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Plumber, Electrician... Digitician?
Alien54 writes "This article from the Sunday Boston Globe describes the rise of a new type of tradesman called, for lack of a better term, a digitician, a label describing the burgeoning army of overqualified, unemployed, or free-spirited computer technicians being deployed to front porches around the country."
And for various reasons, we as a society don't really respect mechanics, as a profession. I wonder if some day those who fix computers will be held in a similar regard.
I've always believed that Linux/FOSS distributions would be a fantastic model for this sort of thin horizontal distributed economy. You have thousands, if not millions of Linux savvy people out there who can make money on those around them who just want their computer to work for a specific purpose.
This beats the hell out of the centralized monopoly model. Who better to support your computer than someone who understands it intimately? If they cannot fix it, they can go to the author and ask them to fix it - an unlikely happenstance for the average user, but not so much for a "digitician".
Aren't computer technicians already held in about the same regard as mechanics? We as a society seem to view them the same with respect to skill level.
It's encouraging to see unemployeed techs finally taking advantage of all that time they spent fixing friends computers for free. I know I'm usually the first one several of my friends and family call when their computer starts acting weird, and all they want to do is send email.
Now if somebody was really smart, they'd find a way to get partnered with the local Best Buy and could probably turn it into a full time job. You'd be amazed at how much people are willing to pay if you can bring some sanity to their assorted home electronics. My mom loves the 3 page FAQ I made for her that goes step by step how to do everything with the home theatre system my Dad has. She used to not watch any DVDs just because she was scared to touch anything.
ce n'est pas un Sig.
I have a friend who went around charging 50 dollars to take the MS.Blaster worm off people's computers. This amateur computer repair field has great potential, as computers penetrate further and further into most bussinesses. Time is money, and paying some kid 50 bucks to fix a computer is often cheaper in the long run then spending 2 days doing it yourself. I plan to do the very same thing with a local company over the summer break from school.
I want to be a Digitician when I grow up.
SAILING MISHAP
Just like *most* plumbers or electricians, shouldn't there be license granted by the state or other civic government for in-home techs? I say ABSOLUTELY!
Consider the case where a so-called digitician shows up at grandma's house, does essentially nothing, and gets paid, then grandma, or her linux-loading, do-gooder grandson, should be able to file a grievence to have their license revoked.
Overall, there should be some type of code enforcement.(pun!=intended).
No, Vern. They just let him in.
It also depends on what "repair" is.
"Repair" might mean that the computer won't boot up at all, and this person has their doctoral dissertation nearly complete on it. Of course, they haven't made any backups... It would easily be worth $800 to recover that data and get the computer up and running again.
For me, when it comes to working on people's computers, I basically tell them it will cost them $50/hour. But also that I have an "hourly" cost for certain jobs. From start to finish, installing windows and all their software may take more than 5 or 6 hours. But a lot of that is just waiting. So, for that job, I'll tell them it will be about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of billed time.
I wonder if there are any tools that could make tasks like this easier, such as a LiveCD Linux distro that included antivirus and spyware tools for cleaning up windows partitions? That would solve problems such as unidentified worms that disable antivirus software.
The author of the article brings up a good point, that many home/home-office computers have important personal and financial data on it. Although I'm sure that all of these digiticians (horrible word) have pretty good troubleshooting skills, what happens when they forget to make a backup? They can't replace the data, that was the sole copy. They can try and sell the owner a backup system, but that makes it look like the data was lost to sell another unit. Do these companies carry any sort of malpractice insurance, or do they just operate on a "we break it, you buy it" principle?
While it is true that some mechanics are less than honest, many of us in the trade are sick unto death of getting blamed for cheap construction and unrealistic customers.
Modern cars are very good, but they are not meant to be perfect. Often, components break upon disassembly because the automakers can't be concerned with giving Joe Average a truly serviceable car. If they did, the cost would be unacceptable to the public. When an honest tech tells the customer that something broke coming apart they are usually branded a liar or incompetent, so they often have to dodge the subject, or get ripped off by the customer. As long as car buyers are more concerned with features and bold new styling than quality, this will continue to be true.
As far as the assertion that mechanics lie about the needed repairs, this is often due to a misunderstanding over the economics of the situation. Due to the complexity of modern autos, many diagnostic operations are best handled through educated guesses. This is due to the unfortunate fact that the customers are often unwilling to pay the real cost of step-by-step diagnostics. Most of the time experience can suggest a solution without hours of diagnostic time. The bad part is, when this fails, the customer gets upset about having to actually pay to fix their less-than-perfect purchase. Too often, no amount of explaining can overcome the customer's belief that their car (which is quite broken) is just fine, it MUST be the mechanic's fault.
I am often reminded that working on cars is like my experience supporting Windows machines, in moments of frustration, I just turn to the user and say "I didn't buy or build this peice of shit... I'm just the one that has to fix it for you!"
Also, if you find yourself getting taken by any businessman, perhaps it is because you are too busy doing other things to do your research first. If you are just handing money over to anyone, you are almost sure to lose.
.... would be a better term. The number of people who think they are a 'technician' because they've successfully built a PC clone using only their bare hands and a phillips screwdriver is huge.
Granted, it is an 'empowering' experience, but in the old-school a Technician knows how to solder, hand code little diagnostic tests in Assembly language, troubleshoot the problem down to a component on the circuit board, and more.
If you've never handled a wirewrap gun, and you have no idea of the relative advantages of a totem-pole versus an open-collector output, you're not a technician, you're a dilentante from the coffeehouse who ordered a 'PC Tool Set' off ThinkGeek and copped an attitude.
