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

[Kathy Reid]

Hiya Tim,
Great suggestion - 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyTA3Fj5J9XL2D7UTIxw46smXGrLM5J-fI4g6GxK9hM/edit?usp=sharing

Bare bones at the moment, but as with all these things, it's a starting 
point.

Best,
Kathy


On 1/02/2015 2:55 AM, Tim Ansell wrote:
> 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 
> <mailto: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 <http://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 <http://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 <mailto:kathy at kathyreid.id.au>
>     0418 130 636 <tel:0418%20130%20636>
>     @kathyreid
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     linux-aus mailing list
>     linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au <mailto:linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au>
>     http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.linux.org.au/pipermail/linux-aus/attachments/20150201/a8e3d92a/attachment.html>