[mapserver-users] Re: user support

[Brent Fraser]

Frank,

  comments below...

>
> I certainly have concerns about using this list for a
great deal
> of "back and forth questions" style debugging of problems.
With
> around 2400 subscribers every question and answer is
hitting a lot
> of mailboxes.  Is it really a useful approach?  To some
extent it
> is good because it gives others a chance to chime in at
different
> points with suggestions, and hopefully some people on the
list
> are picking up hints and new knowledge that helps them in
the future.
> But ... well, I often prefer to take debugging session
off-list with
> the intent of summarizing final findings to the list. I do
this
> despite the prevailing KEEP IT ON THE LIST! mantra of some
of our
> leading contributors.
>

One of my reasons to send the "back and forth" emails to the
list is to illustrate the method of tracking down the cause
of the problem (divide-and-conquer, isolate the problem,
small test case, etc) .  But this is only valuable if the
new users search the list archive; which I suspect most
don't do (but I have no idea on how to measure this).
Fortunately David Fawcett has a section on the archive on
the "New Users" Mapserver page.

> Summer-of-code is very software development oriented.  For
instance,
> a SoC effort cannot be primarily focused on writing
documents, providing
> support, etc, except as a by product of software
development.  So I don't
> think this problem is very much a SoC solvable one.

I was fantasizing about a OSGeo-hosted (Plone-based?
MapBender?) mapserver site where new users could upload
their small tiff or shapefile and get a map file in return
to help them get started.  And perhaps a temporary URL where
they could pan and zoom, etc.

Then I got to thinking about the types of support problems:
    - the dreaded "hello world" learning curve with using
your own data
    - new users vs. new versions of mapserver
    - other problem classes?

Is it possible to have some automated system to classify
archive email based on problem type?  Is it worth it?

And do some questions go un-answered?  Should we have
"support" tickets? Yikes!

Should we "reward" people who respond to questions to
encourage better support (hmm, or would that cause more
noise on the list?)

> Ultimately, I think we need to create better
documentation, especially
> starter and troubleshooting documentation so folks can
"self serve" through
> the standard problems, and just fallback to other people
for the harder
> stuff.  Helping to write such documentation might well be
something a paid
> maintainer could effectively do.

While I agree (good documentation is a joy to read), I heard
that written documentation was dead (nobody reads anymore!);
everything should be on YouTube...  Or a text message to
your iPhone...

>
> I will say that user to user support is very important,
and scales up better
> than user to core developer support.  That's why it is so
valuable when you
> and other super users (or even just average users with
experience in some
> stuff) step up to the plate.  I think this has been a
notable success of
> the MapServer community though there is always room for
improvements.


I guess that is what prompted this email:  Is there a way to
provide better support with less effort?

To some extent, this topic is about the future of an Open
Source project: ease of use is vital to wide spread
acceptance.  Support and documentation are a big part of
that ease of use.

Thanks for listening!

Brent Fraser
GeoAnalytic Inc.
Calgary, Alberta