Integrating Loomio Tools Into Other Free Code Platforms
Danyl Strype PublicSeen by 94Now that Loomio has been refactored to allow polls to be used outside of Loomio groups, even by people without Loomio account, it might be easier to integrate Loomio decision-making tools into other free code platforms. There are at least two ways this could work:
* integrating Loomio polls hosted on an existing instance (eg Loomio.org) through some kind of plug-in to other project managmenets platforms (eg RedMine)
* running an instance of Loomio, along with instances other free code tools (eg Etherpad, WikiMedia, XMPP chat, GNU Social, Ghost), integrated into a hybrid platform, made available to users under a single set of login credentials.
I'm following up here from a couple of other somewhat-related Loomio discussions.
https://www.loomio.org/d/jA6QwKpS/comment/1382904
https://www.loomio.org/d/8JRAQDGX/comment/1381060
My impression from @gdpelican in this comment https://www.loomio.org/d/jA6QwKpS/comment/1382409 is that the Loomio devs are not much interested in other free code platforms.
I am excited to integrate with FLOSS tools, but as a co-owner and co-op member it's my primary responsibility at the moment to allow Loomio to pay its members a sustainable wage so that we can continue to provide this useful thing to you without killing ourselves. We have already lost tons of talented people as members because we've been unable to build a sustainable business out of this thing yet. I'm not going to work on anything which I don't think will move us in that direction.
There is a growing suite of proprietary software that might almost constitute the organizational toolset that @gregorycassel and others are looking for: github, slack, trello, etc etc etc, and all of the google apps. (And I suppose that is the toolset where Loomio wants to belong, which is probably a good business decision.)
What I think they are missing is any real line-of-business i.e. economic apps, as far as I know. That accounting that Enspiral uses (xero) has a lot of integrations, but I don't see github, slack or trello.
And any of those suites could get expensive for an org that has limited income.
Sandstorm looked like it could have been the interation platform. Probably still could be, but don't know how alive it still is. But what's the suite? What are the apps? Are they integrated or integratable like those proprietary apps? How about economic apps?
GitLab has a «libre» community edition that I feel is a true alternative to GitHub.
You may also find open-source alternatives to proprietary software here (french website also available in english):
https://degooglisons-internet.org/
This "de-googl-ify Internet" campain aims at deploying and/or improving open-source services that can be used as replacements of GAFAM services.
Hello, it would be cool to provide APIs or webhooks to allow integration with open-source SW like Rocketchat, though it is a free copy of Slack and Loomio relies on Slack to pay their staff... As @bobhaugen mentioned Sandstorm, it may indeed be the best open-source toolset out there that Loomio could integrate with. GitLab, Rocketchat and WeKan are also available there as alternatives to Github/Slack/Trello.
That is, such a toolset could be offered to small non-profit associations to promote open-source, free software, while the paid, extensive current toolset could be used as the main business as it is now.
+1 for Rocket.chat integration. Also for Discourse.
+1 for Rocket.chat and some sort of kanban board tool integration, that would suit all the needs of my group. I don't exactly know how would Sandstorm integration look, but it sounds amazing as well.
We're not planning on doing a Rocket.chat integration in the near future. I will, however, put it on my list to get a Zapier app out there early this year, which will allow folks to set up their own simple integrations with most tools out there. Also to pull out our API documentation a little bit so that folks can start writing their own if they need something more nuanced.
A friend of mine is building a clone of the loomio polling sytem (which includes proposals etc.) on scuttlebutt. Stay tuned
I'm keen on experimenting with either method for a new version of CoActivate.org, which hosts a number of projects I've started including Disintermedia, CounterClaim, and the Aotearoa Permaculture Network. CoA currently integrates elements of other projects including WordPress, and Xinha (web-based HTML editor). The lead developer for CoA, Ethan, wants to move towards making the base infrastructure even more pluggable, so that we depend on and contribute to mature free code components rather than having to write and maintain our own to add new functions.
Once development gets the point where that's possible, I'd be keen to make Loomio tools available to CoA users under their existing CoA login credentials. Happy to be guided by the Loomio crew as to whether its more beneficial to you to run our own instance, or help our users discover Loomio.org.