Class chats integration

[gabrc52]

I am separating this from #2 because there are some objections about the use of using Canvas moira lists using the Python SOAP API. Moira lists could still be used for this purpose, but they don't necessarily have to be used, so they are separate issues.

There are alternatives:

• Data warehouse for course enrollment
• Canvas API: https://canvas.instructure.com/doc/api/file.oauth.html

Both require approval

[gabrc52]

A big pro I see for #2 is that whatever we create can be transferrable to other colleges. They could deploy their own appservice/bot and Matrix server for Canvas based on our code, if we document it well with instructions and everything, or there could be even a general instance applicable to any Canvas user (if the Canvas classes have some sort of UUID, it may work)

[gabrc52]

Canvas person said "no": "I am not faculty and the deciding body of faculty said no".

A lot of things are contractors and contractors can sign that they will protect privacy. It's hard to do for us legally.

In theory, OAuth + only getting the required permissions for only authenticated people should be enough. Maybe there was a miscommunication. I felt like the person who talked to me was very nice while simultaneously being slightly condescending that this would be some pet project or that I am a tech bro only interested in code and not in MIT policy. "I can't fulfill your request because I don't make the decisions, and for adult reasons that are unimportant. Having people self-report their class list is a good compromise. Best of luck in your endeavors and feel free to reach out for anything else".

Some things that happened may be misrepresented because it was a while ago.

The new plan is to revive Interstellar and to integrate with it. It kind of already has a name even if no one used it.

[gabrc52]

Interstellar was revived/now time to learn a bit of React