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Several years ago (1995), my best friend and I started up a "computer consulting" company. Basically we did the so-called "digitician" thing, as well as doing full IT support for a number of smaller businesses as well. We were very successful with it, and had a number of good clients. We charged $35 per hour, for on-site work. We almost never would bring a machine back to our shop for fixing, it was almost always done on-site. Our customers really loved it, as we were both the cheapest in town, and the only ones who would not require that they bring their computers to us.
We were very much the pioneers of this type of service in my home town (300,000 people), and now everyone is doing it, albeit at twice or three times the cost.
I'm currently thinking about doing it again (I quit about 5 years ago - too much stress), on a smaller scale. I enjoy fixing stuff, but not on a full-time basis.
I've done a few small jobs so far - still at $35 per hour - but am not sure how much time I really want to spend on it. The money's ok, but I just mostly do it because I enjoy it.
Seems almost a crime to charge money for something I love to do (and I already do this 8 hours a day at my day job!)
Just my thoughts on this, having gone through it all when it wasn't common.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d Capitalization really works: i helped my uncle jack off a horse
Some day? How about already?
It's not my regular gig, but I do some stuff for various people on the side, pretty much just the same small group of people the last 5 or 6 years. One time I'm out of town on business and one of these folks had an "issue" with a critical software package. She had no choice but to call in someone else to try and get them through the week as the package is critical to their small business. Well, I get back the next week and spend 4 hours cleaning up the crap this "certified expert" did to their systems. One database was so screwed up we had to restore from the week prior instad of spending days they didn't have to fix it.
On top of that, this "expert" recommended about $6000 in upgrades for them, including taking all 4 of their workstations fron Windows 98 to XP (Never mind the version of the software they use has data corruption issues under XP. No problem! Just upgrade that too!), replacing their "server" (a 98 box they use for simple file sharing. Really simple file sharing) with a 2000 Server, and all the various hardware to make everything run almost as fast with the new OSs as it does now.
What they have hardware and software wise fits their needs just fine. Windows 98 on 700Mhz - 128 MB machines is plenty fast for what they do. And besides, they don't have $6000 to drop on upgrades.
That's just the most egregious example I can recall offhand, but don't you worry, there are already tons of computer "snake oil" salesmen out there. One guy at a company I used to work at was "helping" people with their machines in the office for cash. One of the receptionists asked me to have a quick look at her computer after he did some work on it. My God! He made her buy another network card (one that XP autodetected and had drivers for) because he was too dense to know how to install drivers off the motherboard CD. Apparently in his world, if XP can't find it and deal with it automatically, it's broken!
But as one old man did say when asked to account for his intelligence "8 years of education and 60 years of learning".....Our education may or may not go up to a very high level but if we have initiative and curiosity we never stop learning.
Wanted : A Signature.
I already do this in my business. I repair pc's and do just about anything possible you can do with a pc, but I don't really sell them. If someone asks me to build a new pc for them, I gladly will, but I've given up on trying to compete with the large retailers that dump pc's for ridiculous prices. The latest trend here has been low cost supermarkets selling ultra cheap pc's. Nobody can compete with that, so I won't even try. Instead I make my money when the guy that buys a cheap pc gets home, connects it to the internet (if he can even do that himself) and then proceeds whithin the next month to get beleaguered by the unholy trinity of spam, spyware and virusses, until his pc is rendered almost unusable. That's when they call me to fix their pc's. They usually try their manufacturer's helpdesk first, but the recent outsourcing trends have made sure that I get the business sooner than later, because
1) I show up
2) I speak their language
3) I can fix their stuff instead of dicking around with fixing the wrong stuff and reformatting their hard drives until they don't dare call anymore.
I don't think there's ANY future in hardware sales, since most people simply are too much cheap bastards to really consider the level of quality and service that they'll get before they buy. They only see the price. But if they want to keep their shit going in this day and age, they'll invariably end up on my doorstep.
There is a guy (in Halifax I think) who calls himself "The Sound Doctor" who makes a living from going around and setting up home theaters etc. A previous poster joked that with new ranks of Digiticians, VCR clocks around the world found finally not be flashing 12:00. But this Sound Doctor guy REALLY does that kind of thing. His business is getting TVs, VCRs, DVDs and home audio working right (for $60/hour or flat fees for some services I think). Another poster commented that if a digitician got a contract with Best Buy they would be set. Well, according to this Sound Doctor guy, he used to work for a big box store before branching out on his own. He gets some business from those stores, but increasingly the retailers are seeing customer service as another stream of revenue and doing it in house.
Some stores will offer to set up your new surround sound system for you .. for a small extra fee. (or included in the price if they are trying to be competative).
I'm not sure that this IS a growth business. I wonder if it isn't just a little niche market run by word of mouth. In the same way that high end audio stores will set up your equipment for you, and come back to tweak it (for a price) I can't imagine why Best Buy, Future shop et. al. wouldn't expand into this area. My dad always takes his Volvo into the dealer where he bought it for servicing. When my brother had a problem with his laptop he took it into Future Shop to see if they could do anything for him. I think a lot of people are like that and more inclined to call, and trust (even if that trust is unwarranted) the kinds of places where they bought the original equipment than a one-man operation like "Dr. Dave".
But, if I am wrong and this is a viable business, i think it would make sense to offer a comprehensive service - servicing computers, home networks and home audio / media equipment.
-Craig