Dear Lara Thank you for your mail. However, since neither the website nor your mail explains the motive or expected outcome or usage of the results of this survey, I am left with my speculations and analysis only. As for the questions from the life-satisfaction, well, everything needs customization. You simply cannot cutpaste a bunch of questions from a different questionnaire and call it legitimate and suitable for your needs -- sorry.
Contrary to what you have said, the questions ARE NOT on a scale of agreement/disagreement. Do you suppose that when you are asking how many hours a person spends on open source project falls under agreement/disagreement part? None of your questions follow the binary method -- needless to say some of them are direct questions requiring elaboration from the respondent explaining their status -- nowhere near agreement/disagreement part. So, that part of your statement does not really match the questionnaire, or does it? Getting back to the customization part -- I don't really know from which survey you took the questions, but definitely that questions do not fit into the open source community. you see, different social terms that dates back to 90s or 80s have radically changed their meaning. Now a days, the term community in terms of computer/Internet/IT has a totally different meaning. I might be totally isolated in an island, and still be a very active participant in various communities -- it does not truly require me to get "physically" involved to be a part of the community -- like it did back in 80s or 90s. I do not need to use a phone (the hardware phone, connected by cable to the phone company), or I might use a phone (a soft phone, for example, or VoIP phone) -- but that is hardly detrimental to my involvement with the community. Or let me give you another example. Supposing I set a question like this (this is a classic one from my country) -- Do you still take bribe as before? and set the answers to a. yes, b. not that much, c. a lot less, d. no, e. no answer. Now, no matter whichever you choose, the implication that you take bribe is there -- and even if you click on option e, the implication does not change. Most of your questions are ambiguous. Like when you ask how many hours do I work on an Open Source Project. What do you mean by that -- on developing a Open Source Project or deploying a Open Source Project? or simply providing support services to the users of Open Source Project maybe? You might be meaning any or all of that. Or let us take the question where you are asking if someone has directly earned money from an Open Source Project -- made money by what? by developing, deploying, selling, or what? When people work in Open Source Community, not necessarily it has to be a 9to5 job. In fact, the world of computers have adopted the habit of working at times generally referred to as "off hours". For the most of the non-IT people, like bankers, doctors, the term Work Hours and Family Hours have a different connotation than that of an IT person. A developer might be spending 24 hours with the family -- working on and off with his project from at home -- which is by no means reflected by any of the questions in your survey. There are millions of other differences are non-reflected in this survey. So, even if all the questions of your survey is answered, it will not be able to reflect the true nature of the Open Source community. Working with an Open Source Project is not necessarily "working" in the traditional sense. But that is not all. I got truly interested on the motives of this survey as soon as I hit the questions that tried to "scale" responses -- let's take the first one for example, when you are trying to scale the importance of the following for a person to work in Open Source a. Improving financial situaion (obviously, Open Source is not like M$, making money and doing nothing else. In fact, making money is not at all the prime objective here. Did any of your questions enquire as to the primary objective of Open Source?) b. believing that software should be free (maybe you haven't heard the famous dialogue, "free" not as "free beer", but a "freedom of choice") c. helping to limit the power of large software companies (do you suppose that open source developers are even the least concerned about the growth of the large software companise? very funny. because no matter how large a software company might be, the Open Source Developers team will always be the largest in the world) d. solving problems that could not be solved by proprietory softwares (I'd like to know a few, if you have any idea of what you have truly asked here) e. Getting help in realising a beneficial idea for a software product (again, I'm not certain that you yourself understand what you have said) f. Enabling me to distribute a non marketable software (now, isn't it obvious that in your mind you have already set an idea that all open-source softwares are non-marketable? and when you ask a Open Source Enthusiast if the person is involved so he can market some non-marketable product, the term "humiliation" or "insult" becomes too soft a term) and I can go on and on with all of them, but I believe I have made my points clear. I would not say that I am hundred percent correct in my analysis. I'm quite sure there are other members in this community who can explain and identify at least a thousand times better than I have -- and even more. But the point that the questions on this questionnaire are there only to shed negative impression on the Open Source Community will remain valid. That will be all for now. Many thanks for your time and patience. Happy Linuxing, and don't forget the BSD licensing part >:) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hello > > Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry that you believe the survey to > be focusing on the what you perceive to be the negative aspects of the > Open Source development. Most of the questions are completed on a > scale with the respondents asked to what degree they agree or > disagree with the statements. The questions on life satisfaction are > from a much larger social science survey which are being used to > provide a level of comparison. The focus of these questions is not > skewed in anyway, they are simply trying to elicit a response be that > positive or negative of your involvement in the community. > > Hope this helps to clarify. > > Sincerely > > Lara > > Quoting Linux Bangladesh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > >> Please forgive me if I sound skeptical, but the way the questions had >> been laid and the nature of the questionnaire forced me to believe that >> the main aspect of the survey is to gather data on the negative aspects >> of Open Source development. The answers will only yield results on >> >> a. how lonely (not alone, please understand the difference) an Open >> Source developer is >> b. how secluded an open source developer is >> c. how poor / lacking money / underpaid / under-remmunerated an Open >> Source developer is >> >> and so on. The survey will not yield any result that can show >> a. The nature of enthusiasm the Open Source Community builds >> b. The contribution a Open Source Developer is making (in any way, >> including but not limited to -- by providing tools to both the people >> who cannot afford a costly solution or the enthusiast learner who is >> benefiting from the Open Source Software) >> c. The philosophy of the Open Source Community / Developer / >> development -- understanding of which, in my opinion, is one of the >> major part of understanding what Open Source truly means. >> >> these are just my personal opinions -- and they DO fall under BSD >> licensing scheme :D -- but you are at your liberty to either agree or >> disagree >:) >> >> Happy Linuxing >> >> >> >> Omi Azad wrote: >>> >>> On 2/28/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:lmth%40deakin.edu.au> >>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:lmth%40deakin.edu.au>> wrote: >>> >>> Hello >>> My name is Lara Thynne and I am a PhD candidate at Deakin >>> University Australia. >>> >>> I am currently running a survey at the following >>> address.https://dcarf.deakin.edu.au/surveys/oss/ >>> <address.https://dcarf.deakin.edu.au/surveys/oss/> >>> The survey is completely confidential and looks at your views and >>> motivations to use Open Source software and to participate in the >>> community. >>> >>> It will only take a few minutes and your contact details will not >>> be recorded. You can withdraw your participation at any stage. >>> >>> I sincerely apologize for the spammish nature of this e-mail - I >>> don't mean to abuse this list. I am trying to collect responses >>> from as many open source developers and users as possible and a >>> mailing list like this is probably the best way to reach many of you. >>> >>> Thanks again >>> Lara >>> >>> P.S The program that I am using is open source, of course >>> www.phpsurveyor.org)! >>> >>> > > > > >
