Upgrade begins Sunday

<p>Hey everyone,<div><br /></div><div>Just a reminder that we have a <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2011/05/upgrades-and-new-service-models-on-way.html"><b>big </b>upgrade on the way</a>. Here is the rough timeline:</div><div><br /></div><div>We're taking the server down Sunday, June 5, and it will probably be unavailable all day. Your web pages will still load, and all services will be shown as offline. Do not try to staff your service that day; you will not be able to log in.</div><div><br /></div><div>We'll be bringing the server back on Monday, June 6. There will probably be multiple restarts and instability. Our goal will be to get basic services stable as soon as possible. You will be able to log in, but you might be happier if you don't.</div><div><br /></div><div>We'll spend the rest of the week bringing up the less critical services such as gateways and getting everything re-stabilized and accustomed to load. </div><div><br /></div><div>The admin site (especially reports) will probably be hit-or-miss most of the week. Please don't plan to run critical end of the year reports next week. (Do them tomorrow!)</div><div><br /></div><div>We'll <a href="http://twitter.com/libraryh3lp">tweet </a>our progress.</div><div><br /></div><div>The great news is that once we're through this upgrade, we'll be able to start pushing out new features again. This upgrade will also allow us to re-enable new trial registrations and to provide new regional and private servers. We believe it will be worth it.</div><div><br /></div></p>

Hey everyone, Just a reminder that we have a big upgrade on the way . Here is the rough timeline: We're taking the server down Sunday, ...

Introducing our new full time person, Amy

<p>As Eric mentioned in the last post, we've done our very best to support our users, but we haven't been able to guarantee assistance because we're spread pretty thin. We hope to change that. My name is Amy Shelton and I'll be joining the team full time starting June 1. I will be providing support as well as doing some programming. <br /><br />I have been working with Eric in my spare time for about a year now to make the chat functionality contained within Libraryh3lp available to businesses of all sizes through <a href="http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com/2010/06/introducing-my-customer-cloud.html">My Customer Cloud</a>. While working on My Customer Cloud, I've had the pleasure of working directly with multiple libraries already. I very much look forward to meeting and interacting with the Libraryh3lp community.<br /><br />I'm coming to Nub Games from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory where I've worked for the past 13 years, most recently as the Head of Software Development for the Green Bank, WV site. I first met Eric and Pam about 10 years ago while Eric was working at the Observatory in Green Bank. My current professional interests are software engineering, customer service, and web application development. I've been <a href="http://online-customer-service.blogspot.com/">blogging on customer service</a> for about a year now. We're always looking for ideas and inspiration as well as guest bloggers. <a href="mailto:amy@nubgames.com">Drop me a line</a> if you would like to suggest topics or submit a post.<br /><br />I'm very excited to be working full time with Pam and Eric and even more excited that the extra pair of hands will translate into better support for our user community!</p>

As Eric mentioned in the last post, we've done our very best to support our users, but we haven't been able to guarantee assistance ...

