Subject: Next steps: chat service trials

From: Robert Sparks <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:00:58 -0600

We have been running trial zulip, matrix, and xmpp services since October.
See
<https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/ietf-announce/?q=%22trial%20chat%22>

As noted in those announcements, the issue that we are trying to address 
is the difficulty people have been reporting obtaining jabber services 
and clients. We are hopeful that these trials will help the community 
develop a better sense of whether to focus on improving the experiences 
with xmpp or to pursue other chat solutions. We are also open to the 
possibility that these other solutions may be worth operating in 
addition to improving the experiences from xmpp.

However, usage and feedback so far has not been sufficient to inform 
what services we should run in the future.

We had around 50 local jabber accounts created on xmpp-trial1.ietf.org, 
and around 40 accounts were created on each of the matrix and zulip 
services.
Few rooms have been created on the matrix service other than those 
bridging to xmpp.
Few streams were created on the zulip service other than those bridging 
to xmpp and those ingesting a few mailing lists.

We are not aware of anyone trying to use the zulip or matrix servers for 
ietf work outside the main meeting.

If you've used the services, please take a few minutes to provide 
feedback at [email-masked].

Is providing local jabber accounts and a web interface to jabber sufficient?
Are there features that matrix or zulip provide that are truly helpful 
for progressing IETF work? If so, please describe how they are helping.

To collect more feedback, we are planning to extend the trials through 
IETF 110. Please take advantage of these services between now and then 
(at interim meetings for example) and let us know what you find to be 
effective.

If you are interested in using these services more directly for your 
group's day-to-day communication, and are willing to test one or both of 
these services on a primary basis for a while, please coordinate with 
the appropriate leadership and let the tools team know so we can help 
accommodate.  Please consider using these services for ad-hoc, 
design-team meetings, and even interims (again, coordinating with the 
appropriate leadership).

If you have had issues using Jabber in the past, please take some time 
now to work with these new services and describe whether they improve 
your experience.

We need more feedback about these services to develop a sense of what 
will best meet the community's needs going forward. Please engage in 
exploring and discussing them at [email-masked].

While exploring, feel free to use the trial1-feedback room on Matrix and 
the trial1-feedback stream on Zulip.

Thanks again to the volunteers that have been helping configure these 
services and keep them going.

Robert Sparks, Tools Team Chair