NextCloud voting (plugin)?

Hello!!

A very simple question - can we take votes in MayFirst’s NextCloud?

We are trying to experiment with some kind of voting system at the International ICT worker coop chat room at patio.ica.coop (the group has not found its name yet :sweat_smile:) Other people are also looking into Loomio but we just wanted to know!

Cheers,
Yasu

What about the polls app? https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/polls

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Hello Livia! Nice to see you here! Can we use it with our MayFirst NextCloud?

It looks like we can’t, because the app isn’t installed by default. We would need administrative privileges to install it.

Hi all. May First staff are tasked with maintaining our Nextcloud instance and any apps we decide to install. We’ve been very conservative about installing new apps. Since our time and resources are limited we want to be sure each 3rd party app we include has a proven track record and is well maintained by its developers. We have in fact considered the polls app before but for a different use case than voting. Ultimately it didn’t have all of the features that we were looking for. It is also worth pointing out that we have already installed the forms app which can also be used to conduct surveys so there is a little bit of overlap in functionailty.

If there is sufficient interest from members we can definitely consider the polls app again. If you are interested in using it for voting I would suggest first making sure it actually includes all of the features you require. In this related thread about how we conduct our own online voting as a cooperative another member has listed several desirable features for a voting system.

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And also- welcome Livia! :smile:

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Welcome Livia! And thanks Yasuaki for bring this discussion back, I mean the discussion of the procedure to select an approve a new service / app. I think that this, and the past, discussion arise some question that we must have clear in our coop:

  • ¿who is in charge of taking the decision of installing something new? ¿it is only a tech staff decision?

  • ¿What are the features that we are looking for in an app, how do we decide that?

  • ¿How do we know if there is sufficient interest from members to consider installing a new service/app?

In the few time that I´ve been present, there have been different proposals to have new services but I haven’t understand how as a coop we solve this questions.

¿There are answers or we need to find a procedure for this?

Just want give you my thoughts on this to continue with the debate.

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Those are excellent questions. May First has an elected board which has a “Resource Usage” committee that is in charge of making decisions about what new services to launch. Unfortunately, it has not met in over a year and our board is stretched thin these days so it’s hard to move this stuff forward.

In the past, the main criteria we have used is the resource team’s pereception of whether a service will be widely used combined with the amount of work it would take to provide it. And Jaime says, we have been pretty conservative to avoid spending a lot time supporting services that are not widely used. In the case of Nextcloud apps, it can be really tricky. If we support an App that is discontinued or is slow to upgrade to the latest version of Nextcloud, it can block us from upgrading Nextcloud until it is resolved.

Also, a big factor is what else we are working on at the time. And, right now, the biggest priorities are to complete the transition to our new dues structure and complete the on going infrastructure overhaul.

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Thanks for that excellent reply! For this and future interest on this topic, I think we should have a page in somewhere (I think on the main page) explaining this procedure. Also, I think there should be a date every year for talking about this on the Resource Usage Committee, so if any wants to propose for a new service knows until when aply and when have an answer.

I think that the resource team perception should always be one of the criteria (maybe of great importance) for taking this decision, but also I´m thinking: how if we open this also to a democratic decision. I mean, sometimes is useful to know if there is a feeling in part of the membership of having something new. I´m thinking in a poll for example, to help the resource team to motivate in going for something new. Anyways, I think that whatever the way it is, it should be awesome to have it clear for everyone in the coop (and that is possible by posting a page I think). I´m more than keen to help doing this if it is needed.

And last but not least: I understand the amount of work that you and Jaime have around the transition and appreciate all your work.

FWIW, I use the Polls app on my lab’s NextCloud—after years of use, it has been incredibly stable and useful. Actually, the most useful part of it is that it can be used for scheduling polls. I use it all the time for that, and it has enabled me to avoid corporate services for that like Doodle.