We currently have the following forms of communication available to us: (a) discussions like this one on g.d.o and (b) the Sac Dug skype room.
Those two options each have their strengths. g.d.o is good for public, forum-type stuff. Skype is good for chatting, although participation is usually pretty light since people often are not signed in. However, I'm finding myself wanting to communicate with the active members of this group via email without the contents necessarily being publicly archived for posterity.
Am I missing any options that provide this ability? If not, I'm thinking we should set up a restricted google group that basically functions as an email distribution list. I suspect doing this would enable an additional level of communication.
What do you think? Would you be interested? Please provide feedback.
Thanks,
Mike
Comments
Communication
The Google Group gets my vote.
IRC?
We experimented with IRC for our group, but decided against it just because Skype's feature of maintaining a backlog of conversation was beneficial to us. On IRC, you're either there when it happens, or not. That could fit your bill for not being archived for eternity.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of email list server communication. I already get too many emails from g.d.o. and I'm not all that interested in getting yet another group site set up. We're also still having issues with meetings being posted to both g.d.o and meetup.com, with varying degrees of accuracy. The last thing we need is more fragmentation. In addition, I'm not interested in a "restricted" group. Drupal is a very open community, which is one of its biggest strengths.
One more thing I want to mention is that we're not alone here. SacDUG is only one of many many Drupal groups all over the world, and if you want to ask Drupal questions or get support, confining your request to just the SacDUG would be limiting your options. There are lots of avenues available for interacting with the Drupal community. Again, IRC is one of the best, but certainly not the only. http://drupal.org/irc
Good point
I had not put thought into "restricted" and agree with Shawn's point. That said, a restricted group as presented offers a local Drupal community a way to interact and build relationships that one might not find on a public forum. Setting up a group won't hurt and I am guessing that the creation of a local group would be more beneficial to the Drupal community than not in that anything that builds interest or loyalty to Drupal is a plus. Also, a restricted group does not mean that any other interested person's will be excluded - want to join, just ask. And my last point would go to newbies - myself included. A forum/group where one could interact/ask newbie questions might make things less intimidating and perhaps more inviting. One of Drupal's criticisms is that there is a steep learning curve - a local group might help and might be worth a try. And essentially, Drupal Meetups/Camps, etc. are restricted in that anyone who does not attend is left out.
Email work's best for me.
My two cents...
I have to say that I agree with Shawn - one more set of emails is going to get lost in my inbox at this point.
I'm not sure I'm clear on the downside of the Skype group (other than having to ask someone to add you, I suppose). Yes, you have to remember to sign in ... but you can do so when you like, people can see when you're available, you don't get bombarded with emails that you never get around to reading. Plus you can scroll through the back log to get caught up, if and when you want to.
I don't really see many downsides to the Skype situation, but of course that's just my opinion. :))
Thanks for the input
Thanks for the input everyone.
@RAS, I think you and I have similar opinions on the subject.
@Shawn, setting up the group would be easy, so I don't consider that an issue. I was planning on setting it up if other people see value in it. The fragmentation question is interesting. However, honestly, the level of communication that is happening between SacDUG members (outside of the meetings) is very low. We went six days without a single message in skype. g.d.o has had relatively little of interest recently outside of announcements and a lot of those were cross posted. I suspect that enabling email interaction would stimulate communication, not diminish it.
Additionally, I wouldn't worry about the "restricted" aspect of the group. I used that word because it's google's terminology. It just means the contents of the list are not published to the web automatically - you have to join the group to see the archive. There would be little point in having a non-restricted google group since that would function much like g.d.o. And as RAS points out, we can still have a very open policy about joining the group.
I understand the point that we are part of the larger Drupal community. But there is still something special about people that you actively meet with on a regular basis. It makes sense to target some interactions at the larger community and some at your local community. I don't view the situation as a zero-sum game where the two communities are competitors. Rather, I view them as complementary. Again, I agree with the ideas that RAS has suggested, enabling more communication will almost certainly strengthen the local group which, in turn, will likely create more significant contributions from the local group to the larger Drupal community.
@Sloane, skype just has a different dynamic than email and a lot of people are more comfortable with email. Conversations in skype have a very here-and-now feeling to them whereas email is a little more detached and therefore expires less quickly. Also, I know a lot of people in the group work in a web-development situation where skype access is no problem. However, others of us work in a corporate environment where skype is not nearly as accessible as email. Furthermore, at any given moment a very small percentage of the SacDUG people are signed into skype. However, I suspect a large percentage of the same people will get notifications about email arriving.
Anybody else care to comment?
Skype IM is real time, which
Skype IM is real time, which provides immediacy. Email is a different medium. Both are useful, but they aren't the same. IM is better for conversations. But it's not very good for people behing a corporate firewall.
As far as email overload, a simple solution is to set up a special folder for group-related emails and us a filter to automatically move them there.
Good point. Also, as much as I like Skype for voip (which I've used daily for years), the current interface (Mac 5) is dreadful. I don't want notifications of each new post (way too distracting), so I tend to miss things. Anything of importance to me works better via email.
I wouldn't eliminate either channel, but strive to use them when appropriate. Sometimes you just need a real time chat, IM is nice for that (but email me first ).
How about this...
Thanks Phil.
How about this... I'll set the group up and provide details about it in a separate thread. People who are interested can subscribe and we can give it a try for while. If need be, we can revisit the subject after a few months and decide if it's really adding value.