| 40 | Since the staff position of May First/People Link Support Butler has only existed for a few months, the parameters of the position continue to be developed and assessed. Such assessment is, in fact, one of the primary things I've worked on in this position. In the first month (October, 2011), we (primarily Jamie, dkg, and I) took stock of the current support volunteer strategy and re-modeled the ticketing workflow to allow a more targeted approach to managing a support team. Whereas prior to this, the support queue functioned as a first come, first serve, everyone's responsibility type system (a system that more or less translated into Jamie answering 95% of all tickets), the workflow we developed and continue to think through, works in a somewhat more targeted manner in which I handle the incoming support cue and designate a support volunteer to handle the given request. |
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| 42 | Thus far, the new workflow seems to have improved our support infrastructure in a couple of ways. 0. Now every ticket has a responsible (or an irresponsible) party handling the request, which has significantly transformed the (Jamie handles everything model). 1. The new workflow also allows for new ticket states, so that we can be more precise with how we and members communicate about support needs. A significant part of my early work as a staff member was dedicated to figuring out this workflow. |
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| 44 | My day to day labor deals with the particularities of the new workflow itself. As the MFPLSB, I manage the ticketing system and make determinations about who should be assigned a given issue, and/or answering the ticket myself. Thus far this seems to be working fairly well as a practice, and from my perspective, has actually increased volunteer support participation. |
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| 46 | Another part of the work I do as MFPLSB has been to handle some of the more intense problems we've faced with denial of service attacks and server outages. While this remains a skill I have not mastered, in the last couple of months I have had occasion to learn and tackle some very harrowing outage issues. At this point, I view part of my contributions to MF/PL as another support member capable of handling most crisis situations fairly competently as I have had at least two full nights of "training" (by fire) on dealing with outages. |
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| 48 | A final component of the work I do involves the occupy movement. As a very active participant in the Occupy... |