[Go-essp-tech] Still confused on CMIP5 support procedures

[Estanislao Gonzalez]

Hi Sylvia,

A brief answer so somebody else (Graham?) can expand on this, comments 
in-line

Am 29.11.2011 11:48, schrieb Sylvia Murphy:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> Last week I was copied on an email that came from Eric Guilyardi of 
> Metafor who received a query from a user about CMIP5 model metadata.   
>  I ended up emailing the person directly to answer their question.   I 
> was rightly reminded that such offline assistance does not help the 
> community be aware of issues affecting the federation.   This made me 
> realize how unclear I am on how CMIP5 support is currently working. 
>  So I have some questions.
>
> * Who are on the CMIP5_helpdesk and/or esg_support mailing 
> lists? (e.g. who sees the issues affecting the federation)?
Gateway administrators and some other people assigned for specific tasks.
> * How are support requests farmed out? Would whomever is monitoring 
> CMIP5_help know to send metadata related questions my way?
I think the idea would be for you to be in the Footprints system. There 
are some groups, and you could have people on multiple groups (I think 
I'm on Wget-script and DKRZ related issues). Graham can you add a group 
for Metadata and add Sylvia to it? (Sylvia, any one else that should be 
added?)
> * Can subgroups of support be created such that 3-4 people can be 
> responsible for a topic?
Yes, that's how it works. *BUT* It's not automatic, so request have to 
be (sometimes) farmed out of the esg-support mailing list, other get 
directly to the Footprints server. In any case, someone has to decide 
who will be the assignee... basically you scan all mails from 
esg-support and "pick" the ones for metadata. I don't think there's 
anything more elaborated than data. (Graham, is that still so?)
> * How do we know that requests have been answered?  Is there tracking 
> at all?
Footprints does all this, but there are some things you need to know 
about using it (I forgot a couple of times to set some checkboxes and 
the user never got my answers :-/ Either Stephen or Graham put a 
tutorial on this, it's fairly simply, but not incredible intuitive IMHO.
> * I am not sure users are finding these support avenues.  The links to 
> the two mailing lists are listed under "contact us", vice "help" or 
> "support".   Sometimes that kind of subtle difference can be a big 
> difference.   Case in point: the user I dealt with did not know where 
> to go and obviously Eric did not either.
To add to the confusion not all pages look alike. We (DKRZ) have copied 
pretty much what BADC proposed and has, I think that the only difference 
is a direct link to the download help from the main page. Otherwise it 
was to hard to get there.

This is our contact us page, if you have any improvements I'll be glad 
to add them, but I do think it's quite self-explanatory


  Contact Us

If the HELP <http://ipcc-ar5.dkrz.de/help/download-help.htm> page can't 
help you any further, don't hesitate to contact us!

If you have any questions relating specifically to the CMIP5 archive 
please send email to CMIP5 HelpDesk (cmip5-helpdesk at stfc.ac.uk) 
<mailto:cmip5-helpdesk at stfc.ac.uk?subject=%28ESG-WDCC%29%20CMIP5%20query:%20> 
stating the following information where possible:

 1. The URL of this site
 2. Your OpenID
 3. A brief description of your query

Queries about this website that are not related to CMIP5 may be emailed 
to: esg-support at earthsystemgrid.org 
<mailto:esg-support at earthsystemgrid.org?subject=%28ESG-WDCC%29%20>

The default one has the same thing without the first line (I got tired 
of telling people to read the help :-) BADC is using a special email 
account for handling BADC web questions (the second email)

Older versions of the Gateway, e.g. at PCMDI, had a more simple page:


  Contact Us

Any questions, comments, or concerns may be emailed to: esg-support AT 
earthsystemgrid.org <mailto:esg-support%20AT%20earthsystemgrid.org>


I've already asked them to add a HELP tab to the one the Gateway is 
displaying, because going to "about" to find the help is *very* 
non-intuitive IMO. But I think there are some issues with that, that's 
why I've decided to link it directly from the front page.

Any feedback for improving the user experience will be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Estani

>
> Cheers,
> Sylvia
> ***********************************
> Sylvia Murphy
> NESII/CIRES/NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory
> 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80305
> Email: sylvia.murphy at noaa.gov <mailto:sylvia.murphy at noaa.gov>
> Phone: 303-497-7753
> Fax: 303-497-7649
>
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-- 
Estanislao Gonzalez

Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie (MPI-M)
Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum (DKRZ) - German Climate Computing Centre
Room 108 - Bundesstrasse 45a, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany

Phone:   +49 (40) 46 00 94-126
E-Mail:  gonzalez at dkrz.de

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