Upgrades and new service models on the way

<p>Summer has arrived! We have a bunch of news to share, so let's get straight to it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;">New full-time person</span><br />In the past, we've done our very best to support our users, but we haven't been able to guarantee assistance because we're spread pretty thin. That's changing. We have a new, full-time person starting June 1, and she will be providing support as well as programming.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Upgrade (and new trial registrations) coming soon</span><br />The major system upgrade we mentioned in our last post is slated for the <span style="font-weight: bold;">week of June 6</span>. There will probably be a few rough days while we work out the kinks. We expect to enable new trial registrations by June 20. This upgrade will allow us to start pushing out a lot of requested features. Which brings me to...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">New service models: additional regional and private servers</span><br />Most libraries have been happy to run on the shared Libraryh3lp server, physically located in Virginia and running on the Amazon EC2. But we have been receiving increasing numbers of requests from libraries wanting their own servers, or preferring to run on a server physically located someplace else.<br /><br />A key element in our upgrade is easier management of multiple servers, and so we're going to be able to accommodate these requests.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Shared regional servers</span><br /><ul><li>What we mean by "shared server:" This is how Libraryh3lp operates now. You manage your own users and queues, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">all of your data is private</span>, but you are physically running on the same hardware as many other libraries. User and queue names have to be unique across the whole server; if another library has already taken the queue name "reference," you'll have to get a little bit creative ("uax_reference"). Hosting many libraries on the same hardware keeps costs down.<br /></li></ul><ul><li>In addition to the current shared server in the US, we'll bring up new shared regional servers in <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ireland (Amazon EC2), Singapore (Amazon EC2), and Canada</span>. These new servers will improve performance and reduce latency for non-US libraries.</li></ul><ul><li>No change in <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/static/payment.html">subscription fee</a> for any of the shared servers.</li></ul><ul><li>We will move existing customers to a new regional server for free up through July 31, 2011. After that, there will be a one-time fee of $100 to move since we will have to resolve conflicts with existing user and queue names. Please let us know ASAP if you know you're going to want to move to one of the new shared regional servers. (If you move, you will have to change your own web pages and update XMPP clients with the new server name.)<br /></li></ul><span style="font-weight: bold;">Private servers</span><br /><ul><li>What we mean by "private server:" You, or a group of libraries such as a consortium or a collaborative state-wide system, are the only ones running on a private server instance. It means you will not have to compete for the best queue names or usernames. Private servers also provide better fault isolation.<br /></li></ul><ul><li>We can work with you on the domain name so that it is something like "help.yourlibrary.edu." </li></ul><ul><li>No activation fee. Moving from a shared server to a private server at any time is free.<br /></li></ul><ul><li>Cost is dependent on location of server. For private servers in the US, we will physically locate the server as close to you as we can. Price for US private servers will be $100/month <span style="font-weight: bold;">plus</span> whatever the population-based subscription would ordinarily cost. </li></ul><ul><li>We do not yet have a pricing model for non-US private servers, but please contact us if you are interested and we will work it out for you.</li></ul><ul><li>SSL certificates (for HTTPS): Self-signed certs, or certs purchased by your own institution, will be installed for free. If we obtain an SSL cert for you, there will be a fee of $200/yr.</li></ul><ul><li>Sorry, but we will not install the system on your own hardware.<br /></li></ul>Whew! I think that about sums it up for now. If you need to contact us about any of this, please email <a href="mailto:support@nubgames.com">support@nubgames.com</a>. All prices above are in US dollars.</p>

Summer has arrived! We have a bunch of news to share, so let's get straight to it. New full-time person In the past, we've done our...

You can still haz. Just a little later.

<p><div style="text-align: left;">Hey everyone,</div><div><br /></div><div>A couple of weeks ago, we temporarily suspended registration of new Libraryh3lp trial accounts. Although we indicated that this was a temporary situation and that new trials would again be available this summer, we're hearing a fair bit of inaccurate rumor mill stuff, so we feel the need to provide more detail.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why did we disable new Libraryh3lp signups? Plain and simple: heavy load. </div><div><br /></div><div>Libraryh3lp has grown tremendously, approximately doubling each year. We're at a point now where the system is under a pretty amazing amount of strain for its current architecture. New trials only increase this load, and we still need to be able to survive the peak usage months this semester. April promises to bring a new record amount of traffic. New trials would only increase the chance of instability for existing customers, many of which have paid money for subscriptions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Proof:</div><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582224512427986098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwF15oGSnmIRXZmO3otfMO3MT-btFvsn4N3ePyFSg2GZkj7eThELyZMYoST3v8_VCvQ7rPpuOpO_Ppn6rqTueuJFOiM3BVfidJi4r8yhonLyRkgIrsiun6QZhwWnrCNTNI3WiIcTW_NeM/s400/stats.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 284px;" /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>In order to get Libraryh3lp over the next anticipated growth wall, we need to release a large upgrade. The coding work is underway. When we push out this new release, it will be somewhat disruptive, and there will be lots of bugs to be squashed in the weeks following the upgrade. This is better done over the summer than it is during the peak usage time in the Spring semester.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also, keep in mind that Libraryh3lp has always been about providing a pretty much unlimited platform. You can create any number of users, queues, and gateways. You can put the widget and presence calls on any number of web pages. All of this does, in fact, require a pretty serious technical infrastructure. We could throttle growth and usage by placing all sorts of limits on things like users, queues, widget loads, and presence calls. But, we really believe in making this system very flexible, so we haven't done that. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, to some specific rumors:</div><div><ol><li>Libraryh3lp has been sold. Patently false.</li><li>We are forcing libraries to use <a href="http://mycustomercloud.com/">My Customer Cloud</a>. Also false. But, MCC is a very good place to start if you're a wanna-be Libraryh3lp user. MCC still has plenty of capacity for new users. AND, for many libraries, MCC is cheaper than Libraryh3lp. </li></ol><div>And, as another option, keep <a href="http://www.altarama.com/page/RefChatter.aspx">Refchatter</a> by Altarama in mind. It is also very similar to Libraryh3lp, having the same code base, and it comes with guaranteed training and support (which Libraryh3lp does not).</div></div><div><br /></div><div>If you'd like to be notified when new Libraryh3lp registrations are available again this summer, please write to Pam at psessoms@gmail.com.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>One small favor</b>: If you are a current user, please check your Account Status tab in the admin site. We haven't had a lot of time to do proactive renewal billing, and it saves us a lot of time when libraries renew independently using the form in the site or at least write to us requesting an invoice. Help keep Libraryh3lp inexpensive by not requiring us to hire a billing person!</div><div><br /></div><div>Over and out!</div></p>

