Case Study - The AIRE Centre

This London-based charity provides information on human rights issues and European legislation. They needed technical support from a volunteer with Linux skills.

Project Summary

Stabilise the computer network of the organisation, troubleshooting, upgrade IT system to Linux network, installing free compatible software, working with Office manager, staff.

Project Delivery

Charles put in around 60 to 70 days work. He proved very valuable and thorough. The project is still ongoing. Charles installed Linux on 3 of the 10 computers and stabilised the computer network. Also he has been a star when it came to troubleshooting complex problems.

Lessons learnt

Charles was tremendously helpful and made himself available in person and on the phone whenever help was needed. In future it would be better to work with a strict timeline of tasks. Having said that, however, it proved difficult for all the unexpected troubles and the complex nature of the project.

Outcomes

The AIRE Centre works with an extremely outdated computer equipment and a network which regularly crashes. Thanks to Charles we are still able to work with our system since there are no funds for equipment updates. We are now able to troubleshoot better when the computers crash and have generally a more stable network. We are also less vulnerable to viruses.