I recently discovered that hotlines, as in phone numbers you can call and ask questions, are quite popular. The ones I know about tend to be very specific. There is one for cooking turkeys. There is one on how to survive combat in Iraq.
But how about one that handles general questions? Just either common knowledge stuff, or trivia, or general questions about life. But what about the internet, you ask. Well, this wouldn't be as good as the internet. But clearly some people would much rather talk to a live person than trust a geocities site that was last updated in 2001. And this would be for those people.
But how would the people on the phone be able to provide accurate answers? People who know lots of things probably have real jobs. Well, they'd have access to the internet, of course, and lots of books. A whole libraries worth. They'd really be there to help you work out the answer. Ask probing questions. Research those questions, get to more questions, etc. It would take some patient customer service oriented folks. Maybe retired people? That would be feasible as more people who know the internet retire.
Anyway. People like hotlines. Apparently. It would be cool if there were more of them.
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1 comment:
Actually, librarians get calls like this all the time. And they DO have an entire library of books to search from. In big public libraries these questions usually get directed to the information desk. And if you want 'real' interaction beyond the phone, they'll even talk to you in person! Having worked in a library I'll tell you that librarians get asked some weird questions.
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