The QUNU project is now bringing free, real-time tech support to all kinds of users, including those trying to work with free or open source software for which no official lines of support exist.
One of the benefits I see in this is answering the most frequently used reason that people choose not to use free or open source software in their businesses: the immediate availability of help when they run into a problem. Of course, those of us “techies” know that search engines like Google are often much more effective (when used properly) than official corporate support (for commercial and non-commercial products alike), and that there are already a lot of resources out there to help people install Linux, etc., but this is just one more outlet for that kind of thing, with a much quicker turn-around time and specific, personal focus.
Of course, there are companies (like RedHat and Novell) that use support as a part of their revenue plan, and I’m sure those will continue for various reasons (like having someone to blame when something goes wrong, even though that logic is pretty jacked up), but I’d love to see a more open support structure like this gradually overtake a lot of that kind of thing.
However, the thing I like most about this idea of the community being the support center is that it creates more avenues for non-developer type people to help out and contribute to open source projects. There are a lot of people out there who love the idea of this kind of software, but I think can sometimes feel held back from being personally involved if they are unable to contribute actual code to the product.
Things like this allow those kind of people to contribute in their own ways, and providing support is a huge need that a lot of people out there can probably fill, becoming a vital part of that particular project. I think it will be great to see this trend continue, and to see graphic designers and other types of “non-coder” people rally behind producing good products.
12 Comments
Old news, no digg.
it’s like IRC only more intrusive for the experts.
Dan, you’ve obviously been reading lame sites like Digg and Slashdot too much.
I don’t have a problem with IRC, but I think in this case direct IM is actually more appropriate. The experts would only sign on when they’re available anyway, so I don’t think it’s really any more intrusive than anything else.
Of course, I rarely ever have IM on, definitely not when I’m working, and I imagine that anyone who offers their assistance using this model would only do so during times when they don’t mind being “interrupted”.
Oh, and Dan, how long ago was that Spider-man trailer released, and how long before that were the villains announced?
It’s like IRC except all the other people interested in the subject don’t get to benefit from hearing your question being answered.
Do you use IRC a lot for support?
They don’t get that on IRC either, unless they just happen to be on when someone else is asking the question they need answered, which is pretty unlikely. And if you’ve got a large channel with multiple questions being asked and answered simultaneously it can be hard to read, unless the question is answered over private messages, in which case everyone else does not see it.
For the group support dynamic, I’d say searching (web & newsgroups) and / or forum based approaches are generally better, especially for common problems, although not as speedy.
If you need immediate answers, you could go for IRC, but I’m guessing they did it this way because it’s easier to use for the end user who needs help.
I don’t have anything against IRC, but I do think there are benefits for QUNU to do it this way instead. They could always also make their chat archives searchable to provide the shared support; they may already do this, actually - I didn’t really look at it too closely.
I meant to post on it before but never got around to it but it’s not tech news were it gets old fast.
I love how you didn’t link to the apple trailers, where it was posted first and the 3rd hit on google.
Why would I link to the trailers? The only link I made (other than to your story) was to a news article from almost a year ago, which was way before the trailers were released.
Anyway, the point was I’m not trying to be Digg or Slashdot. I’ll post on things that are 300 years old if I find them interesting.
Most of my posts aren’t meant to be news posts, they’re just me offering my opinions on various things, regardless of when they happened.
I didn’t see anyone else making the connections or points that I did here. I’m sure someone, somewhere has, but even if they did, so what? I’m not going to research every time I mention something technical on here just to be sure that no one else has already mentioned it somewhere before.
I hang out in several software related IRC channels. And when I’m not paying attention to what’s going on I like to go back and read the conversations I missed. It’s very informative to listen to other people’s conversations even if I don’t have an immediate need for the info.
I guess this service would be easier to use since many people already have their IM accounts but other than that I don’t understand it’s novelty.
I think the novelty / value doesn’t necessarily lie in the means of communication (IRC, IM, etc.), other than the fact that it’s immediate and personal. The novelty / value from what QUNU is doing comes from people dedicating their time to provide support for free.
As for the technical means of communication they chose to use, I think IM was probably more suited to their target audience, as opposed to more passive support request/response systems or informal group conversation.
I think the idea is to make it a lot easier for the average user to get help with X product, because when they describe their problem, they’re immediately connected to someone who is registered to provide support for that particular product, without having to know where to find that person, etc.
But there is already a bunch of people on IRC that are more than willing to help out. I guess finding the appropriate channel is the hard part, a majority of Gnome projects have directions on thier website about how to get help on IRC.
I know, and (like I said above) I don’t have a problem with using IRC for support per-se. It’s been around for a long time, and hopefully will continue well into the future. I just also think that in this case (considering their target audience) they made a fine choice to use a Jabber based communication approach for this particular service.
I think there can be value in both avenues of support, and I think this only ads to the picture. It’s great that there are people who hang out in IRC and newsgroups, etc. who are also willing to provide support, but it is different (not that we have to say it’s “better” or “worse”) to have people specifically logged in and ready to take personal incoming chat requests about their specific areas of expertise.