[PROPOSAL] - Investigation of communication platforms and moving off of Slack

[obsoke]

Describe your proposal

This proposal involves forming a small team (of 4-5 people) to investigate whether Slack is the best place for us while looking into the pros/cons of moving to other communication platforms.

Why is this proposal important?

We've been on Slack for many a years but the limitations of the free tier and the cost of upgrading has us thinking about other options.

This is a question that comes up from time to time so investigating:
(a) whether other communication platforms would be a better fit for TorontoJS and
(b) if the positives of moving the community off of Slack outweigh the negatives
will help us come to a conclusive answer.

Who will benefit from this proposal?

Members of the community who have an opinion of our current home on Slack and other communication platforms.

When will this happen?

The work will begin as soon as a small team has been formed.

The small team will only need to meet twice on a video call - the rest of the discussions can happen async.

The two phases of this proposal should not take longer than a couple of weeks each.

What platform/location will the proposal need?

There will be various platforms during this initiative:

• Google Drive: Spreadsheets for comparing features of platforms, Docs for writing up our findings
• Google Meet OR Zoom: Video calls for the team meeting to discuss findings
• Slack: Additional conversations and fielding community opinion
• Discord: Fielding community opinion

How much will it cost?

The time of volunteers in the community.

Describe the technical details of the proposal

First phase: Investigation

The goal of this investigation is not to make a decision on whether TorontoJS leaves Slack. We will simply be compiling a report on potential alternatives as well as the pros/cons of moving off of Slack. This report will be presented to the community and will be made public during this phase - we don't want to work in secret.

1. A team of 4-5 people will be formed.
2. The initial meeting will involve coming up with a list of communication platforms. We will also brainstorm the criteria we care about that will be used to compare the platforms. We will then divide up the platforms between the members to research individually.
3. Team members will research their assigned platforms and update our shared Spreadsheet with details.

Second phase: Discussion & recommendation

1. Team will meet again to discuss our findings and begin discussing the pros and cons of moving TorontoJS off of Slack.
2. A final report will be compiled and presented to the community.

At this point, this proposal would be complete. Any decision making based off of the research resulting from this is out-of-scope and a completely separate discussion/matter.

Anything else?

I am looking for 3-4 other people to join this sub-team.

Tag the organizers

@torontojs/organizers

[CorgFather]

I volunteer