People communication channels

The following are some of Mozilla's communication channels as of 15-May-2014 with pros and cons to help you select which channels you should use/pay attention to.

Recommendation

• Limit the number of communication channels you pay attention to. Mozilla already creates a lot of "noise" and it can be confusing, overwhelming, and frustrating to try to keep up with them all (and there's no need).

IRC

IRC is a chat-like communications platform for real-time discussions that is accessible by anyone in the world. You can chat privately with specific people or you can chat in rooms specific to a project or a team.

Pros: Open-by-default, free, real-time synchronous, private 1:1 communications, desktop+mobile.

Cons: Typically requires an additional application to run, understanding the commands to join a room or private message someone. Without additional technology or reviewing logs, old messages are not saved.

Bugzilla

While Bugzilla is Mozilla's primary bug-tracking system, a "bug" can represent anything. A bug can be a collection of activities to perform, a specific requirement needed, a tracking bug, or pretty much anything else. Within each bug, you can have conversations, reply to people, post questions/comments, and specifically ask for a comment from one or more people.

Pros: Open-by-default, private communications, integration with other tools, large existing population of users, notifications.

Cons: Some people find all of the features and options overwhelming. Comments have to exist within a bug itself and there is no generic project conversation forum.

Mailing Lists

Mozilla's mailman mailing list service provides Mozillians the ability to create public e-mail based mailing lists for their team and/or project.

Pros: Open-by-default, asynchronous communication, anyone can create a list, anyone can subscribe, admins can add/remove people from the list, no additional tools since everyone already uses emails.

Cons: You will need to use your email program or web-based e-mail to communication and you should set up filters to keep the messages self-contained.

Mozillians.org

Pros:

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Air Mozilla

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Yammer

Mozilla has two Yammer instances; one for staff only and one that includes vouched Mozillians who have requested an invitation. It is not open source and has a Facebook-UI and similar functionality.

Pros: All Mozilla employees and some volunteers have an account, you can create custom groups to collaborate on a specific topic or project, easy-to-use, mobile app. You can have conversations about issues without fearing press / media is listening.

Cons: Closed-by-default.

Google Docs

Google Docs have a commenting system built right into the product and allows people to have discussions about specific pieces of text and suggest changes. It is a great way to collaborate on the creation of documentation.

Pros: Collaborative, web-based, role based security.

Cons: Closed-by-default, but you can add anyone internally or externally to be able to view, edit, or comment.

Planet

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Discourse

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