I’m not a customer like @mattdm but I’m running a number of Discourse instances dedicated to free software, and Matrix is one of the major tools used in the community. It became the main communication tool for a number of people, supplanting native IRC as it can also bridge with it. Yet, Matrix remains under-exploited as a “chat”: it can do a lot more, and sooner or later, federated forum over Matrix is bound to happen. It would be great to see Discourse as a leader in that field, as it is in the Fediverse. Supporting chat interop with Matrix would be a required first step.
@Thomas_Rother would you be interested in discussing more funding opportunities for free software at next OFFDEM?
I would completely support @hellekin statements. There is a strong push towards using Matrix for chat solutions among many open source communities and also within governmental organisations here in Europe. Discourse and CDCK as its organisational framework should understand that this can be an important gamechanger for (or against) Discourse in the near future. Currently this may only be a phenomenon for “tecchie people”. But sooner or later also the less tecchie people (including managers) will understand that Matrix is the right way to do things - open sourced, based on an open and flexible open protocol and federated.
I described earlier that we already have a number of really big players in Europe and Germany which use (or soon will use) Matrix-based solutions (e.g. bwmessenger for the german army or the future TI-messenger for the national healthcare network operated by german GEMATIK).
Therefore CDCK should really make this an official project for the development of a technical connection between the current Discourse chat and some Marix-based services outside of a local Discourse instance (including “inter-Discourse” chat). Similar to the development which already started by @angus for the ActivityPub protocol (ActivityPub Plugin)
I doubt that funding is really the main problem. I think, we first need
a clear commitment from CDCK staff that matrix implementation is a useful and planned functionality/use case for the Discourse product
one or two people who can do development work (e.g. 1 x for DIscourse/ruby programming, 1 x for UX work). Plus more supporters for testing, debugging and documentation. I an not a ruby developer, but I could help with test environments and debugging/documentation
we already had someone@joshsimmons from the Matrix Foundation in this topic here. He may be helpful with connections and technical details on the matrix side.
Funding, either crowdfunding or external funds, is the last planning step from my point of view. An application for funding can only be made if the other points are clear and agreed upon from the CDCK side. I already mentioned the SRS as a possible source for support and there may be others. There may also be stakeholders among the business customers of CDCK who could support the development of a matrix functionality.