Telephonic FOSS helpline
Debayan Banerjee
My name is Debayan Banerjee. I am currently a software engineer based
in Bangalore. I was a student at NIT Durgapur, West Bengal and
graduated last year. While I was student there, I was an active member
of the GNU/Linux Users' Group there. We are a FOSS resource center
under the aegis of IOTA <http://www.iotawb.org>, the FOSS
implementation agency of West Bengal. As a resource center part of our
dutiy is to work on projects that may help the FOSS community in
general. We have a list of such projects here
<http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Project_Plans_for_IOTA>. Due
to the various reasons none of the projects have been able to see
light of the day yet.
I would like to draw your attention to one particular project proposal
which holds a lot of promise and is of immense importance to FOSS. We
had thought of setting up a p2p style FOSS helpline using VOIP
technologies and freePBX solutions. The detailed plan can be found at
http://debayan.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/p2p-helpline/ along with
diagrams. Fundamentally, the reason why a normal call center based
model wont work is that these call center people have to be paid and
for free software, there is no source of profit.
However, what if we make it a volunteer based thing entirely? Say you
are a volunteer with a certain degree of expertise in GNU/Linux. You
go to a website <say, http://india.fosshelpline.in> and sign up as a
volunteer. You fill up details such as your area of expertise, the
time periods when you want to receive calls and the maximum number of
calls you can handle per day. The software stores all this
information. Now a person in need of help calls this number and
through IVRS selects approximately the area in which he requires help.
The software then looks thorugh the stored database of numbers and
decides whom to route the call to.
My purpose of sending this mail to you is this: I am looking for
organisations that can make this happen. NRCFOSS was the first
organisation that came to my mind. Kindly comment whether this is
feasible and if it is, whether this can be taken up.
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee
9663869490
Shakthi Kannan
--- On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 8:06 PM, Debayan Banerjee
<deba...@gmail.com> wrote:
| Fundamentally, the reason why a normal call center based
| model wont work is that these call center people have to be paid and
| for free software, there is no source of profit.
| However, what if we make it a volunteer based thing entirely?
\--
In a call center, the employees are paid to take the brunt of the call
when customers are upset. But, that is not true with volunteers.
Do we expect people calling for help to be polite when asking
questions, or are they allowed to show their rant on volunteers who
only want to help out?
How different is that from newbies not following mailing lists
etiquette without consideration to the list or others, or doing any
home work before asking questions?
Just my thoughts,
SK
--
Shakthi Kannan
http://www.shakthimaan.com
Debayan Banerjee
> Hi,
>
> --- On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 8:06 PM, Debayan Banerjee
> <deba...@gmail.com> wrote:
> | Fundamentally, the reason why a normal call center based
> | model wont work is that these call center people have to be paid and
> | for free software, there is no source of profit.
> | However, what if we make it a volunteer based thing entirely?
> \--
>
> In a call center, the employees are paid to take the brunt of the call
> when customers are upset. But, that is not true with volunteers.
>
> Do we expect people calling for help to be polite when asking
> questions, or are they allowed to show their rant on volunteers who
> only want to help out?
Good point. Can we then play an audio disclaimer where callers will be
told that this is a volunteer effort and there is no guarantee of
his/her problems being solved? If we can tell the caller that it
purely a volunteer based effort, I think people will realise that they
are talking to a person who wants to help him out just out of good
will. That should bring out his polite side mostly.
>
> How different is that from newbies not following mailing lists
> etiquette without consideration to the list or others, or doing any
> home work before asking questions?
Not following mailing list etiquettes is mostly ignorance. Once you do
teach them and more importantly tell them why those rules exist, no
normal person will flout them.
>
> Just my thoughts,
>
> SK
>
> --
> Shakthi Kannan
> http://www.shakthimaan.com
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nrcfossconsult" group.
> To post to this group, send email to nrcfoss...@googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nrcfossconsul...@googlegroups.com.
> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nrcfossconsult?hl=en.
>
>
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee
Anurag
Not following mailing list etiquettes is mostly ignorance. Once you doteach them and more importantly tell them why those rules exist, no
normal person will flout them.
Anurag <0xB20A82C1>
http://web.gnuer.org/blog/
Debayan Banerjee
> 2010/2/19 Debayan Banerjee <deba...@gmail.com>
>>
>> Not following mailing list etiquettes is mostly ignorance. Once you do
>> teach them and more importantly tell them why those rules exist, no
>> normal person will flout them.
>
> Some people knowingly flout the list etiquettes, and simply say for example
> "I know top posting is not encouraged here, but I don't care"
Ok. So we ban them. We ban their number from the helpline.
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee
Karunakar
Even if they say call from PCO/Coin box? You end up blocking such
number and cutting some other users!
Karunakar
Karunakar
> Hello,
> My name is Debayan Banerjee. I am currently a software engineer based
> in Bangalore. I was a student at NIT Durgapur, West Bengal and
> graduated last year. While I was student there, I was an active member
> of the GNU/Linux Users' Group there. We are a FOSS resource center
> under the aegis of IOTA <http://www.iotawb.org>, the FOSS
> implementation agency of West Bengal. As a resource center part of our
> dutiy is to work on projects that may help the FOSS community in
> general. We have a list of such projects here
> <http://lug.nitdgp.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Project_Plans_for_IOTA>. Due
> to the various reasons none of the projects have been able to see
> light of the day yet.
