Global Support

Follow-The-Sun Support

88.io is building up a global 24/7 support network based on 3 timezones, each covering a minimum of 10 hours a day (from 8am to 6pm local time) without any "holidays".

Currently an English based Follow-The-Sun technical support network is being constructed in the following three time zones:

  1. Dublin, Ireland
    Timezone: Europe/Dublin
    UTC Offset: 0
    Longitude: -6.3
    Progress: planning only
    Sponsor: ie.88.io

  2. Hong Kong, China
    Timezone: Asia/Hong_Kong
    UTC Offset: +8
    Longitude: +114.2
    Progress: build started 2023-10
    Sponsor: cn.88.io

  3. Los Angeles, United States of America
    Timezone: America/Los_Angeles
    UTC Offset: -8
    Longitude: -122.4
    Progress: build started 2023-08
    Sponsor: us.88.io

This volunteer global support network is provided by information entities worldwide, a qualified information entity from ANYWHERE in the world can login to any ONE of the three support time zone and start providing support. This global support network is designed to complement NOT replace the support provided by the local information entities in each country.

All 3 timezones are from the northern hemisphere to prevent confusion due to the different directions in daylight saving adjustments.

1. Hours

To maintaining uninterrupted 24 hour coverage (even during day-light-saving in each city), the operating hours for each base time zone is from 8am to 6pm everyday of the year .

2. Handover

At the end of each day, handing over of all unresolved issues to the next time zone is important, especially in the handling cybersecurity incidents, as we want to bring in fresh minds to work on difficult problems in a continuous and sustained manner.

Note a handover transfer responsibility for resolving an issue to another timezone, automatically adding new members from the new timezone to work on an issue, but it does not remove previous members that have already worked on that issue. All members are welcome to keep working on an issue from any timezone at anytime (e.g. working on same issue through the night or pick an issue up again the next morning).

3. Languages

Currently only English is supported. We expect to increase the number of languages rapidly as more technical folks with different language skills join in.

We are following the progress of realtime voice translation development in our culture project cultureinterchange.com (which in turn rely on our AI project partitionai.com) and will contribute and benefit from its development.

4. Staffing

Any Member Alias that has been active for more than 30 continuous days can become a Support Responder in one of the timezones. While Responders can work for multiple timezones, one after another, they cannot work for multiple timezones at once.

Reward for responding to support requests follows the Petty Reward scheme with Interval Coins. Please contact the Citizen Ecosystem responsible for the timezone you want to work in to register your interest.

4. Software

Currently only BigBlueButton (bundled with ALL Private Cyberspace) can be used for interactive support.

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Other support software from your Private Cyberspace or from external parties can be used, but all events should be documented in the Citizen Timeline.

5. Limitations

The initial focus is on handling cybersecurity incidents in realtime. The support network is not designed to handle general technical support yet.

6. Escalation

If an issue cannot be resolved by the follow-the-sun support network, it might be escalated to the following time zones:

  1. Sydney, Australia
    Timezone: Australia/Sydney
    UTC Offset: +10
    Longitude: +151.2
    Progress: build started 2023-06
    Sponsor: au.88.io