# Open Source Communication

Two things to think about:

1. Chi possiede le nostre conversazioni? Nostra storia? Ad esempio: quando ci cambiamo il platform (Whatsapp) poi questi conversazioni stanno nel Whatsapp.
2. Quonto costa. Qualcuno deva pagare. Con WhatsApp paghiamo con nostra data.

General recommendations:

**"Self-Hosting" vs. "Cloud"**

* "Self-Hosting" means we can run it anywhere. A server in our closet or a server on someone's Cloud service (see my example in Rocket.Chat).
* "Cloud" means that we run it on their computer

We can use a Cloud service if the software is 100% open source. Then we can move to a "Self-Hosted" solution later. The middle-ground is a "One-Click Self-Hosting" solution. With a self-hosted solution, we can use our current domain and have something like https://chat.theschooloflosingtime.com/.

## [Zulip](https://zulip.com/)

Zulip is pretty interesting. It handles topic threads differently (better?) than most chat programs. Zulip is open source (you can access its source code on GitHub) and free to use. But it also offers paid cloud and support.

1. 💸 Zulip [Self-Hosted](https://zulip.com/self-hosting/): Free + Server costs
2. 💸 Zulip [Cloud for Education plans](https://zulip.com/for/education/#feature-pricing): Free
- theschooloflosingtime.zulipchat.com
- Recommended for a typical class.
- 10,000 messages of search history
- File storage up to 5 GB total
3. 💸 Standard for Education: For large classes and departments.
- theschooloflosingtime.zulipchat.com
- Unlimited search history
- File storage up to 10 GB per user
- Brand Zulip with your logo
- Education (for-profit):
- $1/user/month with annual billing discount
- $1.20/user/month billed monthly
- Education (non-profit)
- $0.67/user/month w/ annual billing discount
- $0.80/month billed monthly

> Non-profit discount applies to registered non-profit institutions (e.g. colleges and universities). **If this pricing is a burden for any reason, contact [e-mail] to request sponsorship.**

Assuming The School of Losing Time is like other schools, we will have a lot of people coming onto the platform and leaving the platform. So seats can get expensive; their cheapest plan is $20/mo for 30 users.

We must consider how we want to use this platform. I am imaging something more inclusive than our WhatsApp group. Many people may come and go as they make Losing Time activities. If this is the case, a small fraction may continue to participate even after they stop Losing Time. Do we develop a "seat policy" to remove inactive participants?

I think we should contact [e-mail] after we have a better sense of how we might manage an online community. An informal understanding - i.e. "rough consensus" - is good enough at this point.

I have friends in the [Clojure](https://clojure.org) community that use Zulip. Zulip offers full services for free [to all open source groups](https://zulipchat.com/for/open-source/). This means that at least as long as Zulip is around, all messages sent are readable and searchable by anyone who joins Clojurians Zulip.

I recommend [trying Zulip yourself](https://chat.zulip.org/) or perhaps read [people's opinions on Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36141107). Here is an illustration done by [Julia Evans](https://twitter.com/b0rk/status/986444234365521920) that explains a bit more about Zulip:


## [Rocket.Chat](https://www.rocket.chat/team-collaboration)


It would be easy for the School of Losing Time to setup our own instance of Rocket.Chat. Akamai/Linode offers a [one click solution](https://www.linode.com/marketplace/apps/linode/rocket-chat-platform/) that we can move to our own School of Losing Time infrastructure in the future. For example, you're reading this document from https://cloud.schmud.de. It is currently hosted on a on-click [Akamai/Linode install](https://www.linode.com/marketplace/apps/nextcloud/nextcloud/) and costs me $25/month.

* 💸 Rocket-Chat One Click Self-Hosted: Free + $25/Month Server Costs
* 💸 Rocket-Chat Self-Hosted: ?
* 💸 Rocket-Chat Cloud: ?

> We offer special rates to organizations that do good things around the world. If you'd like to apply for a concession, please get in touch with us and we'll be glad to get to know your work.

## [Element](https://element.io/features/spaces-enterprise-chat-rooms) and [Gitter](https://gitter.im/)


Element has [chat rooms](https://element.io/features/spaces-enterprise-chat-rooms) and Element One has chat support for WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram using the [Matrix Protocol](https://matrix.org/ecosystem/bridges/).

Gitter is much like Element. It uses the same underlying technology.

* 💸 Element One Cloud: $5/user/month
* 💸 Gitter is entirely free for all public and private conversations.

I beleive that the URL for both could be https://chat.theschooloflosingtime.com/.

It's easy to [try a demo of Gitter](https://app.gitter.im/#/room/#solid_solidos:gitter.im). The main advantage is the ability to host rooms that are more open to the general public. Gitter also uses the Matrix protocol.