Remote communication

Evaluation and discussion of different "online" tools for communication to satisfy our needs

We need tools that satisfy various needs for remote communication. Our numerous members should be able to view and post information: send announcements (automatic notification), collaborate to create documents such as forms, guides and shop signs (collaborative editing and attachments), and coordinate events such as staffing (a public calendar). The public at large should be able to view almost all information; but we might want to restrict editing to members, so members should get some kind of log-in to authenticate themselves.

Communication Needs

Discussion

Not everybody can make or want to go to meetings and meetings are difficult to schedule. Remote discussion can be a valuable resource, but it should engage as many people as possible and keep them active and informed in the discussion.

Documentation and Reference

Meeting minutes, forms, guides, drafts and many other types of documentation and reference materials need to be available to the FreeRide! community as well as easy ways to edit and create new documentation/references.

Collaboration

Working on ideas and drafts without needing to hold meetings.

Scheduling (Calendar, etc.)

Keeping everybody (especially the public) up to date with events. Helping organize meetings that can accommodate people. Know if we have enough staff/interest to hold events.

Notifications

One of the most frustrating things I find about FreeRide! communication is that nobody is aware of new things that are done. Like a helpful new reference for pricing parts? A few people may be aware of the reference, but it may otherwise go un-noticed. How do we notify the group so everybody can take advantage of others’ hard work? An additional aspect of notifications is helping committees inform the FreeRide! community of what they are up to.

Method Collabo- rative editing? Record of commu- nication Versi- oning Notifi- cation of updates Calend- aring Attach- ments Cost Log-in for sending Who owns data? Who owns the program? Adverti- sements?
Email no no no yes no yes 0 none we depends no
Word Press yes no ? no no no 0 Word Press we Word Press no
PBwiki yes yes yes ? no yes 0 ? ? PBWiki no
Brown Bear yes no no ? yes no 0 No we BrownBear yes
Crab Grass yes yes yes no no yes 0 CG we free no
Google Calendar yes no no yes yes yes 0 Google Google Google no
Google Docs yes no some ? no yes* 0 Google Google Google no
Google Groups no yes ? yes no yes 0 Google Google Google no
Yahoo Calendar yes no no ? yes yes 0 Yahoo Yahoo Yahoo yes
Yahoo Groups yes yes ? yes no yes 0 Yahoo Yahoo Yahoo ?
  • Google Docs only supports word processing and spreadsheets, but Google Groups supports any attachments
 
will
2009-02-25

I like this comparison chart, but it is a bit much. I am having trouble seeing if any option has clear advantages over others. Maybe, we can reduce the columns to compare only things that we care about.

Also, we can just say that all these services are free. If we want to compare paid services, then we can start a new table.

And I have a few questions. What is versioning? Do we care who owns the program? Do we care who owns the data (some data we do care, some we don’t I am guessing).

And finally, we will be using some combination of resources. So maybe we can target our selection based on what resources accomplish what tasks best. I am going to try and break-out the important sub-functions that the “remote” communication methods offer. (As a side note, phone and post-mail are valid forms of communication that I don’t see listed).
 
   
Philip
2009-02-25 2009-02-25

Versioning is the automatic tracking of versions of the same document. For example, if you edit a wiki page, later you can easily undo those edits (go back to the previous version). Crab Grass also allows you to upload new versions of any document, such as a spreadsheet, and keeps those versions visible at the document’s wiki page (example).

Do we care who owns the data and what they do with it? This is up for discussion by the collective.

Do we care who owns the program? Similarly. I, for one, support software freedom. Apart from the long-run benefits of free software to society, there are immediate, pragmatic benefits: you know that your data is handled safely because the program source code is open to inspection. That might be an important consideration for some people.

We don’t have to use a combination of resources. I was trying to emphasize that with one login (e.g. Google) we can get collaborative editing, public record of communications, versioning, notification, calendaring. But then we have to move away from Crab Grass and trust Google (or Yahoo). Alternatively, we can use a combination of resources (e.g. Crab Grass with Google Calendar), but then members need to have two accounts to communicate. Or, we can keep using Brown Bear for some calendaring, and Google Calendar for the rest (not nice) until CG gets a calendar function.

We can remove the “cost” column until we start to consider paid services. The other columns may be important to people, I think. But what we can do is to put the calendaring rows (BB, Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar) at the bottom, to make the table easier to read.