Now communities have a choice of software, they need advice as to which is best for them*. Here are the questions they should be asking. (Like most of my blog posts, this is a work in progress, so when you need to refer to it, come back to the site itself, not to your RSS reader)
Software decision making is hard and deserves careful consideration. Committing to software is like marriage. You find the best match you can, and then adapt to each other's needs. So flexibility of one or both parties is important. Tying the knot is easy, but adapting is hard, and when the divorce is more expensive the more each party has adapted. Typically, moving platform is an opportunity for a complete site redesign, because in the few brief years of the relationship, the world, and your requirements, have moved on.
So communities should consider..
- Political alignment
- is autonomy important to them, or are they happy to join a movement in South Africa which has approximately the same aims? Do they want to be able to innovate and design, or do they want to get on with other, real world activities? Also, is open source important?
- Road map & project health
- Moving platform can be traumatic, or at the very least expensive. So consider how many users it already has, whether it has a sustainable finance model etc., and where the software is going.
- Pricing model over the long term
- A hosted solution will be a fixed cost while with their own project they can turn the funding taps on and off. Is there an up front budget for development, or is the only income from subscriptions.
- Availability/cost of developers
- What happens if the software project dies, or the software maintainer dies? How much of a blow would that be, and what would be the cost of replacement? Widely deployed systems are safer.
- Customisation
- Getting the software to do anything it doesn't do already is expensive. Forking existing packages is expensive. Communities should prioritise their software requirements, and try to choose a package that already meets their highest priorities. Any customisation is likely to need more attention, as your needs become clearer, and again, during upgrades. You will bear the full cost of developing and testing software which only you are likely to use. If your customisation was so necessary, perhaps you can find similar communities with that requirement and club together.
These questions should be turned to the three business models available:
The way I see it, there are three sensible options. To reduce bias, I leave you to fill in the details.
CES is the easiest solution. they set you up with an exchange and you join their economy and play by their rules and use their software which they designed.
Drupal enables communities do design their systems much more, and gives them autonomy. The software is free and they may be able to find volunteer or professional support to customise it for them.
Community Forge is something in between. It uses Drupal and they would 'own' it, but the design is generic and the maintenance taken care of.
*Disclaimer for readers from afar, the present author is also the author of one of the leading systems. There may be inherent bias in this article!
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