On 7/5/05, Rahul Sundaram sundaram@redhat.com wrote:
- A tool to collect package stats
- A tool to collect hardware information
- A form to fill out for users to send in more information to the
project with appropriate "incentives" to do it
I'd rather know why we..as fedora..are collecting any of this information before we collect it. I want to see concrete plans on how this information is going to be used before we start collecting. Who is going to datamine that package stats information and for what constructive purpose? Who is going to datamine that hardware information and for what constructive purpose? Who is going to datamine geographic and other userdata and for what constructive purpose?
I am very much not inclined to building a treasure trove of data... just to have it around because people are somewhat interested in knowing things about the userbase. If there are no concrete plans to use the data as it comes in, I think having a mountain of data its only going to prove to be a burden.
Gnome has a stated goal cleverly named "10x10". Getting an estimate of the number of gnome users is clearly needed to know if they are on track to reach that specific goal. Fedora on the other hand, has no grandiose user adoption targets. I don't see a driving reason to build this mountain of information up.
I don't see any credible discussion that people agree that the popcon concept is something Fedora is willing to adopt or any other need for use package stats data. I don't see any credible discussion about user adoption targets that could possible need userdata for feedback. I don't see any credible discussion about doing something worthwhile with hardware data if we had it.
All i see are some vague expressions of desire to leisurely mine data to get some trending statistics. I don't think that is a good enough reason to start building up the data. I think there needs to be commitment to actually use and process the data as it rolls in. Sitting on a mountain of userdata without doing anything with it as it comes in, is just going to lead to a grotesque mess as people with specific agendas start mining historic data to try to strong arm discussion.
-jef