Sounds like a good idea! I am not a hardware type person but would be willing to help when I'm online. Sometimes I'm on 12 hours straight. I would not be able to commit to any set schedule. I would likely be able to just help with noobie questions but not the questions dealing with hardware or different OS's.

But like you, I have no idea how these things work.

But, the 'geeks' out here will love this!

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Founder of BOINC GROUP - Objectivists - Philosophically minded rational data crunchers.

Are there any easy ways to connect to remote computers? We use VNC and RDP (terminal services) to get to our work machines from home. . but those don't work all that great when trying to connect to a machine behind a broadband router.

I seem to remember a vendor setting up one of our servers via some sort of web java application. We navigated to a website, said yes two or three times, then the other end had control of the desktop.

If something like that could be figured out, that might make the lives of the 'help desk' folks a lot easier.

The online help would be great even without this, however.

-E

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Online interactive help desk: Have you seen those websites that allow you to get immediate help? My public library has one. I can click the button and converse directly (via typed messages) with someone at the reference desk if I like (during business hours of course).

Do you think we could rally enough volunteers to have someone online all the time to take a first stab at answering people's questions? MOST of them are going to be REALLY EASY. And if you can't address it, then you suggest the person post on the message boards.

I don't know how these things work. I presume one staffer could have multiple message windows open simultaneously? Is there special software or subscription to buy to support hosting it?

If we could get 5 volunteers from each timezone, we'd have enough people that you'd only have duty assigned a couple of hours a month. And, given the current level of traffic on the Q&A boards, I'd think it would be pretty rare for anything to come in anyway. It's basically time you might already be spending surfing the Q&A boards looking for strays in need of help. And if people get their question answered, they won't be posting as many Q&As anyway.

The idea behind this is, some people don't want to get an ID or sign up for anything until they know more. But, they can't post a question to the message boards until they get an ID. So, they have no outlet to ask very basic questions about the project and how it works. This help desk would be open to anyone with a Rosetta/BOINC question. The interactivity also gives you some closure. I mean to post a response on the message board and look back a week later and person still hasn't downloaded a WU, and you've lost them. But point them to that FAQ page or Wiki section right at the time of the question, and then stay with them until they agree this tells them what they needed, and now you've got closure.

We'd have to somehow label it as the volunteer help desk, or "unofficial" help offered. Then there's issues of controlling what is said and no personal information yadda yadda... all this can be worked out...

Do you think the idea will help bring (and KEEP) more crunchers? Vote with the green plus and pink minus sign beneath this post to express your vote.
+ means I think it helps bring and keep more crunchers.
- means I don't think it's going to make a difference.

I think this is a great idea--should I post something on it in my journal?

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Online interactive help desk:

I think this is a great idea--should I post something on it in my journal?

I think this is more an issue who can/will technically implement it and are there enough volunteers to keep such a system running. I'm not sure what a post about such a feature in your journal could do (at this stage).

I'm not sure what a post about such a feature in your journal could do (at this stage).

I agree. Let me see if I can lay more groundwork first. I was experimenting with Yahoo!'s online chat a couple months ago, but found they didn't allow you to create your own designated chat room.

Does anyone know where we might find a free, online chat service that would let us have a room for our use called "Rosetta"? Ideally it would require no prior registration, and no software download to utilize the service.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

IRC?

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Modern technology is amazing. I recently signed up with a web hosting service, and registered my own domain name, and I found it has a chat functionality alreay built in!! So... Let's try 'er out!

I'll be hosting an interactive chat tonight. No software download is required, and you can just enter a nick name when you come in. So, 9PM U.S. Central time tonight I'll be on for an hour. I just want to get a few people on at the same time and kick the tires.

To help me test it out, just go here:
http://www.violetoaks.com/Rosetta/ Enter a handle, and click the "Enter Chat" button!

Disclaimer! This site is not a part of Rosetta@home and they didn't approve it, and they don't moderate it, nor do they necessarily agree with anything that is said there.

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

I wanted to pull the information, comments, suggestions, observations, and general discussion for this topic in to it's own thread.

I've put together a simple chat site. Anyone can enter. No preregistration. Very simple to use. No software to download. And, because I've already got a domain hosted there, it's free.

I'm thinking that if a budding contributor is having trouble setting up R@H, they might find a chat room less intimidating then the message boards, and perhaps it will also lead to a quicker resolution to getting them up and running. And if that experience is quicker and easier, then they are more likely to stay!

Before we implement such a thing. I wanted to toss the idea around a bit. There are a number of questions that need to be answered first (perhaps more then my list below, so add to it as you see fit).

Firstly, if you want to get together with a friend and try it out, here's the link:
Rosetta chat room

Here are some of the questions I've got:

• Does it matter that it is not hosted by bakerlab.org?
  
• Would folks be willing to signon there and leave a browser open while they're reviewing the message boards anyway? That improves the odds someone is there to chat with when the budding contributor comes along with a question
  
• Would it suffice to tell them to only expect someone to be available on 4hr intervals? It would be much easier to cover 6 intervals per day then 24hrs.
  

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

I would hang around a couple of hours per day and help. However I would not check every minute if someone entered, so I needed a beep, or something to tell me, that somebody asked something.

Pulled specific posts from the bring more users to Rosetta thread.

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Rosetta Moderator: Mod.Sense

I would highly recommend an IRC service, maybe one at freenode? IRC generally requires no registration (unless you want to 'reserve' your own nick), has a fair amount of features, and is free. You can also access it with a Java applet, Java-less webpage (CGI:IRC), or download a program. It doesn't matter what client you use though since they all would connect to the same room.

