[Linux-aus] The case for an established product to replace MemberDB

[Tim Ansell]

In Josh's president report he mentions in the "Membership platform" section;

The Council, thanks to the hard work of Kathy Reid, has put together a list
> of requirements of a membership platform and will be looking for volunteers
> to help with shifting to a new system.


Could the "list of requirements" be shared with the list? (Or could I have
a link to them if they have been shared previous and I've missed them.)

Thanks!

Tim


On 22 January 2015 at 15:24, Kathy Reid <kathy at kathyreid.id.au> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> There's been some excellent debate here about the future of MemberDB, and
> whether a mature product - possibly CiviCRM, but not necessarily - should
> be favoured over a collection of lower level utilities.
> I'd like to make the case for an established product.
>
> Maintability and supportability
>
> While less mature tools and utilities may do the job - and do the job well
> - and even do *exactly* the job we want them to do, they fall down when it
> comes to maintenance and supportability. We have a small team of people who
> work on ZooKeepr - which is an integral part of running linux.conf.au -
> and both getting new people up to speed and willing to commit unpaid time
> to maintenance is difficult. We all have day jobs/lives/other commitments.
>
> If we were to go down the road of a mature product, then the support
> ecosystem would be one of the selection criteria. If necessary, we could
> buy in the skills to maintain and support the product, and *documentation*
> for the product is likely going to also be more comprehensive, lowering the
> barrier to entry of those who may wish to volunteer time to maintain it.
>
>
> Alignment with values
>
> Linux Australia supports open communities and open technologies, and
> contributes to the open source industry and ecosystem in Australia and New
> Zealand. I feel that it's actually a closer alignment to our values to
> support and adopt an existing mature product - even if we need to pay to do
> so - than to build another tool which will likely entropy over time - as
> MemberDB has.
>
>
> Feature set and applicability
>
> If LA were to adopt a mature tool, the feature set is likely to be much
> richer - even if we don't use all of it. There will likely be use cases we
> hadn't though of as the organisation evolves and our remit changes - and to
> have a mature product established is likely to give us more flexibility. A
> mature toolset is also likely to have wider applicability to the LUGs who
> are Subcommittees of Linux Australia - and therefore entitled to leverage
> LA's infrastructure.
>
>
> Cost of ownership
>
> This argument is somewhat contentious. A mature product may have an
> initial cost - for purchase, or installation consultancy -and for ongoing
> maintenance and upgrades, depending if it's hosted on LA servers or hosted
> somewhere in the cloud. However, the TCO of a non-mature product comes from
> the loss of productivity in being able to do all the things we'd like to do
> with a Membership system, and possibly the competing technologies it would
> be written in. For instance, linux.org.au is on Drupal. The people
> administering it - Web Team, Council etc - are going to be the same people
> who use the tools and utilities. Let's make it easy for the people who
> volunteer their time to Linux Australia to do what they need to do, rather
> than having to switch between multiple systems.
>
>
> Legal compliance
>
> Linux Australia is incorporated under the Incorporations Act of NSW, and
> administered by the NSW Office of Fair Trading. There are a number of
> requirements this legal framework places upon LA - which are generally very
> reasonable. They include the ability to do good reporting on membership,
> and ensure currency of membership. A mature product is both more likely to
> allow us to achieve compliance, and further - and distinctly - demonstrate
> that we are compliant.
>
>
> I warmly welcome further discussion around this point.
>
> Kind regards,
> Kathy
>
>
>
>
> --
> --
>
> Kathy Reid
> kathy at kathyreid.id.au
> 0418 130 636
> @kathyreid
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-aus mailing list
> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus
>
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