Unidata User Support
Spring/Summer/Fall 2010

Unidata Inquiry Tracking System

• Since January 26, 2006 over 24140 user support "transactions" (new inquiries and follow-ups) have been processed through the Unidata inquiry tracking system.

Relevant Support Metrics

• Support by Category

  

  Fig. 1: Above are histograms that portray the number of Unidata email responses for categories of support for a one year period ending October 4, 2010. The histograms are arranged by yearly activity averages with the highest on the left and lowest on the right. Each quarter year within the period is depicted from oldest to newest from left to right. The number of responses has been normalized to weekly averages so that the support load over the various periods can be easily compared.

  Individual support activities included in the categories depicted above are listed in the following table.

  Category	Packages, Groups, and Lists
  data	casestudies, casestudies-list, conduit, c2-linda, craft, craft-nws, craft-ty, datastream, difax, level2, level2-linda, level2-ty, noaaport, noaaport-ty, noaaportldm
  dods	dods, dods-core, dods-list, dods-tech, dods-team, linda-dods, opendap, opendap-core, opendap-list, opendap-tech, opendap-team
  gempak	gempak, gembud-list
  ldm	ldm, ldm-users-list
  lead	lead, leadusers
  idd	cluster, idd, idd-antarctic, idd-brasil, idd-caribe, idd-inject, idd-status, scoop, suominet, tigge
  idv	idv, idvlist, idvsteering, metapps, visad-list, visad-renderer
  mcidas	mcdevelop, mcidas, mcidas-list
  miscellaneous	esupport, fxlinux, license, misc, network, notrack, platforms, wxp, wxp-list
  netcdf	data-models, libcf, ncml, netcdf, netcdf-misc, netcdfgroup-list, netcdf-hdf-list, netcdf-java, netcdf-perl
  nws-changes	nws-changes
  outreach	agu-linda, agu-ty, ams-linda, announce, argentina-ty, barbados-ty, brazil-ty, cbmet-ty, chile-ty, egrants, egu-linda, external, iai-ty, meteoforum-ty, mexico-ty, noaa-linda, nws-linda, unidata, workshop
  thredds	java-dev, java-dev-list, thredds
  utilities	decoders, ldm-mcidas, udunits

• Support by Topic

  

  Fig. 2: Above are histograms that portray the number of Unidata email responses for individual topics of support for a one year period ending October 4, 2010. The histograms are arranged by yearly activity averages with the highest on the left and lowest on the right. Each quarter year within the period is depicted from oldest to newest from left to right. The number of responses has been normalized to weekly averages so that the support load over the various periods can be easily compared.

• Comments

  • The total support provided by the UPC remains high, and yearly totals have been relatively steady for the past two years. Overall support activities vary by somewhat by quarter. Spikes in support for individual packages is largely correlated with the release of new distributions, and, for the IDV in particular, jumps after training workshops.
  • Support for netCDF continues to be substantial, but is considered modest given the large number of users of the package worldwide.
  • The IDV support load is second only to that for netCDF; no large increases have been seen over the past 6 months.
  • Support for netcdf-java continues to grow steadily.
  • Support for the legacy visualization packages GEMPAK and McIDAS continues to be substantial.
  • Support for LDM, IDD, and data continues at a high level and shows some variability throughout the year.
  • Taken as a whole, the support required for visualization packages (GEMPAK, IDV, and McIDAS) is comparable to the support related to data reception (LDM, IDD, noaaport).
  • The high numbers for outreach reflect the high level of activity in organizing sessions at various national meetings.

• Notes

  These numbers and conclusions should not be taken too literally, for several reasons:

  • For some packages, multiple responses in the same thread may be bundled into a single archived email. Other packages have each response in a thread counted separately.
  • After a new release of software, there may be a flurry of the same or similar questions, which can be answered in separate emails or in a single mailing list posting.
  • The graph primarily represents support of end users and site administrators, not developers. Support for non-Unidata developers in projects such as THREDDS, IDV, GEMPAK, and McIDAS requires significant resources, but is difficult to assess.
  • Not all support records were indexable for this report. Given this, the above numbers are an underestimate of the actual support being provided by the UPC.

• Additional User Support Inquiry Metrics

Unidata Website Update

• The next version of the website is 95% finished and available for preview here: http://v3.unidata.ucar.edu/

  Note: since the new site shared the same content space as the current Unidata website, temporary file names have been assigned to pages (v3index.html) as well as giving the new site a temporary domain (v3). Both of these conventions will disappear when the new site goes live and takes the place of the existing site.

• Jen has been working with the staff to gather content and rewrite content for the new site. We are finding a lot of content is out of date and/or no longer relevant, so major revisions are being implemented by Jen. One the new site is complete, it will go live (November 2010).

• Jen is requesting User Committee and Policy Committee feedback on the new site, so that she may incorporate these changes after she returns from travel.

by Tom Yoksas and Jennifer Oxelson