Dear Department of Education (Northern Ireland),

I am writing to request the following information under the FOI Act. Please see the notes at the bottom for clarification on these requests.

1. Do you use one or more collaborative messaging apps?

** If no to Q1, Q2-4 do not apply to you and I do not need a response to them. **

2. Please supply:
2.1. a list of names of those apps, and
2.2. the total number of your employees and workers who are registered for each app.

3. Please provide a list names of public channels in those apps which are used primarily for non-work purposes / socialising among employees.

4. To the extent that these are set in the apps, please also provide the following for each channel in Q3:
4.1. Channel topic
4.2. Channel description
4.3. The number of members in that channel.

** Notes for Q1-4. **

Q1-4: Examples of collaborative messaging apps include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat, Matrix and Workplace. There are other apps too, and you may be using an app that you've built internally. For the avoidance of doubt, I am including services provided solely via a website within the meaning of "app" here.

Q3-4: Examples of channels include a general non-work channel and channels for specific interests and hobbies, such as pets, cooking, sports, and so on. Public channel means that any employee may freely join and post in the channel if they are registered for the app, without having to request access. Your messaging app may use a different term for channels, such as (but not limited to) "groups", "categories", and "streams".

Q4: For the avoidance of doubt, I am not looking for a channel topic or description to be written solely for this FOI request if one doesn't already exist. Some apps provide these as built-in fields that employees can set. It is these fields I am looking for.

Yours faithfully,

Sven Shipton