[sf-lug] Centralised phone number for Linux Support

[jim stockford]

    by "put in time" i mean people who answer the phone
and/or respond to phone messages and provide help
to callers.
    seems like installing and config'ing would need time
and expertise. as to maintenance, i don't know, but a
tho't is how phone messages are stored, queued,
removed--standard filesystem stuff, probably.


On Sep 15, 2007, at 9:04 AM, Tom Haddon wrote:

>
> On Fri, 2007-09-14 at 17:25 -0700, jim stockford wrote:
>> a reaction: great idea.
>>     someone has to pay for the phone and some ones
>> have to be willing to put in some time.
>
> I guess I should have specified - another criteria would be low cost if
> not free. However, I actually don't think the cost is the real issue - 
> I
> think if it was cheap enough it would be easy enough to find funds to
> pay for it.
>
> How do you mean someone would have a to willing to put in some time? 
> For
> what aspect - the management of the system? I think that would be
> outweighed by the benefits of a system like this.
>
>>     this might best be done using VoIP and software
>> such as asterisk.
>
> That would be cool. Perhaps some VoIP/asterisk experts could weigh in
> and let me know if all this is possible using asterisk. If so, I think
> this would probably be a better way to go since then you're not
> dependent on some outside provider. What I'm not sure about is how you
> hook up asterisk to the regular phone network so that people can all
> into it from a regular phone. If anyone has some experience on this,
> would they be willing to discuss at a LUG meeting?
>
> Cheers, Tom
>
>>
>> On Sep 14, 2007, at 5:01 PM, Tom Haddon wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Folks,
>>>
>>> I've been mulling over an idea that came up in my head after reading
>>> about Grand Central:
>>>
>>> http://www.grandcentral.com/
>>>
>>> The idea is related to phone support for the Hayes Valley Learning
>>> Center project that a few members on the list have been working on, 
>>> but
>>> could related more generally to a number of other projects. I was
>>> thinking that often non-technical users need support, especially in
>>> something they're as unfamiliar with as Linux, and that ongoing 
>>> support
>>> is pretty vital to the success of any project like that. Preferably
>>> phone support, because if they could get online and/or get to a
>>> ticketing system to enter a problem for a support team to deal with,
>>> chances are they don't have a problem in the first place :)
>>>
>>> So, are there any sustainable free centralized phone services like
>>> Grand
>>> Central out there (or Grand Central itself) that anyone has 
>>> experience
>>> with and could recommend? What I'm looking for (in an ideal world):
>>>
>>> - One phone number that could be relied upon to last for a good few
>>> years at least
>>> - You could subscribe multiple phones to this number at will
>>> - Voicemail if no forwarding numbers are subscribed
>>> - Email notification of messages and online storage of voicemail
>>>
>>> This would allow for a fairly nebulous group (like the SF LUG) to
>>> provide a project with one support phone number to call, and behind 
>>> the
>>> scenes (and without too much administration) to turn that into a 
>>> phone
>>> support system that would be reliable enough to cope with members
>>> leaving/joining the project and/or being away on holiday or 
>>> something.
>>>
>>> Any ideas or recommendations?
>>>
>>> Thanks, Tom
>>>
>>> P.S. All I know about Grand Central I read on their website. I 
>>> haven't
>>> used them and while I tried to sign up, it seems like they're in a
>>> closed beta at the moment.
>>>
>>> -- 
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------
>>> Tom Haddon
>>> mailto:tom at greenleaftech.net
>>> m +1.415.871.4180
>>> www.greenleaftech.net
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> sf-lug mailing list
>>> sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
>>> http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug
>>>
>>
> -- 
>
>
> ----------------------------------
> Tom Haddon
> mailto:tom at greenleaftech.net
> m +1.415.871.4180
> www.greenleaftech.net
>