Yesterday,
we held the first “Ask Tucows” chat on IRC. This is the first of four
online chat sessions scheduled this year in which people can chat
directly with various people from Tucows to ask questions, make
comments and suggestions and get to know us a little better. About a
dozen people from Tucows participated, as did somewhere between two to
three dozen people from “the community”: customers, investors and a
couple of curious onlookers.
The chat seems to have gone over
well. The conversation was quite lively and many opinions and ideas
were voiced. It also went on longer than expected: we had the channel
open in the morning for testing purposes, and some people joined in the
conversation quite early. Although it was scheduled to run from 1:00
p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern (GMT-5), the actual chat effectively started
shortly after 11:30 a.m. and ran through to just after 3:00 p.m.. We
don’t mind this; we’d rather have the chat run overtime than close it
down early from lack of interest.
There are three more chats scheduled for this year:
- Tuesday, May 2
- Tuesday, August 1
- Tuesday, November 7
They’re
tentatively scheduled to take place between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Eastern (GMT-5), but given the way this first chat went, I’m going to
consider expanding the official hours and starting the chat a little
earlier to accommodate our European customers and investors.