I have a friend who for years has used me to troubleshoot the many virus and Trojan infections on his family’s computers. Folks, if I’m the most techy person you know, you are in trouble. The extent of my abilities is to walk in the door with our Norton software, which is easy enough for someone like me to install and use. But it’s so common for us non-techies to turn to trusted friends for computer help, even if it can be inconvenient to wait for them to come over. That’s probably why some of the big retail stores have set up in-home computer repair services to fill that need. Those services though can quickly become very expensive, leaving you to keep calling on friends and family for favors.
If you regularly rely on a friend or a family member to help you set up your new computer, configure the wireless network, troubleshoot a failed connection with a printer, or otherwise keep you technically humming along, please share some news with that person. Symantec is working on a new service just for them. It’s called Project Guru. This is the dream service for the techy person who regularly assists people in other homes or cities with their technical problems. It will allow an easy-to-configure remote connection via a small application that the family member or friend downloads to their computer.
The main objective for Project Guru is to make it so easy for the “client” to set up. In the mindset of the design team, they imagine their own mothers using it. That design objective is going to be what makes this service ultra-usable. Typically, the remote service solutions on today’s market are too hard for the person you are helping to get started with. And if you have to drive across town to get them set up, that sort of defeats the purpose of a remote help product. Most of the current batch of services were initially designed for the business community and expect the user to be highly technical and have an IT desk a phone call away.
The techy friend doesn’t even need to install an application but can be available to help you via any browser. The whole thing runs online so even if they are on a business trip or over at a friend’s house and you call, you can still hope for quick assistance. They use the service to send an email to you, allowing you to give them access to your desktop. Then you can sit back while they review the error message or take a look at the log reports to help get you back in business.
The Project Guru is still in development and the team was presenting at the DEMO ’09 conference in Palm Springs this week. I’m sure it will generate some key buzz!