Hey everyone, A couple of weeks ago, we temporarily suspended registration of new Libraryh3lp trial accounts. Although we indicated that th...

Super cool new SMS gateway: Twilio

<p><span style="font-weight: bold;">[edited 10/5/2010 to add: People! We're glad you like the Twilio gateway, but do not rush off and create your own Twilio account. In order for it to work with libraryh3lp as a gateway, we (as in the libraryh3lp people) have to acquire the phone number for you. Full instructions below.]</span><br /><br />We're excited to announce our newest SMS gateway. This one is backed by <a href="http://twilio.com/">Twilio</a> and by all indications is extremely robust. It features:<div><ul><li>A phone number for your patrons to text.</li><li>Nearly instant message delivery. No polling interval.</li><li>Automatic notification to the patron when the library is offline.</li><li>Offline messages are delivered the next time your queue comes online.</li><li>Not free, but very affordable.</li><li>And of course, it integrates into LibraryH3lp like all our other gateways. Text messages can be transferred to other librarians, transcripts stored, statistics gathered, etc...</li></ul><div><b>Specifics</b>:</div><div><ul><li>Cost is $1/month per phone number.</li><li>Messages are $0.03 each. 1,000 messages is $30.00</li><li>This is at-cost and is exactly what Twilio charges; there is no LibraryH3lp markup.</li><li>Currently, only US phone numbers are available via Twilio for SMS. However, international text messages can be sent and received.</li><li>Voice phone calls can be redirected to your regular library phone number.</li></ul><div>To be clear, each message (not conversation) is $0.03. So, the following is $0.06:</div><div><br /></div><div>Patron: anyone there?</div><div>Librarian: Yes</div><div><br /></div><div><b>If you want a Twilio SMS gateway</b>, please <a href="mailto:nubgames@gmail.com">write to Eric</a>, and specify:</div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><ol><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"> the queue you want it installed on,</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"> your top-level admin name, </span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;">your desired area code for the phone number, and</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"> the phone number you want voice calls to go to.</span></li></ol><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;">We will acquire your Twilio phone number. We cannot currently make the gateway work with a Twilio number you acquire on your own.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;">If you are currently a Google Voice SMS gateway user, and you want to have your Google Voice SMS's forwarded to Twilio, let Eric know and he can set that up as well. (Please specify your GVoice SMS gateway's queue.) This way, your patrons keep texting you at the same number, but their messages will come through instantly.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><b>How do I pay for this?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></b>Please do not pay Twilio directly! </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><b>Use <a href="https://libraryh3lp.com/static/twilio-payment.html">this payment page</a>.</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div></span></div><div>Nothing expires at the end of a year; it's really just a lump of money used to fund both the phone number and the messages. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;">If you want some other amount, let us know and we can set up a payment page for it. You can purchase any arbitrary amount of messages. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b>What sets this one apart from our other two SMS gateways?</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>Unlike the Google Voice SMS gateway, Twilio has public APIs. It has been created specifically so that developers like Eric can use it within their own applications. This means it will be much more stable and have much faster message delivery than the Google Voice SMS gateway. </div><div><br /></div><div>And unlike our Android phone SMS gateway, libraries do not need to purchase a phone and keep it connected to reliable network and power. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Why do we keep changing SMS solutions?</b></div><div><br /></div></div><div>To be clear, <b>neither of the other two SMS gateways are going away</b>. </div><div><br /></div><div>We want our SMS gateways to be affordable and to allow patrons to text a phone number. When we started, the Android gateway was the only way we could come up with to accomplish that. Developer solutions were quite expensive. Then, when Google Voice came along, we adopted that very quickly and have implemented that gateway as best we can, but since there is no public API, it's fragile when Google makes changes (we knew this going into it and were very open about this fact).</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, Twilio is here and is a big leap forward. It is a great fit with LibraryH3lp. We hope you'll enjoy it!</div><div><br /></div><div>(Twilio is also available for My Customer Cloud users.)</div><div><br /></div><div>[original message edited 9/15 to clarify sign-up info and to add payment info]<br />[edited again 7/12/2011 to fix payment links]</div><div><br /></div></p>

[edited 10/5/2010 to add: People! We're glad you like the Twilio gateway, but do not rush off and create your own Twilio account. In ...