> I would like to draw your attention to one particular project proposal
> which holds a lot of promise and is of immense importance to FOSS. We
> had thought of setting up a p2p style FOSS helpline using VOIP
> technologies and freePBX solutions. The detailed plan can be found at
> http://debayan.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/p2p-helpline/ along with
> diagrams. Fundamentally, the reason why a normal call center based
> model wont work is that these call center people have to be paid and
> for free software, there is no source of profit.
Why start a free service?! why not a paid one - where calling party
pays at a higher rate (like in TV events - where revenue gets shared
by event, channel, telco). On the site there could be tips on what
callers should do before calling (like search for solution on net,
read the howtos/manuals!), if they still couldnt figure out or are
technologically challenged they could call, or if urgency is not there
just post query on forum & read answers later. They could even perhaps
request for paid onsite service
Site could say have a free forum (much like existing forums).. where
people can post queries, maybe there could be a basic engine search
(where what ever query is entered, its searched on google for results)
and those presented as search responses to user, later on real
volunteers logging into forum can answer the queries. In this case
rather than just simple forum like (ubuntuforums), you add some
intelligent search capabilities into the forum to search for answers
on net and present them as some basic answers which user could go
through.
Its improper to assume that no money can be made from FOSS, maybe
highly profitable one cannot be made, but atleast self sustain ones
are possible, if one puts in time and patience. I guess funds can be
available from for doing a pilot on idea like this. Or this is just
what NRCFOSS is attempting to do already.
Karunakar
Mohit Singh
model may support its existence.
The parallel revenue model may take care of enterprise customers and
whatever we can agree upon.
Debayan is doing nice job. We can see how to run it - be Google way or
whatever - but yes - the idea is really nice.
a management model may be derived to support this idea - i think we
have enough witty people to suggest that - but the idea must be
nurtured.
Mohit Singh
---------------------------------------------------------------
today's imagination is tomorrow's innovation
Debayan Banerjee
> 2010/2/18 Debayan Banerjee <deba...@gmail.com>:
> Why start a free service?! why not a paid one - where calling party
> pays at a higher rate (like in TV events - where revenue gets shared
> by event, channel, telco). On the site there could be tips
The specific bracket of people that I have in mind that will benefit
most from this helpline are people who do not have access to internet.
There may also be people who do have access to internet but are not
comfortable using it. I came up with this idea in the first place
because in West Bengal the Govt is installing Linux in Govt offices
and schools and such. The whole point of the telephonic helpline is so
that the resource persons who go on the installation/teaching spree
can point all of them to a phone number instead of a website link.
> on what
> callers should do before calling (like search for solution on net,
> read the howtos/manuals!),
Again, there are enough number of forums and lists on the internet. We
need not start a new one. They will probably first google anyways.
The whole point of the exercise is to establish human contact. The
internet is not a good place to do that for most classes of people in
India today.
> just post query on forum & read answers later. They could even perhaps
> request for paid onsite service
Yes I guess it could be a paid service. I am not really concerned with
that part for now though. Getting this system up and running will be
an achievement in itself. We can think about the returns from it
later.
>
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee
Debayan Banerjee
> 2010/2/19 Debayan Banerjee <deba...@gmail.com>:
> Even if they say call from PCO/Coin box? You end up blocking such
> number and cutting some other users!
heh, good point! I think we have to trust people not to be rude. I
dont think we will have many cases where the callers are so rude that
they can not be talked to. Blocking is an extreme step, which should
be taken only in rare circumstances.
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee
Debayan Banerjee
> well i think it must be free for community and a parallel revenue
> model may support its existence.
Yes. Revenue generation is pretty simple in the model I think. We
could play advertisements while the caller waits for the call to
connect.
I think it should be free for the community if a Govt agency takes
this up. I dont care actually who takes this up and implements it, but
if it is a Govt agency it can provide the service for free since its
for the benefit of the masse sin general.
>
> The parallel revenue model may take care of enterprise customers and
> whatever we can agree upon.
Well I do not think we can cater to enterprise customers. Since it is
a volunteer effort there will be no guarantee of delivery or
solutions. How do we identify enterprise customers anyways, by their
phone numbers? That is not a good check, is it?
>
> Debayan is doing nice job. We can see how to run it - be Google way or
> whatever - but yes - the idea is really nice.
Thanks for the encouragement sir. I think this is the missing link in
Linux adoption in the country. Lets make this happen.
>
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee
Mohit Singh
> this up. I dont care actually who takes this up and implements it, but
> if it is a Govt agency it can provide the service for free since its
> for the benefit of the masse sin general.
lets look beyond government agency. Indian government is not ISO
certified in governance. Democracies need strict ISO standardization
for their practices.
Lets say no to 'Service Tax' - its a cross taxation anyhow. Can we
expect government to think positive this way?
Debayan Banerjee
> Lets say no to 'Service Tax' - its a cross taxation anyhow. Can we
> expect government to think positive this way?
ermm, I would digress from this conversation. I would like to focus
strictly on the technical feasibility of the helpline as a project for
now.
>
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee
Debayan Banerjee
> Hello,
> My name is Debayan Banerjee.
> I would like to draw your attention to one particular project proposal
> which holds a lot of promise and is of immense importance to FOSS.
Any ideas on how to take this forward?
--
Regards,
Debayan Banerjee