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The first generation of the OSU Helpdesk Project (Coho) was launched in January 2003 by Oregon State University’s Information Services' Technology Support Services unit. The project was a response to many attempts by various internal departments to obtain commercial helpdesk software or develop their own systems. In each case the initial investment and recurring costs were found to be excessive. The goal of the project was to create a modular, web-based, open-source helpdesk system that would meet a variety of users' needs.

The current open source implementation of Coho includes the call-tracking module plus optional knowledgebase, calendar and inventory modules based on various open source products. Coho is now widely used within the University; it has been in production at the OSU Computer Helpdesk since May 2003 and serves more than 19,000 students and over 4000 staff and faculty. Coho is also successfully deployed by other universities and organizations.

The Coho helpdesk project is in the process of becoming a Community Source project, with partners including state government, private industry, and higher education. This will include a major rewrite of the system, resulting in a 2nd generation version of Coho. In the meantime, we are going to continue to use and support the first generation version of Coho.

Licensing OSU Helpdesk

Coho is based on Bugzilla, the open-source bug tracking system which was developed for use at Mozilla.org. Coho is released under the Mozilla public license.. If you would like to use this software, please see the license section for more information.

Want More Information?

For more information please visit the Coho Website.

You can find more information on the benefits of Open Source in Education at http://www.netc.org/openoptions/pros_cons/comparing.htm

Contacts:

Chris Sinnett (Project Manager)
Manager, OSU Computer Helpdesk
chris.sinnett@oregonstate.edu
phone (541) 737-9156

Tammy Barr
Director, Technology Support Services
Tammy.Barr@oregonstate.edu
(541) 737-5404.

Last modified 2006-02-23 11:53 AM
 

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