At the freenode server there is also the #boinc room so there would be a place to talk about BOINC in general or other projects.

I'm a co-admin of an IRC server running UnrealIRCd and I can say its a very good alternative to the message boards for communication.

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Alpha, you've raised another point that I had considered. And that was that if people like this idea and we decide to pursue it for Rosetta, it might help get better coverage by "help desk staff" if you will if we opened it up to all of BOINC. Since most of the problems people have are really BOINC, and not any specific application.

If we just take any Rosetta-specific mention out and offer it up as a BOINC help desk, then we should be able to get about 10x the number of volunteers to help field questions I should think. But then we'd likely see 20x more people looking for help too :)

Can you post some links to the existing BOINC room? And to the products you've referenced?

Any ideas how other projects are using and promoting such a chat room? Are they calling it a help desk? Or more of a participants conversation site?

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Add this signature to your EMail:
Running Microsoft's "System Idle Process" will never help cure cancer, AIDS nor Alzheimer's. But running Rosetta@home just might!
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Well see, there is already a general BOINC help channel there! I'm sure there wouldn't be a problem having a seperate room for Rosetta though if you prefer (I know RieselSieve has their own channel). Note that most IRC clients allow you to be in multiple rooms at the same time easily, in some sort of tabbing scheme analogous to Firefox's tabs.

As for examples, I've set the web clients to connect to #boinc so you can see what it's like. If you try out mIRC you will need to use the server irc.freenode.net and then after connecting type /join #boinc

Java Based Chat - Uses PJIRC client. The GUI and other settings for it can be configured easily with applet parameters.
HTTP Stream Based Chat - Uses the CGI:IRC client, no Java necessary. Though I did find this client a bit buggy in some browsers.
mIRC - A popular windows client that you must download to use. May be a little bit harder to set up for new users but offers much more flexibility for the user. Many people who become familiar with IRC will end up downloading a client such as this one.

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Well since I'm hanging around on Freenode anyway i just droped by #boinc; not much happening there...
OK, I'm in timezone GMT+2 so I'm just going to start hanging around on #rosetta on Freenode from tomorrow on. I'm only online when I'm really sitting in front of my terminal, so if I'm not there... I'm really not there then ;)

My nickname is "yalla".

Cheers, Alex.

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"I am tired of all this sort of thing called science here... We have spent
millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it
should be stopped."
-- Simon Cameron, U.S. Senator, on the Smithsonian Institute, 1901.

Chat rooms are good, but they are only good if there is always people on there.

I just logged into both and there was no one in either. 4pm UK

You would need to make sure there was always someone and preferably some people in there.
Also if more than one person goes in you need a 'room' to move to so the message do not all get jumbled up.

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Team mauisun.org

another idea is to look at flash chat http://tufat.com/s_flash_chat_chatroom.htm


It a standalone easy to use program and can be used in different ways.

Also it should be possible to diaplay who's in the chats on a webpage before entering, say at the bottom the message board page (forum_index).



It should be able to integrate with your member database so logged in to rosetta members will be taken straight in without a seperate login.

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Team mauisun.org

Chat rooms are good, but they are only good if there is always people on there.

I just logged into both and there was no one in either. 4pm UK

There must be some problem, usually there are 20-30 people in #boinc, and usually there is some sort of conversation going on. Check to see that your nick along with other people are listed to the right of the chat window. Also, make sure you are looking in the channel tab for #boinc and not the server/status window (it shows a bunch of stuff when you first log in).

It should be able to integrate with your member database so logged in to rosetta members will be taken straight in without a seperate login.

If rosetta is willing to put a link to a webchat on the account page, this can be easily done, just click some link and your rosetta username will also be your chat nick. Generally, you can chat on IRC without having to go through registration (it varies depending on the network but freenode does not require it). The only problem would come in if you have a username that someone else has reserved on IRC.

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Are there any easy ways to connect to remote computers? We use VNC and RDP (terminal services) to get to our work machines from home. . but those don't work all that great when trying to connect to a machine behind a broadband router.

I seem to remember a vendor setting up one of our servers via some sort of web java application. We navigated to a website, said yes two or three times, then the other end had control of the desktop.

If something like that could be figured out, that might make the lives of the 'help desk' folks a lot easier.

The online help would be great even without this, however.

-E

VNC works fine to connect to a machine behind a broadband router. No issues at all.
I'm also surprised to see Dr. Baker posting here when I thought he was just posting in his journal..
This must've been a subject that just grabbed his attention..............

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Chat rooms are good, but they are only good if there is always people on there.

I just logged into both and there was no one in either. 4pm UK

There must be some problem, usually there are 20-30 people in #boinc, and usually there is some sort of conversation going on. Check to see that your nick along with other people are listed to the right of the chat window. Also, make sure you are looking in the channel tab for #boinc and not the server/status window (it shows a bunch of stuff when you first log in).

It should be able to integrate with your member database so logged in to rosetta members will be taken straight in without a seperate login.

If rosetta is willing to put a link to a webchat on the account page, this can be easily done, just click some link and your rosetta username will also be your chat nick. Generally, you can chat on IRC without having to go through registration (it varies depending on the network but freenode does not require it). The only problem would come in if you have a username that someone else has reserved on IRC.

I'm fine with IRC :-) myself.

I tried #rosetta, since it's Rosetta@Home i'm at, not boinc.

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Team mauisun.org

OK, I'll stop by #rosetta while I'm online

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