Qunu is a website where nearly 2000 volunteers computer experts offer free tech-support through live Jabber/XMPP-powered chat.

The site works by experts ‘tagging’ themselves, specifying which software/languages they have experience in (and they also say their degree of experience). So for example, an expert at php would tag himself as php and say he was an expert at it.

Qunu is a useful place if you require instant, free, specialised tech support. Though forums and newsgroups are great for support, it generally takes hours to receive a response; which isn’t great if you have a burning problem.

Qunu allows people to search for a question like “How do I remove malware?” or “malware”, and it then returns a list of online experts with expertise in malware (removal, hopefully ). The user requiring help then selects an expert, and gives that expert 60 seconds to accept, deny or ignore their request. You then do this until you find an expert willing to assist.

Experts connect to the site either through a web interface or through any Jabber-friendly client, such as GAIM, Miranda or Trillian. Through their Jabber client, they choose their tags.

However, one cannot verify the honesty of an expert, and they could use the site for malicious purposes. However, all chats are logged and a feature will be introduced which will allow chat logs to be public, verifying the good intentions of the expert. These risks exist on any forum, or Usenet, of course.

In the future, Qunu will generate profit through leads from professionals using the service. The basic service, I’ve been assured, will remain free of charge.

Tags: qunu, web2.0, web 2.0, web2, web 2, internet, tech support, jabber, ajax