explanation of how we use each one. It also seeks to evaluate the tools used by other communities, to determine whether there are any that might work for us. We will evaluate each tool and document its strengths and weaknesses. The idea is that this document should make things easier when deciding which tools to keep and which to lose.
Throughout our investigations, we will keep in mind that Core Contributors identified the following as their preferred tools, in order of popularity:
Discussion Forum
Slack
GitHub
Atlassian Wiki
Open edX Blog
Impact
While the impact of this proposal may be difficult to measure, having a comprehensive list of communication tools, along with detailed descriptions of their usage, strengths, and weaknesses, will make it easier to determine our final tool selection.
Timeline & Team
This effort will be approached in an iterative manner, more or less following the steps below. Feel free to add your name should you wish to help out with any steps/information you think may be missing, or assign yourself to any of the tasks:
Finalize Tool Selection: 1 week - Ali Hugo
Evaluate Selected Tools: 2 weeks - Ali Hugo and TBD Create a List of Tools: Compile a list of all the communication tools used across the Community
1 week, Ali Hugo + __
Describe Usage: Investigate how each tool is being used, and document the use cases, highlighting any overlaps or inefficiencies
2 weeks, Ali Hugo + __
Research Best Practices: Study which tools other communities use and why. Add any promising tools to our list
1 week
, Ali Hugo
Draft Guidelines: 1 month - Ali Hugo and TBD
Gather Feedback: 2 weeks - TBD
Create Final Guidelines: 1 month - Ali Hugo and TBD
- Add Guidelines to Open edX Handbook: 2 weeks - TBD
+ __
Investigate the Viability of Certain Tools:
Evaluate Discourse Chat (see screenshots) (to determine if it would be viable to move discussions to the forum)
Enable Discourse Chat
Migrate some small items to test how it works (e.g. migrate the channel of a specific working group, etc)
Test it out with volunteers
X weeks, assignee TBD
Evaluate Discourse wiki posts (as a possible alternative to the Atlassian wiki)
Post a wiki page on the forum instead of the Atlassian wiki
Investigate how to use categories/tags to organize wiki pages
Ask volunteers to review the page and provide feedback
1 week, Ali Hugo + __
Any other tools worth evaluating?
Evaluate Tools: Set up criteria for evaluating each tool, such as how well it supports searchability, ease of use, and public discussions
3 weeks, Ali Hugo + __
Gather Feedback: Share the document with CC’s and gather any additional information
2 weeks, Ali Hugo + __
Refine Document: Adjust / expand upon the document based on feedback
1 week, Ali Hugo + __
Share Findings: Share the document, and use it to inform any other efforts (see related proposal: Create a Shortlist of Communication Tools with a Focus on Open Source Options.)
1 day, Ali Hugo + __