Launching FIRST Help Now

[Phoenix Spud]

G'Day everyone!

Team 3132, BumbleB, Cheesy Poofs, Chop Shop, Griffins, Hawaiian Kids, Magma Robotics and Sultans of Turkiye present to you FIRST Help Now, a 24/7 call centre hosted on Google Hangouts to help teams during build season.

Over the years, we’ve learnt that teams old and new alike may encounter problems in build season that they need assistance with. Teams from around the world, from America, to India, to Australia all need access to helpful expertise. Unfortunately time zones have managed to get in the way, making it hard to communicate with international teams.

We are working together to create a place where you can get immediate help for all your emergency robotic repairs.The idea is to create a place where teams around the world can have immediate access to help and advice if needed. For more information, please go to the website; www.FIRSTHelpNow.org or give us a "like" on Facebook.

During build season, support will be available via Hangouts. To prepare, please add frchelpnow@gmail.com as a contact today!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or PM us.

Cheers,
Team 3132, The Thunder Down Under

[snoman]

Sounds like a wonderful resource.
Thank you

[Ginger Power]

That looks like an incredible collection of teams! Can't wait to see how this helps to boost the level of competition in FRC. Who specifically will be answering questions, and what kind of questions do you expect to get? If you had to put out a FAQ what would be included on there?

Thanks for doing this!

[CaffeinatePlz]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

That looks like an incredible collection of teams! Can't wait to see how this helps to boost the level of competition in FRC. Who specifically will be answering questions, and what kind of questions do you expect to get? If you had to put out a FAQ what would be included on there?

Thanks for doing this!

It will be a combination of students and mentors answering the questions. Depending on the question, the team member manning the centre will ask another more experienced person to answer.

We're not sure yet about what kind of questions we'll get. We'll do our best to answer any FRC related questions/ problems that teams may encounter.

[Cothron Theiss]

Are you going to be posting any/all of the questions received and answers?

[CaffeinatePlz]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

Are you going to be posting any/all of the questions received and answers?

At this moment, no. This because we are anticipating questions to be more situation-specific. However, if we see questions frequently asked once build season starts, we'll add a FAQ section on to our website - FIRSTHelpNow.org

[Lil' Lavery]

What steps will you be taking to differentiate this service from simply asking a question on Chief Delphi?

[Chris is me]

Have you considered talking to / working with the FRC Rent-A-Mentor guys in New England? These two programs have really similar goals and there could be some benefit to both if they collaborate.

[Kellen Hill]

Cool to see this kind of collaboration from teams around the world.

A couple other Georgia mentors and myself started a similar resource a few months ago called PCH Q&A. It is expressly geared towards helping teams in the PCH District with a similar format to yours.

We have not received too many questions to this point, but I imagine that is a side effect of it not being build season yet. I think the success of both of our resources will be determined by how effectively we are able to make our presence known to the teams that really need help.

In the meantime, we have worked on producing articles and materials that PCH teams could benefit from. Articles range from what teams should be working on in the off season to "Meet the DPC" articles where teams can learn more about the district planning committee of our district.

Website: http://www.pchqa.com/
FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/pchqa/

[Tyler Olds]

This is an awesome initiative that I hope the FIRST community can really embrace. Kudos to all who are involved.

[CaffeinatePlz]

We think FIRST Help Now serves as a complementary program to CD. We've helped start dozens of teams, and sometimes the biggest hurdle can be overcome just by knowing someone is on the other end of the line. CD in conjunction with FIRST Help Now will be a powerful combination to help FRC teams that need a little help to make their season more successful.

On another note, thank you everyone for your support with this program, and helping us reach so many people. Special thanks to FIRST Updates Now, Robosports Network, FRC Nation, the Blue Alliance, and of course, Chief Delphi for their help.

[Jessica Boucher]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

What steps will you be taking to differentiate this service from simply asking a question on Chief Delphi?

In the Call Center world, this type of service is called "Follow the Sun", so they're offering support to teams whenever they're awake. This is the ideal for global brands who are looking to support their customers everywhere.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Jessica Boucher

In the Call Center world, this type of service is called "Follow the Sun", so they're offering support to teams whenever they're awake. This is the ideal for global brands who are looking to support their customers everywhere.

Yes, but couldn't the same result be achieved with a "24/7 response team" or similar that monitors Chief Delphi? I'm just confused as to what the added benefit to the community is when these responses are not cataloged for all teams' future use, as they would be on this forum.

[Eugene Fang]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

Yes, but couldn't the same result be achieved with a "24/7 response team" or similar that monitors Chief Delphi? I'm just confused as to what the added benefit to the community is when these responses are not cataloged for all teams' future use, as they would be on this forum.

Perhaps the fear of asking basic questions or being told to RTFM makes teams wary of posting in a public setting. I see how CD would be better for many things (like game-specific strategy/design discussions), but I'll take people asking privately how to program a CIM to run the air compressor over seeing those types of questions on a public forum any day.

[Sperkowsky]

I think what is being done here is similar to what F4 tried to do with F4 connect.

The difference? They actually have the ethos to back something like this.

Whether what we did was inspiration or not I am definitely supportive of something like. I think this is exactly what Frc needs. The only issue is exposure but looking at the names backing this I'm sure they have it covered.