On Wed, Mar 28, 2007 at 10:43:00AM +0100, Chris Rowson
wrote:
> I wonder if anyone has ever thought about setting up an
Ubuntu
> community support line?
>
Given how many companies are having difficulty providing
paid-for support, I
am unsure how we as volunteers can provide such a service
cost effectively.
> Does anyone think that setting up a voluntary
'community help desk'
> telephone line could help promote the take-up of Ubuntu
amongst
> non-technical people.
>
Possibly but I can see some issues with it compared with
electronic support.
Telephone support requires a dedicated brain at each end of
the phone
line, it's a synchronous process, and has *only* one brain
at the helping
end. A forum or support tracker has many eyeballs watching
it, and whilst
there may be nobody in your timezone who is looking right
now, someone in
another zone might be able to solve it. That person may be
in an office, or
even on a train (answering mails offline) where taking a
phone call just
isn't practical or even possible.
A text medium is also great for getting people to cut/paste
logs/errors. Ok,
you can ask someone to pastebin a log file, but you have to
sit and wait
whilst they do it.
> I had this idea whilst reading the other thread about
including
> sources of support on CD inserts. I can't help but
think a telephone
> number would make a service especially appealing.
It is to those who have a broken internet connection,
dial-up only, ubuntu
broken install and so on. Or those people who are just
starting out and need
a helping hand.
> Routing it to VoIP
> makes manning the telephone line a non-hardship too, as
the 'operator'
> can simply sit and go about their own thing until a
call comes
> through.....
>
...and when a call comes in there is nothing else you can do
whilst you are
on the phone. I can answer support tickets pretty much
anywhere, and walk
out of the room to change my babys nappy, check the curry,
pop to the shop
etc. When you are tied to a
> I'm quite interested in this concept and willing to set
it up if
> anyone else has any interest in it.
>
If you can iron out the above I suspect it could be a very
valuable
proposition. Even a money spinner if you used a
"premium" or "national rate"
line.
Cheers,
Al.
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