Re: Setting up of a FOSS Helpline in Kolkata
Kenneth Gonsalves
be 'accountable' for the nrcfoss node. 2. A physical space -
preferably provided by an educational institution. I am cc-ing the
mumbai volunteers on this, so they can give their input. Further
there is a group at nrcfoss...@googlegroups.com where discussions
of this sort can take place with a permanent archive. I am also cc-
ing that mailing list
--
regards
Kenneth Gonsalves
Associate, NRC-FOSS
law...@au-kbc.org
http://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/
On 04-Apr-07, at 12:23 PM, Indranil Das Gupta wrote:
> Dear Prof. Krishnan/Kenneth
>
> While de-briefing about the meeting on 24th, several ILUG-Cal members
> have expressed a strong interest in a FOSS Helpline in Kolkata. Please
> inform us the requirements from our end as well as from your end at
> NRC-FOSS.
>
> IIRC, your model so far has been focused on getting one person to
> "man"
> the phone, we discussed an alternative model where :
>
> a) a dedicated Helpline number is setup and advertised;
>
> b) setup an online trouble ticketing system (e.g. using RT), where the
> calls are logged and using SugarCRM in tandem for tracking the
> "customers"
>
> c) out of the pool of the volunteers ready to handle calls, round-
> robin
> scheduling is used to forward the calls to the designated volunteer's
> cell/landline/voip/skype no. (perhaps using Asterix or OpenPBX et al)
>
> d) if the issue can be closed then and there by the volunteer
> answering
> the call then its fine, else a ticket would be raised by the volunteer
> concerned on behalf of the "customer"
>
> e) the volunteer pool will attempt to find the answer to the
> problem and
> get back to the "customer"
>
> f) as the "customers" become saavy, they could directly create their
> user accounts and log their queries online.
>
> g) common queries would end up in a wiki-style knowledge-base as a
> value-add.
>
> h) the ILUG-Cal community would be supporting the initiative.
>
>
>
>
> with kind regards
> -indranil
>
>
> --
> Indranil Das Gupta
> Chief Technology Architect
> L2C2 Technologies
>
> E-Mail : ind...@l2c2.co.in
> Phone : +91-98300-20971
> WWW : http://www.l2c2.co.in
>
Prashant Verma
My view on this -not sure if this view is shared by NRC-FOSS- would be
to delegate the hosting of the NRC-FOSS node to an organization or
Educational Institution which is able to provide:
a)Space
b)A person for manning the help line (dedicated or part time as per
requirement) on the phone/email/internet and for entering support
requests and answers into a tracking system
The role of the LUG/LUGs or the community would be to pick up the
support tickets online from the tracking system and handle it. The
community would also provide guidance to the hosting organization and
its support person on technical matters as needed.
In the above system, once the query is answered by the LUG, the
hosting organization gets the answer back to the 'customer' on the
phone or by email as requested by the caller.
If we employ this system, we could even select a host organization
which could provide Level 1 support, and only delegate the more
difficult technical questions to the volunteer teams from the various
LUGs in the region or other volunteer groups.
I think if we keep things simple, we will be setting this up for
success.
Regards,
Prashant Verma
http://www.saltlakesoft.com
On Apr 5, 1:37 am, Kenneth Gonsalves <law...@au-kbc.org> wrote:
> the prerequisites are: 1. one or more people have to come forward to
> be 'accountable' for the nrcfoss node. 2. A physical space -
> preferably provided by an educational institution. I am cc-ing the
> mumbai volunteers on this, so they can give their input. Further
> there is a group at nrcfoss...@googlegroups.com where discussions
> of this sort can take place with a permanent archive. I am also cc-
> ing that mailing list
>
> --
> regards
>
> Kenneth Gonsalves
> Associate, NRC-FOSS
> law...@au-kbc.orghttp://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/
> > E-Mail : indr...@l2c2.co.in
Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
Hash: SHA1
Prashant Verma wrote:
> The role of the LUG/LUGs or the community would be to pick up the
> support tickets online from the tracking system and handle it. The
> community would also provide guidance to the hosting organization and
> its support person on technical matters as needed.
What's the incentive for the LUG/LUGs/LUG members who are part of this
workflow to pick up tickets ? What are the mechanisms proposed to be
available to them for escalations ? What is the Scope Of Support being
envisaged ? What are the base distributions being visualized as the
supported OS ?
:Sankarshan
- --
You see things; and you say 'Why?';
But I dream things that never were;
and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw
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Prashant Verma
<sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com> wrote:
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>
> Prashant Verma wrote:
> > The role of the LUG/LUGs or the community would be to pick up the
> > support tickets online from the tracking system and handle it. The
> > community would also provide guidance to the hosting organization and
> > its support person on technical matters as needed.
>
> What's the incentive for the LUG/LUGs/LUG members who are part of this
> workflow to pick up tickets ?
One of the benefits to the LUGs could be..quoting Kenneth: "we hope
lug/fsug people will be able to untilise the node for logistics ".
Other incentives? Ideas are welcome.
>What are the mechanisms proposed to be
> available to them for escalations ?
Escalation of what, and from who?
>What is the Scope Of Support being
> envisaged ? What are the base distributions being visualized as the
> supported OS ?
