2010-09-02 MEETING PROPOSAL: discussion on Annual User Survey

inode0 inode0 at gmail.com
Wed Sep 1 23:34:29 UTC 2010


On Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Jon Masters <jonathan at jonmasters.org> wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I would like to propose that you please discuss my proposal for an
> annual Fedora User Survey, as originally raised with FESCo:
>
> https://fedorahosted.org/fesco/ticket/453
>
> The point of this survey is to ask users (and potential users) what they
> think of the current Fedora direction, the User_base, and other topics.
> To include gathering information about the user demographic, and to feed
> into future planning efforts on Fedora direction. Also, it's been 14
> releases and we've yet to really ask our customers what they think!

I don't think of myself as a customer, but as a user I like it very much.

> I was present at the FESCo meeting, wherein it was decided that such a
> matter was the purview of the Fedora Board, who should discuss this. I
> am going to raise this with the Fedora Marketing group, where we can
> discuss possible ways to IMPLEMENT a survey, but that does not have to
> gate the discussion giving a mandate to perform the survey initially.

What is preventing you from just going off and doing it now? I hope
you find encouragement but I also hope the board doesn't get in the
business of issuing mandates.

> Clearly, all surveys have an inherent bias to them, but we've had
> anthropological studies performed on Fedora in the past and there are
> known ways to make surveys less tainted. There are also independent
> pollsters available who could be contracted to do this if needed. I
> would hope that the Board would see value in gathering opinion on the
> state of update policy, intended user base, though this should not block
> current ongoing efforts to implement tighter controls on such things.

I think interest in the results of this go way beyond the board and
would affect decisions made throughout the project. Good luck with the
research!

John


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