Initiative Proposal: Chat communication platforms

[Link Dupont <link sub-pop net>]

Hi,

We have been discussing the future of GNOME's communication platform
for years now, and no real progress comes out of it, except for a
further fracturing of our community. I propose we form a team of
people, representative of different factions of the community
(developers, system administrators, engagement & community outreachers,
designers) that are tasked with identifying the chat platform that best
suits our community's needs now, and in the future.

At a high level, I believe a process like the following may achieve
this goal:

1. Identify a list of acceptance criteria that candidates are evaluated
   against.
2. Request from the community at large for candidates, in the form of
   something similar to an RFP.
3. Review the RFPs against the acceptance criteria, identifying the top
   three candidates.
   3a. Identify members of other open source communities who have used
       the candidate platform and interview them for their experiences.
   3b. Identify members of the candidate's community who could aid in
       running evaluations and/or work through problems that come up.
4. Plan and schedule evaluation periods for the identified candidates.
5. Collect both qualitative and quantitative feedback about each
   candidate.
6. Review feedback and decide on a platform to use.
7. Create the platform launch process and migration process.

I volunteer to run this initiative and be on the team.

🍿
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