How would you respond .....

[DanW]

If you were to receive an email from another school/college/uni asking for technical help on something that you had already setup. Edited June 11, 2010 by DanW

[LeMarchand]

I'd say:

 

"SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!"

 

Seriously, depending on what it was/how long it would take and if my school didn't mind me spending their time elsewhere, I'd probably help them out.

[DanW]

I'd say:

 

"SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!"

 

Seriously, depending on what it was/how long it would take and if my school didn't mind me spending their time elsewhere, I'd probably help them out.

 

I'm basing the question on your school has already implemented and has it documented

[LeMarchand]

Yeah - why not? It's what we do when we try to help out here in Edugeek.

[chrbb]

Help them - you never know when you might need to seek new/extra employment! Foot in door etc etc

[danrhodes]

I'd help, as said above you never know when you may hae to go knocking?!

[sidewinder]

As long as they're not just being lazy and not reading what you've provided, then I'd go and help them

[sippo]

I'd quite happily respond via E-mail/Phone/let them visit. When they ask you do it for them is another matter....

[DanW]

oh i'm in the boat of helping and responding, my question arose after i emailed a university ITS team the other day asking how they setup their remote access with webdav and configured their security settings.

 

Still not had a response back yet and it's been a few days.

[pete]

Respond and help where I can. There would be an upper limit, since they're not (and current employer is) paying for my time.

 

If say it was a local school where the crap had really hit the fan, I suspect SMT wouldn't be adverse to us helping out on damage mitigation to get them limping along again.

 

And I have contract rates for out-of-hours work.

[Rydra]

It depends on what level of help they want. if it's provide some pre-existing documentation, and maybe a quick guide from someone's who's done it before.

 

I'd ask some of you lot for advice on how to setup my network over the summer, but I wouldn't ask/expect you to come and physically install and run it for me!

[pete]

oh i'm in the boat of helping and responding, my question arose after i emailed a university ITS team the other day asking how they setup their remote access with webdav and configured their security settings.

 

Still not had a response back yet and it's been a few days.

 

Bigger org and it has to get to the right person. You also asked around Patch Tuesday and during the latest Adobe shenanigans and a MS vuln that just popped out re hcl: links. So you're probably on the backburner.

[Pete10141748]

I'd probably help out, so long as the job wasn't huge and they wern't just asking me to do it for them.

Actually, just before half term I had someone call from another school around here asking for help setting up their SIMS data extract to a VLP. It took longer than I anticipated but I wasn't exactly busy that day anyway.

[Flakes]

I would help out, as long as its by email/phone then its fine, currently i have friends in about 5 other schools that are all IT technicians/Managers, and we ring each other on a regular basis to discuss problems, issues and solutions. Just recently rang three of them to chat about controlled assessments and how they are handling them. If the establishment wants you to go and work over there i would need to think about it and probably offer my assistance with a small fee.

[powdarrmonkey]

If you were to receive an email from another school/college/uni asking for technical help on something that you had already setup.

 

Error: More data required.

[Sylv3r]

I'm generally happy to help if i've got the time.

 

Generally a lot of help I do with other schools is over the phone rather than having to have a ride out to them.

[LeMarchand]

Did they ever reply?

[AngryTechnician]

Depends on how much help they want. I'm usually happy to spend a short time discussing things on the phone and being used as a sounding board for ideas, but in my last school we actually relied on revenue from contracting out our service to other schools, so anything in depth would be billable.

 

Now I'm in an independent school, I also have to be careful not to be helping out our competitors, so generally the further away they are the more help they might get!

[SteveBentley]

It might just depend on whether your email has hit the right person, and how it was worded.

 

Certainly my experience is that there is a culture of collaboration and sharing knowledge between Unis (for example some colleagues are visiting a neighbouring institution - who are seen as a major competitor - next week to take a look at some software they have which we're thinking of buying, and another Uni has given us an online demo of another product we're considering, so we can get a feel for what it's really like rather than what the salesman wants us to think).

 

I'd hope that that spirit would extend to schools too.

[Elison]

I'd try to help, but its better to do it in private conversation or by phone. It is hard and takes too much time sometimes to explain something by email. In addition, during the conversation you and your interlocutor can respond to some things quickier. I hate typing a lot, so would ask to recall me when I ll be free.

[dave.81]

Generally i help out, although being an independant it's up to SMT if i give me time whether it be just a phone call or even popping over.