Linux Call Center: Once Upon a Time in America

In an article on the IBM web site Dr. Donald Rosenberg wrote about the first Linux pay-per-incident call center. I remember the incident because it involved me and an unnamed gentleman, Dave Whitinger. At the time of the article, Dr. Rosenberg championed a couple of accomplishments. What he didn't mention needs acknowledging now.

Here's a bit of what he wrote:

Adelstein began [his company] in 1998 as an effort to push Open Source as a consulting solution. Not only would [he] analyze problems and offer solutions, [he] would also help Open Source geeks learn about the consulting business. The latter function has been spun off and [he] is now doing high-level UNIX conversions, primarily to Linux mainframes.



In a classic case of an entrepreneur listening to the market to determine his business, Adelstein began by installing Linux on name-brand machines and selling them to ISPs. He had been impressed by seeing an ISP host 2 million users on a Linux server.



[He] also offered one of the very first telephone-based Linux support plans, and it was through support contracts that [he] found [himself] doing the integration work that [he] wanted. As name-brand vendors began to offer Linux on machines and other companies sprang up to offer to Linux telephone support packages, [he] exited these markets in order to remain on the cutting edge of Open Source service.

What didn't Dr. Rosenberg say? I would like to set the record straight. I did have a consulting firm and I decided to go into the Linux call center business. I had a small office with a single phone and an ISDN line in the corner of a warehouse. I had a domain name I made up and a website on Earthlink.

IBM had some excess capacity in one of its support centers and I arranged for some of the telephone technicians to man an 800 line. I trained the technicians in Linux but I had no way to tell the world.

I did a search for Linux on Alta Vista and ran across an entry for this news site called LinuxToday. So, I visited the site. I then sent an email to the owner who called to meet me. His name: Dave.

We lived about 30 miles from each other. I lived in Dallas and he in McKinney. We arranged to meet at a restaurant in the old section of his town.

I won't forget our first encounter. Dave got out of his car, looked around and said, "Linux guys"? I looked at this kid and said, "that's me."

As we ate lunch, I found myself being grilled instead of the chicken I ordered. The young man with the Linux news site wanted to know if he could trust my intentions. I remember thinking that people around the world complained because they didn't have any one to call for Linux help and this guy's giving me the third degree.

We left on a cordial note and he said he would call me later and he did. He said that he would accept a story about my little venture and give me some banner adds. From that point forward, I emerged into the Linux business.

The phone started ringing at the IBM call center and eventually I had to bring that volume over to an office with some Linux guys to answer the phone and work with customers. Our ads on LinuxToday worked. Red Hat started referring us business. Suddenly, I started doing system integrations and roll outs.

I got a call from Francis Gaskins at RadioWallStreet.com about the time Red Hat told the world it wanted to go public. Gaskins needed an analyst and soon I started working with him doing a show called the "Linux League" two times a week. We webcast to tens of thousands of listeners interested in the various Linux public offerings. My business grew.

Now, here's a place we can set the record straight. I do not know how I would have done anything I did without Dave Whitinger's help. He wanted to see a Linux business succeed and he would have done nearly anything to make that happen.

A lot of Wall Street types acknowledged me back then for my experience in providing due diligence and analysts reports on Linux companies. Having worked as an Investment Banker in the 1980s allowed me to do fundamental analysis work and publish the results on Gaskins' IPO web site.

So, in a way, I can blame Dave for putting me in the position to have had some influence on those offerings. He ran an announcement for every show we did for two years, twice a week. He filled the seats in the stadium, so to speak.

Sometime, we want to take all the credit for our accomplishments. We look out at admirers when we keynote a conference. We smile and shake hands when we're snowed by VCs when they say we have a great business plan. In my case, I forgot that I didn't do any of it. The guy upstairs really did it all. He just so happened to arrange for his good buddy Dave to function as the catalyst.

So, once upon a time in America, a humble young gentleman named Dave Whitinger decided he wanted to make a contribution to the world.