[RIPE Atlas Ambassadors] How to get people to actually plug in their probes?

Hello Philip and everyone!


I too find it to be a problem, however, I started doing something which
helped bit. Basically, I stop the "bulk distribution" of the probe at
conferences. I do try best to carry them and give out when someone asks for
it. But I stop the act of taking hardware in hand during a conference and
asking - "who needs it?"

Instead I try to get hosts via two methods:


   1. During IP routing or IXP workshops, I always take a few mins to
   explain the way traceroute works and only shows the forward path, making
   everyone curious about return path. Next, I suggest them of Atlas project.
   That gets me folks who are genuinely interested to ask for the probe.

   2. Whenever anyone requests me for sending probe via email or my blog
   post about it - I tell them upfront that while probes are free to host,
   there is cost involved in hardware which RIPE is bearing and there is cost
   involved in sending it locally which folks like us are bearing and thus we
   expect probes to be connected as soon as they (the requester) receives it
   and also that requester is willing to spend some reasonable time to
   troubleshoot if the device goes offline.


For #2, I have seen 30-40% people not replying back and that actually
helps. That ensures I am not sending a probe to someone who does not pick
phone call, someone who misses an email and does not have time to do basic
troubleshooting.




Thanks.


On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 5:18 AM, Philip Paeps <philip at trouble.is> wrote:

> I had a conversation with a new probe host who was wondering how many of
> the probes I hand out "walk off" never to be seen again.
>
> Sadly, that's quite a lot of them in my case.  I guess I need to find
> conferences with more reliable attendees?
>
> People promise to plug them in but then they get distracted.  Or they move
> and the probes end up in boxes.
>
> How do other ambassadors twist their hosts' arms into actually plugging in
> probes?  (And keeping them plugged in!)
>
> Philip
>
> --
> Philip Paeps
> Senior Reality Engineer
> Ministry of Information
>
> _______________________________________________
> RIPE-Atlas-Ambassadors mailing list
> RIPE-Atlas-Ambassadors at ripe.net
> https://mailman.ripe.net/
>



-- 


Anurag Bhatia
anuragbhatia.com
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