Episode 105: GrimoireLab at Thunderbird  ## Metadata - Author: [[CHAOSScast]] - Full Title: Episode 105: GrimoireLab at Thunderbird - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/87ffc9fd-b1d9-4cba-a0c7-97a64d555673 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Heather's Thunderbird Discovery** - Heather Ellsworth discovered Thunderbird after rejecting Outlook in a corporate setting. - She fell in love with Thunderbird as a superior alternative email client. Transcript: Heather Ellsworth Yeah, I mean, mostly as a user, I found Thunderbird just like so many others have. When I had to start using it for a corporate job, I was given an Outlook email address and I immediately hated Outlook and searched for an alternative and fell in love with Thunderbird Immediately. So it is a very useful tool that rivals a common corporate tool outlook and is so much better in many ways. And so it's a great email client that I'm very happy to be a part ([Time 0:05:34](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7bf7b857-2a1c-42ca-b3e2-74bf61baee1a)) - **Beyond Code Contributions** - Metrics must include all community activity, not just code contributions. - This holistic view helps understand community health and trends better. Transcript: Luis Cañas-Díaz And from a point of view, they lacked the visibility on what was happening in terms of community members and trends, etc. Because we have to be aware that when we see these fancy reports with a lot of colors telling us about the number of contributors for an ecosystem project, we have to ask ourselves if the Numbers we see are for the people creating the code, plus providing feedback for the people providing feedback or translations. In this case, with this collaboration Thunderbird, we have been able to measure that. So we are measuring the support forums. We are measuring the tool they use for the translation. It is called PONTUM. Sorry for my pronunciation. And we are also measuring, for instance, the activity in the topic box groups. So that way, those folks now are able to quantify and measure and understand what is happening with the whole community, not only with the people creating the code. ([Time 0:06:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/26c0abe8-3c23-490a-b111-6298d85ca27a)) - **Data Discovery Process** - Initial broad questions about community activity drive data collection. - Detailed questions and improvements come after understanding the data trends. Transcript: Wayne Mery Four or five years ago and was very interested in not just the numbers for the sake of numbers, but understanding our community. So that's where the idea started. As Heather mentioned, you know, we're also very interested in the numbers themselves. So maybe you could expand on that, Heather. Yeah. Heather Ellsworth I went in with some very broad questions like, where are contributions happening the most? Are they stabilized? Are they waning? Are they increasing? Just in general, what do the numbers and the trends look like? And once we've collected a sufficient amount of that data, we can start to make more fine-tuned questions and decisions to try and improve those trends to match what we want. ([Time 0:10:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/409a7a2e-ffe4-49a9-b31f-a686e6594a1c)) - **Open Dashboards Build Trust** - Public dashboards empower community members to explore metrics independently. - Transparency builds trust and engagement without needing special access. Transcript: Heather Ellsworth You produce reports? Are there other ways that you share the information that the dashboards produce? Yeah, that's a good question. So yes, anyone can access the dashboard. That's thunderbird.beterg And right before the Christmas holiday, I, in collaboration with Betergia, wrote an extensive blog post pointing out these dashboards and encouraging People to use them and play with them. I think that one of the really cool things, maybe it's a small thing, but I think it's a really neat thing about Paturgia is that anybody can go and look at these dashboards and tinker around Without needing an account. That's true open source transparency. And I love saying that. So we haven't begun producing like frequent reports. I think that that's something that we can look forward to in this next year, perhaps something that's quarterly or similar. But like I said, last year was mostly about data collection and starting to understand it. And that's what the blog post at the end of the year kind of reflected. ([Time 0:18:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d5dac74c-6cda-4631-be9e-0c34f8069378)) - **Metrics Illuminate Community Patterns** - Metrics reveal cyclical and geographic engagement patterns. - Understanding weak areas guides targeted outreach and community support. Transcript: Wayne Mery I think better understanding what we see in the numbers. In the past year, we've seen, for example, cyclical things that happen in some areas, some of which we knew and some of which we didn't. Geographically, we know that we are weak in certain areas, in certain