Bitcoin Forum

This post (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=266.msg51753#msg51753) got me thinking about bitcoin support.  Most major open source projects have consulting and technical support readily available to newcomers.  As the linked post illustrates, individuals -- especially entrepreneurs that we want to attract -- need ready access to bitcoin-knowledgeable technical support personnel and software programmers.

To that end, one hopes that https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade will grow a "Bitcoin Support" section, listing qualfied individuals and organizations willing to do tasks such as

• Patiently explain how the block chain and P2P network works
• Troubleshoot bitcoin software installs
• Assistance with backing up, encrypting and securing a wallet
• Integration of bitcoin into existing websites

This thread is now open for comments (or orgs promoting their support services?).

Disclaimer:  I am speaking solely as a bitcoin activist, who thinks this will help bitcoin succeed.  I have no interest in running, participating, or investing in such a business myself; I already have a day job :)

I'd like to post that I'd be more than willing to work for such an agency, but would have little interest in organizing it.

I'd work for such an organization, and should no better candidate show themselves, I'll organize it, as well. Now, we just need investors. :)

Would this be a group of volunteers working with merchants in an effort to help expand the BTC economy, or a group looking to charge those merchants for the service of helping them get set up to use BTC?

A business that charges for its services seems more sustainable.

Maybe working from one, into the other? I'm willing to do it "on the side", as it were, but it would be great if it could generate an income, even better if it could generate a living.

This is something we are attempting to create at http://witcoin.com (http://witcoin.com) where we will be implementing the ability to pay for an answer from an expert. We think earning bitcoins for answering questions about bitcoin is a great business plan .

We will be targetting bitcoin specifically . We are starting to organise categories where people can earn a share of all the coins that category earns.

On a side note if youre an expert at a particular programming language you could share your knowledge by managing that category.

I've already posted elsewhere an offer to set up and host bitcoin enabled prestashops for anyone interested in exchange for USD or bitcoin by any payment method, but this is applicable so I'll do it again.  A rough description of what I'm willing to do is at bposhaughnessy.com/services.html.  The page just went up today and may need a few fixes still, the offer is genuine.

I don't think witcoin is a good place for tech support, I think it should be it's own consulting company, that is what businesses understand, and are more comfortable with. Especially if we can get a good leader/frontman.

I am going to be working on a project that encompasses this type of thing. I just have too much to work on before I really get it going. I also can't really provide support with the bitcoin client or things like mybitcoin.com API. Whomever can, is interested in this type of cooperation, or serious about running a business and accepting bitcoin is welcome to PM me for more info though.

jgarzik, since you're not running pastecoin anymore, have you considered putting the sourcecode back online? It's a great example for vendors on how to integrate bitcoin and I don't mind cleaning up the hackish code for people.

It may not be but its a start down the road. FWIW I would throw a hundred btc into buying shares of such an org.

I would be willing to invest a hundred or two Bitcoin as well.

OK. Once I'm done tossing my hat into the "bitcoin video" ring I'll start hacking on the tech support front. Anyone have suggestions on where to start? Business plan? website?

I can make a quick and dirty wordpress site, and host it, if it's needed.

Nobody willing to manage such a company? Seems there are plenty of able workers.

Ideally we would want something like a live chat option on it; we have the forum for tech support questions that do not need immediate (relatively) response. Other than that, I would see it as an on-line knowledge-base or even a basic expert system, where the users could help themselves. I hate to say this, but something like those "problem solving assistants" on Windows wouldn't be bad - of course, ours would be far more efficient (those on Windows are barely helpful). If the user fails to solve the problem himself, the technician would be available for chat. This may not seem important now, but people are lazy and the staff members may become very busy if there is no knowledge-base at hand for the users.

Just thinking aloud.

EDIT1: Why is this thread in Marketplace? I think it should be in related projects.
EDIT2: I wouldn't mind logging on to such chat myself from time to time to help newcomers.

The way I was thinking of it was more like any company interested in accepting bitcoins and wanting help integrating it/understanding it/etc would contact one of the company members, and then a worker is assigned to that company to do whatever they need in relation with bitcoins.

I would totally pay for a service like this.  I've been struggling for days trying to get bitcoind setup on debian (lenny) without it making my server unstable/memory leaks, etc.  I'm trying a total reinstall with ubuntu this time because I hear you can run the official binaries on it, but its a shot in the dark. 

If this sounds like trivial stuff to you, HELP ME...I will be this first customer of this fledgling company!

I'm the creator this site, http://britcoin.co.uk/findex.php?page= , http://pastecoin.com/ and http://bitcoin.cz.cc/

It's really easy to get setup. Send me a message through this forums and I'll help you out.

Then you can decide to pay me whatever you think I deserve :)

EDIT: I wrote this up, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/LAMP_developer_intro ... Hope that helps.

I think I finally got everything working in ubuntu.  The official binary seems to work out of the box in ubuntu.  Bitcoin definitely needs help integrating with debian, though.  I will keep you in mind if I stumble again genjix :)

Did you read that link I typed up?

I did, thanks for putting that out there.