Introducing My Customer Cloud

<p><a href="http://mycustomercloud.com/">My Customer Cloud</a> is another new product in the LibraryH3lp family. Because LibraryH3lp has gotten so popular over the last few years, I regularly get signups even from outside of the library/academic community. In order to better serve the non-library users, I've expanded the company and taken on a new programming partner. We've created this additional product with a new usage-based pricing model in order to best accommodate everyone.<div><br /></div><div>Rather than paying an annual subscription fee based on FTE or service population, My Customer Cloud users can pay <i>per-chat</i>, only for what they use, and still have access to all the features and integrations that LibraryH3lp users have come to expect.</div><div><br /></div><div>But it's not just for non-libraries. The annual LibraryH3lp subscription model exists primarily because of stodgy, antiquated library purchasing policies. (Sorry, but you know it's true.) Libraries that can be a little more flexible in their spending now have the opportunity to pay less by choosing My Customer Cloud. Low chat volume libraries may wind up paying even less using My Customer Cloud, while busier services will probably find it cheaper to go with LibraryH3lp.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, please, <a href="http://mycustomercloud.com/">check it out</a>.</div><div><br /></div></p>

My Customer Cloud is another new product in the LibraryH3lp family. Because LibraryH3lp has gotten so popular over the last few years, I r...

Widgets for Individuals vs. Queues: A Change

<p>Since LibraryH3lp started, we've handled widget chats differently based on whether they were for an <b>individual librarian</b> or for a <b>queue</b>. Specifically, chats for queues had a number of special features: <div><ol><li>they could be transferred; </li><li>files could be shared between librarians and patrons;</li><li>the patron's IP address and referring URL displayed to librarians in the webchat client;</li><li>queues could have <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/docs/profile-pages.html">profile pages</a> viewable via the webchat client; and</li><li>transcripts could be stored in the admin site, with statistical reports also available.</li></ol>Chats for widgets pointing to individual librarians lacked all of those features.</div><div><br /></div><div>This often led admins designing chat services to create a queue for each of their librarians, with exactly one librarian assigned to each queue. This way, chats targeted to those librarians would have all the extra flexibility associated with queues.</div><div><br /></div><div>This practice has become especially prevalent in <a href="http://libraryh3lp.com/docs/service-rollover.html">service rollover models</a>, where chats are routed to a subject expert, if available, but will fall over to a general reference service if the expert is not available. With their very own queue, the subject expert could transfer their patron to another librarian or to another queue as needed.</div><div><br /></div><div>That workaround was fine, but it created extra work for the local admin, and it increased the overall confusion level.</div><div><br /></div><div>Today, we rolled out a series of fundamental behind-the-scenes changes that blur the line between individuals and queues where widget chats are concerned. Now, widget chats for individuals:</div><div><ol><li>can be transferred;</li><li>will display patron's IP and referring URL in the webchat client; and</li><li>allow file sharing between patrons and librarians.</li></ol></div><div>There is still more work to do to further integrate this change into the admin site. Profile pages, transcript storage and statistics for individual widgets will become available in a later update. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>A very important point:</b> this change is only for chats using <b>widgets</b>. Direct IMs between librarians via the buddy list remain and will continue to remain private. They cannot be logged or transferred. Individuals should be buddied as user@libraryh3lp.com.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>We'll be updating the docs to reflect this change. In the meantime, the preferred syntax for creating <b>widgets </b>for individuals AND queues is:</div><div><br /></div><div>http://libraryh3lp.com/chat/whatever@chat.libraryh3lp.com</div><div><br /></div><div>The old widget syntax for individuals (http://libraryh3lp.com/chat/user@libraryh3lp.com) will continue to work.</div><div><br /></div><div>We know it can be confusing for our existing users when we change fundamental concepts, but LibraryH3lp continues to be an evolving system undergoing improvements. This change should make life easier overall, especially for new users. We do not think that the change will break any existing code, and we hope that most librarians will welcome the new functionality.</div></div></p>

Since LibraryH3lp started, we've handled widget chats differently based on whether they were for an individual librarian or for a queue...