Re: Finding the number of linux users in NZ

[Graeme Kiyoto-Ward]

Hi I did some work in a government agency about their management of OIA requests when I was consulting. I agree that addressing this to the person in charge would probably make sense. From memory they will see OIA request and probably not worry about the addressing at all. I'll address it to CEO. As for generating stats, I'm more interested in the overall OS and browser use. ACC is a site that probably has a broad range of 'appeal' for normal users and especially businesses. Free OS'es are a slipperly beast because there are no sales stats. This is for general interest, also making a request in a year's time would show growth or otherwise (esp with the dead weight of Vista possibly making Linux more attractive). A previous response mentioned getting this information without an OIA. The advantage of an OIA is that it make the information open. Also, replace the addressing and target the agency that best addresses the demographic you are looking for. e.g. ERO for families with children (looking for schools), MSD for lower income groups, IRD for general population, etc. Distrowatch has stats available, but as you can imagine their stats are probably weighted in favour of Linux users. http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.osdetail.html W3Schools maintains stats (and it is interesting that Firefox beats IE6 and IE7 if there are not treated as one). Once again, the demographic isn't so general. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp Happy to field any other questions. Regards Graeme Kiyoto-Ward Christopher Sawtell wrote: Just a couple of points: If you can provide them with a reason as to why you want the information, and address it to a person, rather than just to a "Sir or Madam". eg To the Director General ( or whatever his post is called these days ) for the attention Mr. Joe Bloggs, on the envelope and "Dear Mr Joe Bloggs" on the letter. btw, are we supposed to be creating statistics? btw2, It seems to work ok in both FireFox and Konqueror. ( Front page display anyway ) On 10/25/07, Graeme Kiyoto-Ward <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi At Software Freedom day, I expressed interest in trying to identify the numbers of Linux Users. I have had a thought to get the OIA to work in our favour and have drafted the following letter that I will send to ACC. For an OIA request to work, I need to be specific about the document or information that I am requesting. Can someone who understands server logs and user agent strings better than I have a look and see if I can describe what I am asking better. I will make the response available to any who are interested. Regards Graeme Kiyoto-Ward DRAFT LETTER STARTS ------------------------------------- To ACC >From Me OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST Dear Sir Madam I am making a request for information under the Official Information Act 1982. Please provide to me the summary of statistics that show the types of Web Browser and types of Operating System that visit the ACC homepage and the ACC website in general. If you have a normal reporting period for this information, I am happy for the information to be for one reporting period in late 2007, as long as you specify what the reporting period is. If you do not have a standard reporting period, please provide the information for the month of August 2007. Please provide this information either in writing to the address at the top of this letter or feel free to e-mail this information to my e-mail address... I believe that this information should be readily available as ACC will need to track the user agent strings statistics for web browser accessing the ACC homepage at least. Under section 18.1 of the NZ government agency web site Standards, Government Agencies must make their websites usable browsers under the following conditions: The minimum list of web browser types and their corresponding version(s) combinations is derived from those that make up 1% or more of the total web browser types/versions that have been used by users accessing the homepage of the 'Main' agency web site of the agency over a specific 12 month period. Internet Explorer 7.n (Windows, Mac) and/or Firefox 2.x (Windows, Linux, Mac) must be included in this list, if not already present. The purpose for this request is that it is difficult to understand the extent to which different Web Browsers and Operating Systems are used within New Zealand. I believe that ACC is one excellent source for this information because the extent to which your organization provides information online. ----------------------------------- DRAFT LETTER ENDS