So I have decided to start a new open source project to build a communication platform for any type of organisation. Think Slack but simpler and perhaps a bit more focused on a niche.
At first I thought of taking the same kind of approach as Slack and just basing everything off IRC and putting a nice facade over the top, but then that is simply doing the exact same thing, which is a bit boring really. I did go down the route of setting up an IRC server and writing a few scripts to automate the joining of channels and accepting of messages etc., but why re-invent the wheel when Slack have done such a good job.
I then thought I could do something similar to my day job but then you get into all sorts of problems with IP rights and source code.
So instead I am going to look at doing it using the work done by Matrix. Which will provide me with a couple of things really useful to a new project:-
1. It is a fairly new piece of technology so I will be learning something new.
2. All of the communication infrastructure code has been written I can do a Slack and just piggy back off it.
3. I have no idea what I am doing, which is always a great place to start.
I am going to keep this blog updated with the progress, if I make any at all.