IMPORTANT: Moving from Google Groups to Discourse

Hi all,

We have used Google Groups as our mode of communication for eight
years now and it’s time for an upgrade! The Program Management
Committee (http://bit.ly/odk-pmc) has discussed migrating to Discourse
and we would like to propose doing a migration over the next few
weeks.

We strongly believe this move will enable us to have deeper
conversations and get more people involved in Open Data Kit. We base
this on the lessons learned from other open source projects who also
use Discourse.

The big six features that Discourse offers over a Google Groups are...

  • Ability to highlight contributors (e.g., badges for most answers to
    questions, profiles with links to business) so we can recognize folks
    who have been major participants in conversations and helped others.

  • Ability to build sub-forums to enable more focused discussions
    (e.g., form design, job posts, beta releases) where interested parties
    can talk in detail without the entire community being notified.

  • Ability to reduce duplicate posts by showing related questions,
    stickied posts, etc.

  • Ability to add features like FAQ, voting for features, @mentioning
    relevant parties, analytics on activity.

  • Ability to keep engaging the community by sending out weekly emails
    with most active discussions.

  • Ability for folks to keep using Discourse as a plain old mailing list.

To see Discourse in action, check out
https://talk.openmrs.org/categories and see how OpenMRS is using it to
bring developers, implementers, and users together.

Note also that all mailing list posts would be migrated from the
existing lists so that you can claim and own your old posts and we can
start recognizing major contributors immediately!

I was contacted by someone wanting to volunteer his IT experience a
couple of months ago and he has set up all the infrastructure needed
for Discourse and to migrate the existing lists (thanks Mike!).

I would like to do this as soon as possible because it will help
identify the people in the community who can inform concept notes, the
convening, and help us get more feedback on the big changes we are
making in the tools.

Before I share a detailed plan for the transition, I wanted to run the
overall idea by the community. Your comments, concerns, and ideas are
welcome!

Thanks,

Yaw

Hey there everyone. As the person who led the transition from Google Groups
to Discourse for the OpenMRS project (the example Yaw listed in his
previous message), I'm happy to share our experiences or help find answers
to questions that anyone has about one vs. the other.

I am really mostly a lurker here on these lists, but can add one small
summary statement to Yaw's excellent overview: Generally speaking,
Discourse will allow you to interact with ODK communications in the way
that fits your needs best. (Email, occasional browsing of one "list" or
"category", or searching across all the various areas of conversation
within the community.) Searching for past conversations is much easier, and
similar to Slack, Discourse can even add a little "fun" into the process
for those who appreciate such things.

Looking forward to watching the growth of the community, regardless of
communication strategy going forward.

Cheers,
Michael

I just want to add my voice here that having had both experiences from the
very first time OpenMRS started to use google groups to when Michael Downey
took us through a transition to Discourse, i confess that though i was at
first hesitant to the new changes, i finally came to appreciate why this
transition was a MUST for the growth of our community!

Thanks,
Daniel

··· On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 2:03 AM, Michael Downey < mdowney@digitalimpactalliance.org> wrote:

Hey there everyone. As the person who led the transition from Google
Groups to Discourse for the OpenMRS project (the example Yaw listed in his
previous message), I'm happy to share our experiences or help find answers
to questions that anyone has about one vs. the other.

I am really mostly a lurker here on these lists, but can add one small
summary statement to Yaw's excellent overview: Generally speaking,
Discourse will allow you to interact with ODK communications in the way
that fits your needs best. (Email, occasional browsing of one "list" or
"category", or searching across all the various areas of conversation
within the community.) Searching for past conversations is much easier, and
similar to Slack, Discourse can even add a little "fun" into the process
for those who appreciate such things.

Looking forward to watching the growth of the community, regardless of
communication strategy going forward.

Cheers,
Michael

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"ODK Developers" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to opendatakit-developers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

--
If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others, we
shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our
thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same
spirit will flow out to others.

1 Like

Hi all,

Thanks to those of you who have written in to say you’re excited about
Discourse! No one has voiced objection so I think we should proceed.

There isn’t going to be a perfect time to do this, so I think we
should do it sooner rather than later. My plan for the transition is
as follows.

Monday – June 29th, 8 am PDT

  • Post transition reminder to mailing lists
  • Post transition announcement to website, Twitter, Facebook

Thursday – June 1st, 8 am PDT

  • Post transition reminder to mailing lists

Friday – June 2nd, 8 am PDT

  • Put mailing lists in read-only mode
  • Start migration of mailing list threads to Discourse

Sunday – June 4th, 8 am PDT

  • Open Discourse server to the public
  • Update Google Groups to point people to Discourse
  • Post update to website, Twitter, Facebook

Note that there may be up to 48 hours of unavailability of the mailing
lists between Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th as we migrate
everything over!

To keep everyone in the loop, I will be on
http://slack.opendatakit.org in the #meta channel during the
transition with play-by-play updates. I’ll also post major updates to
status on http://twitter.com/opendatakit.

Thanks,

Yaw

··· On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 2:40 AM, Daniel Kayiwa wrote: > I just want to add my voice here that having had both experiences from the > very first time OpenMRS started to use google groups to when Michael Downey > took us through a transition to Discourse, i confess that though i was at > first hesitant to the new changes, i finally came to appreciate why this > transition was a MUST for the growth of our community! > > Thanks, > Daniel > > On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 2:03 AM, Michael Downey wrote: >> >> Hey there everyone. As the person who led the transition from Google >> Groups to Discourse for the OpenMRS project (the example Yaw listed in his >> previous message), I'm happy to share our experiences or help find answers >> to questions that anyone has about one vs. the other. >> >> I am really mostly a lurker here on these lists, but can add one small >> summary statement to Yaw's excellent overview: Generally speaking, Discourse >> will allow you to interact with ODK communications in the way that fits your >> needs best. (Email, occasional browsing of one "list" or "category", or >> searching across all the various areas of conversation within the >> community.) Searching for past conversations is much easier, and similar to >> Slack, Discourse can even add a little "fun" into the process for those who >> appreciate such things. >> >> Looking forward to watching the growth of the community, regardless of >> communication strategy going forward. >> >> Cheers, >> Michael >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "ODK Developers" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to opendatakit-developers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. >> >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > > -- > If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others, we > shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our > thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same > spirit will flow out to others. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "ODK Developers" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to opendatakit-developers+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com. > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
1 Like