Hello,

On Nov 23, 2010, at 10:42 AM, M. Fioretti wrote:
> As per subject:
> 
> http://stop.zona-m.net/2010/11/a-proposal-for-effective-volunteer-friendly-user-support-in-libreoffice/

I reviewed your proposal and think you make very good points. As I personally 
haven't closely followed the user support mailing list over the years, I don't 
feel qualified to respond in too much detail on those points. :)

However, have we considered adopting a "knowledge base" type interface to 
supplement our user support? One I worked with in the past allowed users to 
input their questions, and would automatically direct them toward similar 
questions that had been asked and answered already. If they don't find a 
sufficient response from the existing knowledge base, their question is 
automatically forwarded through to a human support person, who interacts with 
the user through a web application. Their answer is then added to the growing 
repository for the next user. 

This is different from a basic FAQ published in any ordinary CMS, because of 
the automatic search for similar questions, and because after passing that 
threshold, it leads directly to a human support person (or volunteer).

Searching quickly for "open source knowledge base" I came upon the following 
useful discussion: 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/284477/anybody-knows-any-knowledge-base-open-source

I don't think the responses fill all of the criteria I discussed above, yet 
they may point us in a useful direction. 

Has anyone else worked with tools like I describe here? Do you think it makes 
sense to hybridize our support offering in this way, remove the challenge of an 
email list for many users, archive responses in an easy web-accessible 
location, and yet allow our support volunteers to continue using email or 
choose a web interface to do their part?

-Ben


Benjamin Horst
[email protected]
646-464-2314 (Eastern)
www.solidoffice.com


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