RUMFORD@bmads.ucl.ac.uk (Ian Rumford) (09/25/90)
Can somebody in the Andrew organisation tell me how they manage user queries submitted to program advisory office(s)? I believe the messages are processed through bulletin boards. What I really want to know is how do the Andrew staff manage this internally? Are there any tools in use to semi-automate the process? For example how does adviser A know that adviser B is dealing with query Z from user M? Further, is there a way for advisers to refer queries on to technical specialists, etc? The bottom line is that I would like to lift completely a suitable Unix-based query management system that would be appropriate to my organisation. All information and advice gratefully received from Andrew and, indeed, anybody else out there. Many thanks in advance. Ian Rumford, Bloomsbury Computing Consortium, University College London, University of London, England.
ghoti+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Adam Stoller) (09/25/90)
A somewhat rough approximation of how it works here. At Carnegie Mellon University - there is Advisor mail -- it's considered as mail because they have an account ~advisor, but it is viewed as semi-private bboards as many people other than ~advisor have access to read and respond to the posts. They have it broken down in such a way that a flames file can sift the messages for special addresses (i.e. advisor+helpbox.mail) - if it finds one, it places the message into the appropriate folders (i.e. advisor.helpbox.mail) If no such special address exists, it searches for the date field and places the message into a daily folder (i.e advisor.inbox.monday) The advisor staff is then broken down so that each person is assigned an inbox - and they take care of responding to the users mail. If they find that they do not have enough information from the user, they ask for more. If they feel that they cannot answer the question (perhaps because of lack of knowledge on a specific topic) - they hand file the message (or perhaps resend it?) to a helpbox (i.e. advisor.helpbox.mail) The helpboxes are looked at by both the advisor staff, as well as by developers (such as members of the ITC), and others who are reasonably knowledgable about some topic. If someone feels they can assist in answering the users question, they reply to the post in the helpbox (which due to some header manipulation, I believe, will get sent back to the helpbox - i.e. advisor+helpbox.mail@andrew.cmu.edu) The advisor who placed a message into the helpbox is then responsible for checking the helpbox for help from various sources. Once they have gotten that assistance, they then take the information received, and turn it into a response to the user (generally leaving out the name of the individual who actually responded -- as that would only serve to circumvent future requests for help, and probably really bug the person who helped in the first place). I am sure I have left out information, and perhaps gotten some of the information wrong. I will forward your message to the Advisor staff here, and perhaps they will be able to send you a more detailed (and acurate) description of how it all works. --fish (I was one of the people who helped set up their mail/bboard system, but that was around two years ago, and I'm sure some of it has changed.)
nsb@THUMPER.BELLCORE.COM (Nathaniel Borenstein) (09/25/90)
Chris Thyberg and I have written a paper that answers your question in great detail. It will be appearing in a forthcoming special issue (on the topic of CSCW) of the International Journal of Man-Machine Studies. If you want to send me your physical address, I can send you a preprint. -- Nathaniel
jetson+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (Judith Ann Jackson) (09/26/90)
Ian, I'll be responding to you personally about this. I'm the full-time staff consultant responsible for Advisor at CMU. -Judy Jackson jetson@andrew.cmu.edu