Re: Survey on FLOSS
Andrew Suffield wrote: > As somebody who understands and hates statisticians and statistics, I > echo the sentiment. This is a terrible survey. I can understand why people hate social statistics when they are often produced from bad surveys. I think that it's a bit harsh to hate statisticians, though: often the worst surveys are prepared without using a trained statistician and sometimes even without basic knowledge of statistical methodology. If there were more statisticians actively involved in collecting and producing these statistics, there would be far fewer bad surveys out there. (I would say that, though, wouldn't I?) In this particular case, there is no statistician listed on the flosspols site and I did not find the methodology documents. They might exist unpublished, so I asked. Andrew's sentiments illustrate how developers of long-running projects like debian are getting tired of poor survey design. I've picked that up anecdotally, although I've not tried to look for a quantifiable trend (yet). I think researchers would do well to recognise this irritation and address it if they want good support from the community they survey. Some other projects that sociologists find "interesting" have pages with advice for researchers. Does debian have one or would anyone be interested in (me or them) drafting one? -- MJR/slef Personal opinion http://people.debian.org/~mjr/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Survey on FLOSS
On Wed, Mar 30, 2005 at 04:34:39PM +0100, MJ Ray wrote: > As a statistician, I am worried that this is yet another > under-tested survey form about this important topic being > released into the world without a good pilot study first. Where > is the pilot study report? I can't figure it out from the project > status page, it's not on the "dissemination" page and there's no > "downloads" page. As somebody who understands and hates statisticians and statistics, I echo the sentiment. This is a terrible survey. > Some of the questions (18 for example) seem to assume > a particular bias in the respondant. In others (12 and 38), > some of the range of possible answers are not covered. The > "discrimination" page is one-sided and not justified. I find several of the questions impossible to accurately answer (either because they call for knowledge about my activities that I have no reason to record, or because they list a set of options which lack one relevant to me), and I disagree with the assumed premises behind several of them. None of them had escape options for "none of the above" or "tell us why this question sucked", or similar. Also, this survey is riddled with the "How important do you think this is?" style questions, which are notoriously bad at collecting accurate information. And to round it off, different questions give different sets of responses, using different form layouts, and even different numbers of responses. As a parting shot I was particularly impressed by one question where I was asked to rank the importance of "Other". I've seen better surveys from teenage students. A detailed critique would be a waste of my time; I suggest that the people responsible ask their relevant professors to do it. And I hate this stupid term "FLOSS". It's a blind attempt to lump two entirely discrete groups of people together, who have radically different motivations. A very strange choice of sample set. I would expect the two groups to give very different answers to several of the questions. -- .''`. ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield : :' : http://www.debian.org/ | `. `' | `- -><- | signature.asc Description: Digital signature
Re: Survey on FLOSS
> John, do you still see this problem? When I tried again it said "Allowing you to pick up where you left off" or words to that effect and took me to the first page of the survey. However, when I complete that page and click "Continue" it takes me back to the first page. I tried deleting the cookies but I still can't get past the first page. It isn't worth pursuing. -- John Hasler -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Survey on FLOSS
This email contains questions for FLOSS and FSFE people, and suggests DDs wait until the buggy survey form is fixed, to avoid wasting time. The DPL announced to us: > http://flosspols.org/survey/survey_part.php?groupid=mmd It's good to see people gathering data about us. I thank the survey organisers for that and the DPL for passing on the announcement. Let nothing I say below negate that. As a statistician, I am worried that this is yet another under-tested survey form about this important topic being released into the world without a good pilot study first. Where is the pilot study report? I can't figure it out from the project status page, it's not on the "dissemination" page and there's no "downloads" page. Some of the questions (18 for example) seem to assume a particular bias in the respondant. In others (12 and 38), some of the range of possible answers are not covered. The "discrimination" page is one-sided and not justified. Finally, I'm worried that there are technical problems meaning that my time filling out the form was wasted. As well as John's emails that I've just seen, my final answer screen said "You took 0 min 41 sec to fill out this survey" which is not true at all. Is this survey even working? I suggest that DDs wait until we have confirmation. I am disappointed by the University of Maastricht (I didn't expect much, as they are part of the consortium with "Mr LZW" Unisys running the EU Open Source Observatory, which is oddly quiet about swpat). I'm really surprised that the University of Cambridge Department of Social Anthropology have put their name to this survey. Who is the responsible person there? Who at the EU was responsible for granting further funding to this group? Are FSF Europe advising this group, as they planned to offer? Their FP6 page was last updated 2004-04, so I'll email. Copies sent to FLOSS survey contact address and FSFE FP6 list. Please cc me on any list-only replies. -- Thanks and best wishes, MJR/slef http://people.debian.org/~mjr/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Survey on FLOSS
* Frank Küster <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2005-03-30 16:47]: > > The survey seems to be broken. I get a "Record not found" message. The > > "Webmaster" link does nothing. > It worked fine here. Here too, and I forwarded John's message to the people running the survey and they didn't find anything wrong either. John, do you still see this problem? -- Martin Michlmayr http://www.cyrius.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Survey on FLOSS
John Hasler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The survey seems to be broken. I get a "Record not found" message. The > "Webmaster" link does nothing. It worked fine here. Regards, Frank -- Frank Küster Inst. f. Biochemie der Univ. Zürich Debian Developer
Re: Survey on FLOSS
The survey seems to be broken. I get a "Record not found" message. The "Webmaster" link does nothing. -- John Hasler -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Survey on FLOSS
I have been asked to forward the following information about a survey for FLOSS (Free, Libre and Open Source Software) developers. I know the people who are conducting this survey and I value their work, so I can only encourage people to participate. The EU-funded FLOSSPOLS project is carrying out a survey of developers worldwide. This is a follow-up to the original FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) survey in 2002, one of the first and most comprehensive surveys of developers - who they are, how they work and why they do it. The new survey aims to provide an update, include new developers, and answer some of the questions that were raised by the first one: in particular, on the role of developer communities for learning skills and employment generation, and on the low level of participation by women. More information and the questionnaire are available at http://flosspols.org/survey/survey_part.php?groupid=mmd (Note that Amaya blogged about this survey a few months ago, but I'm sure not everyone follows Planet Debian.) -- Martin Michlmayr [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Asking question
ke, 2005-03-30 kello 14:21 +0200, Frédéric PEREIRA kirjoitti: > Hello, > > Currently working in a French public library, and thus for the public > utility, I would like to place at the disposal of our readers copies of > your distribution of Linux. Indeed, I estimate that to speak today about > free became a need, would be to only show people who there is an > alternative. Then, I ask to you whether this project is legal, and thus > if I can with complete freedom propose a copy of your distribution to > our readers. The "main" and "contrib" part of Debian are free (libre) software, and that means you can copy and give away them as much as you want. The "non-free" part contains some programs that have restrictions that may be problematic for you. http://www.debian.org/intro/free has some more information.
Asking question
Hello, Currently working in a French public library, and thus for the public utility, I would like to place at the disposal of our readers copies of your distribution of Linux. Indeed, I estimate that to speak today about free became a need, would be to only show people who there is an alternative. Then, I ask to you whether this project is legal, and thus if I can with complete freedom propose a copy of your distribution to our readers. Thanks Frédéric PEREIRA BM de Fontainebleau 15, rue Royale 77300 FONTAINEBLEAU -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