Scope of Support will be in keeping with the resources available. So
if the resources are a help line and the community, then the scope
would ideally be all of the support issues that could be handled by
the support team and the community. And this decision, and that on the
supported distributions as well - needs to be made by NRC FOSS.
Regards,
-Prashant
Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
Hash: SHA1
Prashant Verma wrote:
> One of the benefits to the LUGs could be..quoting Kenneth: "we hope
> lug/fsug people will be able to untilise the node for logistics ".
> Other incentives? Ideas are welcome.
Why would a LUG member who is either a student or gainfully employed
find it exciting enough to do a Support Engineer role ?
>> What are the mechanisms proposed to be
>> available to them for escalations ?
>
> Escalation of what, and from who?
Issues in the various components which would not be able to be fixed by
the Support Engineer
:SM
- --
You see things; and you say 'Why?';
But I dream things that never were;
and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw
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Prashant Verma
<sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Prashant Verma wrote:
> > One of the benefits to the LUGs could be..quoting Kenneth: "we hope
> > lug/fsug people will be able to untilise the node for logistics ".
> > Other incentives? Ideas are welcome.
>
> Why would a LUG member who is either a student or gainfully employed
> find it exciting enough to do a Support Engineer role ?
My view is that the community members would be excited to solve real
life problems and venturing into unknown territory which many of the
support requests might involve. I believe a huge amount of learning
would also come from participation in such a project.
>
> >> What are the mechanisms proposed to be
> >> available to them for escalations ?
>
> > Escalation of what, and from who?
>
> Issues in the various components which would not be able to be fixed by
> the Support Engineer
Reasoning, I think this is where we will need to involve distro/
application developers for supported distros and apps, and NRC FOSS
may need to have a mechanism put in place for requests escalated from
the Nodal centres which would subsequently be resolved centrally.
Other ideas, especially those coming from real life examples of
support are welcome.
-Prashant
Kenneth Gonsalves
On 10-Apr-07, at 2:06 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay wrote:
>> One of the benefits to the LUGs could be..quoting Kenneth: "we hope
>> lug/fsug people will be able to untilise the node for logistics ".
>> Other incentives? Ideas are welcome.
>
> Why would a LUG member who is either a student or gainfully employed
> find it exciting enough to do a Support Engineer role ?
this is going offtrack. Nobody is talking about support engineers or
supporting anything. It is assumed that lugs are interested in
spreading foss/linux/oss/foss culture etc etc. One problem is that
since lugs are informal bodies, officialdom does not pay much
attention to them. As a result they dont get much support from
managements of colleges and other institutions when they want to
conduct activities. NRC-FOSS comes in here - we have authority (we
*are* suits) and managements listen and entertain us. This helps to
conduct collegewide activities which again raises the profile and
awareness of foss. Thats it - we provide and address, a visiting card
and pressure from the top - the lugs can take advantage of this. This
has worked well in tamilnadu, and our experiences in jaipur and
durgapur have also shown it can work elsewhere.
--
regards
kg
http://lawgon.livejournal.com
http://nrcfosshelpline.in/web/
Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
Hash: SHA1
Prashant Verma wrote:
> My view is that the community members would be excited to solve real
> life problems and venturing into unknown territory which many of the
> support requests might involve. I believe a huge amount of learning
> would also come from participation in such a project.
There are two risks that I think ought to be factored in:
[1] Student volunteer Technical Support Engineer: Skills capacity and
capability to think logically (logical deductive powers if you may so
term it) along with what would be a incentive for a student to enroll as
such (a recognised certificate ? , a summer internship ?)
[2] Professional volunteer Technical Support Engineer: Skill
specialisation and amount of time for the effort
:SM
- --
You see things; and you say 'Why?';
But I dream things that never were;
and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw
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Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
Hash: SHA1
Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
> this is going offtrack. Nobody is talking about support engineers or
> supporting anything. It is assumed that lugs are interested in
Now I am really confused, since:
Indranil Das Gupta wrote:
> Dear Prof. Krishnan/Kenneth
>
> While de-briefing about the meeting on 24th, several ILUG-Cal members
> have expressed a strong interest in a FOSS Helpline in Kolkata. Please
> inform us the requirements from our end as well as from your end at
> NRC-FOSS.
>
> IIRC, your model so far has been focused on getting one person to "man"
> the phone, we discussed an alternative model where :
>
> a) a dedicated Helpline number is setup and advertised;
>
> b) setup an online trouble ticketing system (e.g. using RT), where the
> calls are logged and using SugarCRM in tandem for tracking the
> "customers"
>
> c) out of the pool of the volunteers ready to handle calls, round-robin
> scheduling is used to forward the calls to the designated volunteer's
> cell/landline/voip/skype no. (perhaps using Asterix or OpenPBX et al)
>
> d) if the issue can be closed then and there by the volunteer answering
> the call then its fine, else a ticket would be raised by the volunteer
> concerned on behalf of the "customer"
>
> e) the volunteer pool will attempt to find the answer to the problem and
> get back to the "customer"
So, where does all this leave the thread ?
:Sankarshan
- --
You see things; and you say 'Why?';
But I dream things that never were;
and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw
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Kenneth Gonsalves
On 10-Apr-07, at 2:45 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay wrote:
> So, where does all this leave the thread ?
what indranil was proposing was - i think - in addition to the basic
idea. Or, he is talking from the lug point of view whereas we are
talking from the other point of view. That is what discussion is for.