[EricH]

I think Basel's idea is the most feasible to implement. Not everyone needs help all the time, but when you do, it's nice to know who else is available. And, Skype does make noise when someone wants to call you.

The thing is, though, that if a team is building in their school or running the program on a school computer, they should check with school administration/IT to be sure that they're OK with it. (A computer use policy would also be a good thing to check.) Teams that don't have clearance could easily get in trouble with school bureaucracy if they just did it (and we all know that that sort of trouble is to be avoided at all costs...). Ditto for corporate.

Also, slow connections are bad. My parents and I used to do video calls pretty often. Then I moved to a place with slower internet, and we're down to chats or me hunting for faster internet if we want to do a video.

Suggestions:
1) Put it on a generally accessible computer.
2) Set IDs to team number and maybe name.
3) Set status to Online whenever you're actually on...and Away (or something similar) when you aren't. That way teams needing help know that you're not available.