Re: Gitlab Migration

[Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com>]

Arthur Miller <arthur.miller@live.com> writes:

>
> I understand, but that can also be interpretted as if they prefer mail as
> they getting more experienced.

Yes, I already pointed that out and said we won't know until more time
has passed. 

> I also don't really understand what is problem
> with emails. Smartphones have almost removed distinction between a so called an
> instant message and and email. Email has become just yet another messaging
> media.
>

Some of it is about ensuring all necessary information is included. In
many 'business' processes, email is a problem because people neglect to
include crucial information in the message. If on the other hand, they
are required to fill in a form, then mandatory or important information
can be gathered and the content will be in a set format, enabling easier
automation of processing.

Despite what others have claimed, the security problems with email have
NOT been addressed. It is still one of the major vectors for
compromising access via social engineering, major vector for infection
from ransomeware, frequent source of privacy breeches and a common means
used to get sensitive data out of an organisation. Even having encrypted
messages is overly complex for most users and a nightmare to administer
for large organisations. Some of these issues can be partially mitigated
through training/education and various technologies, but these tend to
significantly increase the cost and administration overheads and often
make the service less convenient for users. There is also an element of
it all being 'too hard' (from an administration perspective). 

For younger people, I suspect part of it is just a perception of email
as being old and outdated and not fitting as well with their 'style' of
communication, which tends to be about short messages and group chat in
near 'real time'.

> What I have suggested in several comments by now, is that it is maybe possible
> to tuck git workflow on existing mail workflow. Maybe some tasks could be
> automated I don't know.
>

I'm sure we could use git facilities to enhance the existing workflows,
but that isn't what people are asking for. Those using the existing
email based workflows are not the ones suggesting adoption of more
github/gitlab type functionality. I get the impression that those who
use the existing workflows are quite happy with the current situation.
this is what makes the suggestion of sourceHut as a solution uncertain
as it isn't clear it would provide the web UI facilities being asked for
and may only add a little sugar to the existing workflows, which may
make the effort and change management overhead of adoption harder to
justify. 

> So will your university listen to the students and open a discord channel or
> was it snappchat they prefer? Sorry, hope you don't mind a joke.

Don't know, I retired and no longer work there. They did introduce
'Facebook for Business' for staff and certainly were looking at how to
incorporate various social media platforms. However, social media makes
them (administration) nervous because they cannot control it (which in
itself shows a flaw or outdated thinking within administration's
attitude).

I think some of Eli's comments are quite relevant to this discussion.
There probably needs to be more clarity about exactly what the
requirements or final goal is here. There are lots of opinions about
what would be a good solution, but less clarity regarding what precisely
those requirements are.