On Thu, Sep 2, 2010 at 5:46 AM, Tom "spot" Callaway <tcallawa@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 09/01/2010 07:11 PM, Jon Masters wrote: >> Folks, >> >> I would like to propose that you please discuss my proposal for an >> annual Fedora User Survey, as originally raised with FESCo: > > Sounds interesting, if handled appropriately. > > The only words of caution I would put out is to make it clear that > simply because the survey results say (or imply) that we should do $FOO > does not necessarily mean that the Board endorses doing $FOO. > > I have this painful vision of being repeatedly bashed about the head > with the survey results saying we need to add more proprietary drivers. > I think in general it should be made clear that we are trying to account for where we are *today*, and not taking a poll or voting on what we want to do tomorrow. So asking things like: What do you want Fedora to be in a year? (a) A desktop distribution, (b) a server distribution, (c) a developer oriented distribution, or (d) a nice hat (thank you, Nirik, for that classic answer) ... would be something that really implies a voting or at least opining type poll. Opening that door is just bad form, unless that's what you're specifically trying to do. On the other hand, asking something like, Do you currently use proprietary / non-free drivers? (Yes, No, I don't know what proprietary/non-free means) If Y, direct to --> What do you use them for? - checkboxes for video, audio, whatever, etc. .... Might be a reasonable question. Part of the beauty of doing surveys such as this is, when you keep the questions consistent / identical from year to year, it becomes a good measurement of progress (or unprogress). If we find, for example, that 80% of users are using proprietary drivers to do X, then, in keeping with our mission or vision, assuming it includes something about freedom, we might want to focus (as we already do, but) even more on (a) fixing that situation, and (b) user education about freedom, and hope that by the same time next year, this percentage has improved. We could also find that maybe this percentage is significantly lower in one part of the world than others; that's where we step in and say, what are we doing right in Elbonia, and how can we replicate that elsewhere? Or is there a correlation between what applications people are using and why they are using proprietary drivers, etc.? I like to think of these kinds of surveys as one of the many things that should be done when a group is trying to figure out "what is Point A" in the "how to get from Point A to Point B" puzzle. If people don't agree on where Point A lies, trying to agree on where Point B should be, let alone how to get there, becomes a lot more cumbersome. > ~spot > _______________________________________________ > advisory-board mailing list > advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board > _______________________________________________ advisory-board mailing list advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board