languages, for example, in either engagement of community people or helping them. So that's something that I'd like to see us explore. I'm sure also that there are areas of the dashboard that we're going to be tweaking and improving. And also the query language that we can use in the product can allow us to do ad hoc stuff, which I know I haven't done anything with to date. So I hope to make better use of that. Heather Ellsworth Yeah, I think I'd like to also see, and this is kind of driven by, I think, me as the devrel, but more specific calls to action throughout the year as we have ([Time 0:21:25](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6540d2d1-1486-40ac-88b4-22794342707f)) - **Release Impact on Translations** - Metrics show periodic translation activity linked to release cycles. - Monthly releases may increase translation frequency and engagement. Transcript: Heather Ellsworth Bug activity has also been decreasing a bit. So I'd like to improve the bug metrics there. Translations, as Wayne mentioned, things are very periodic that kind of go with our releases. And you definitely see that in the translations. One thing that I think will be interesting here is as we are moving to monthly releases, it'll be interesting to see if that frequency changes to kind of match the monthly release schedule That we're moving to. For user support, I think that we would really like to see more help there. I think getting more and more queries, which is good. That means there's more users that are interacting and asking questions. And so we'll need continued support there. And the email lists. We have several email lists that you can find a list of them on developer.thunderbird You can navigate to topic box where there's a list of all of our different email lists that you can Sign up for and participate on and keep an eye on like the planning status of things. And if you're a beta tester, thank you. You can provide feedback there. ([Time 0:24:07](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1cd75c02-9142-4365-a994-47ac20988a69)) - **Join CHAOSS for Collaborative Success** - Join the CHAOSS community to collaborate openly on community metrics. - Build collective tools to avoid unsustainable solo projects that quickly end after funding dries up. Transcript: Alice Sowerby Give to another open source project that might be considering adopting Grimoire Lab? Heather Ellsworth I would positively encourage adopting Grimoire Lab to use a data-driven approach to make decisions on how to support the community. It really sheds light on what the shape is of the community and where potential holes might be that you might not know about. So I think that the collaboration with Vitergia has been very positive and friendly, and I enjoy seeing them at conferences and chatting with them about the data. So I just couldn't encourage it enough. Wayne Mery Yeah, I would certainly echo that. We've encountered some rough spots, but they were worked through very nicely. And as someone who's been involved in the project for such a long time, it's very interesting to see these things visualized. It's almost like it makes it seem real, right? That's a fabulous thing. Alice Sowerby Luis, did you have any advice? Luis Cañas-Díaz Yes. If you are listening to this podcast and you are thinking, oh, I would like to do something on my own or for my company, please come to us and let's discuss, let's collaborate in creating Something in the open. Because we've been in many, many places during the last 10 years where people are using their own tools and they have some budget, they have some people in a company to do it. But a year later, there is no more budget. There is no more people to maintain the thing. Luis, did you have any advice? Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis Luis And that thing ends up in the bin. So my advice is that if you are interested in the topic, please join the Chaos Communication channels and discuss with us. Grimard Lab has been improving the tool a lot, as we are also in the supply ([Time 0:27:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/81d269b9-b702-4f48-891f-afe225668d93)) - **Wayne's European Vacation** - Wayne Mery took a vacation after retiring from a long-term job. - He explored European cities with guides, gaining rich historical insights. Transcript: Wayne Mery Yes, tagging on the idea of attending Fostum, which was great in and of itself. I took the following week of vacation, which was great because I just recently retired from another long-term job. So this was a good break. And we took some tours, which I was very thankful that I booked because often I just go and do my own explorations. But we had three great tour guides, one in Brussels, one on a trip to Bruges and Ghent, and another day Antwerp and so much rich history, information that they were able to communicate That I really didn't know before. And it was great to just get out there in other areas of Europe, which I hadn't been to. ([Time 0:33:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/52920775-89c4-4842-b708-2d0db79af421))