Re: Hello and polling users

Second try, some more trimming, no attachment ...

Hi
>
>>
>> I wrote it some days ago and it was too big, so here's a revised version
>>
>>
>> I'll answer using reference style, because it seems a bit too long to be
>> put inside the text.
>>
>> 1) Actually, posting the idea on the mailing list was the first step of
>> involvement. I've thought about it after looking at the resources mentioned
>> of how to get involved. I find it difficult to contribute (more than
>> submitting ideas) without actually using KDE. Additionally, writing articles
>> might be too big a commitment right now. With all that said - I will gladly
>> write questions and procedures for surveys, starting with this discussion.
>> Firstly, the goals of the surveys, and other attributes, should be specified
>> (more on that later as well). I'm somewhat interested in helping the digest,
>> as long as I have time for it.
>> @ Thomas - I'm afraid these 2 weeks aren't meant to be a vacation :( My
>> personal life is quite demanding at the moment and would probably remain so
>> for the next several years. :) I think this discussion is a good way to be
>> involved with a level of obligation I'll be able to maintain even when
>> extremely stressed with time.
>>
>>
>> 2) This is actually how I came to think of the surveys idea, and also to
>> bring up the KDE Brainstorm idea long ago. I have a list of set-backs (first
>> and foremost the amount of time I can invest in converting) which I will
>> specify at the end, since they are not part of the discussion about the
>> surveys idea. I'd appreciate any help, especially from hard core KDE folks
>> :)
>>
>> 3) Now to the real stuff :)
>>
>
> I think there could be different goals to surveys, and I want to start with
> a use case:
>
> Let's say I have an old laptop, and I want to move to Linux. I'm concerned
> about several issues, especially the battery life and compatibility with
> this model. I do some research and stumble upon KDE's website. There I can
> search for a suitable distribution for my laptop, based on information of
> from surveys of users on identity.kde.org (with permission), and I find
> openSUSE is best. I install openSUSE with KDE and boot. On startup, I get a
> notification about support survey (Something like "Would you like to fill in
> a survey to help us support you better and make your experience more
> enjoyable?"). I'm a noob without experience, and this is tempting, so I
> press Yes. A dialog appears and asks me two questions - whether I would like
> to install a plasmoid on the desktop or open a browser, and whether I would
> like to register as a KDE user. Let's say I answer Yes for both questions,
> since the alternative is similar and simpler. A plasmoid similar to Kubuntu
> Feedback automatically installs and allows me to register to
> identity.kde.org (or a similar website if we should find a different
> solution) or just log-in. Then I'm asked to answer questions regarding my
> system and installation and skills to create a user profile of me and
> identify the distribution-computer combination I use. I'm a noob, but I'm
> not afraid to go technical and have very little time - I want it up and
> running asap. Based on the information I input and information stored in
> identity.kde.org, the plasmoid presents the problems I might face with
> this system and distribution, along with solutions to these problems. In
> addition, the plasmoid presents a list of possible help resources (blogs,
> websites, manuals) which would help me set up things and a list of people
> willing to help me set things up, with experience with this kind of system.
> It might also explain to me how to use IRC (interactively?) or otherwise how
> to contact these people using KMail, Kopete or similar. It might also be
> possible to use Telepathy in the plasmoid to facilitate the connection.
> (This relates to this idea in Brainstorm:
> http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#idea84164_page1)
>
> Surveys (as Google has conducted regularly) are probably the best way to
> find out why people are dissatisfied KDE. I've indeed started by asking
> myself why I haven't moved to use Linux and KDE and identifying the causes.
>
> Another use case I see is related to promotion - if someone who stopped
> using KDE fills a survey stating his reasons of dissatisfaction and allows
> us to register him, we can contact that person when the issues are repaired
> asking to re-evaluate.
>
>
> The way I see it, we should refer to 3 different user groups - core users
> (including developers and contributors), floating users (those who can't
> decide yet) and
> non-users. The last group can be divided into 2 subgroups - those who had
> never experienced KDE and deserters :)
>
> I think identity.kde.org can be a most valuable tool to learn about the
> core-users. Not only to identify their causes of dissatisfaction, but also
> gain insight into what hardware and distributions they use, which problems
> they overcame and how they did it and similarly. Registration allows
> tracking (with the approval of the member, of course), which enables
> identifying if someone has stopped using KDE, for example. That's why I
> think identity.kde.org surveys have a big potential to provide significant
> information, albeit the registration required. Registration has another
> benefit of dividing core-users into groups - since developers and users have
> some different requirements, thus would probably be dissatisfied with
> different issues. This might help with assigning tasks: for example, if
> Nokia is more interested in expanding the developer-base, it might be more
> appropriate to assign its funded developers tasks regarding developers.
> Integration of the desktop with the website is another idea which I find
> beneficial.
>
> Surveys without registration are more relevant to floating-users and
> non-users, I believe. It does not allow tracking, which means their results
> is a snapshot of time, and it's harder to measure progress. I think there is
> no substantial difference between the surveys themselves. Nevertheless,
> having non-registration surveys allows to reach non-users more easily.
> Having them conducted or referred to from other websites such as the
> distributions' websites (Kubuntu, openSUSE, etc.) or significant F/OSS
> websites (Phoronix, blogs, SourceForge etc.) will increase the possibility
> of reaching this audience.
>
> Some other goals for surveys, affect different kinds of questions. I
> mentioned the first-time survey. I imagine a time/usage-based survey
> measuring satisfaction after 2 weeks of use or 10 log-ins or so will give a
> good indication of why people desert KDE or continue to use it. I think a
> regular 2-or-3-months survey for core-users should be conducted as well, to
> measure progress and influence development during cycles (might affect
> importance of bugs). This survey might even include a "5 most annoying bugs"
> question :) (This is redundant to the bug-system, but is a more active
> approach to rating bugs), among questions about the hardware used and issues
> with it. For the general audience (without registration), the survey should
> start with identifying to which of the 3 groups the person taking the survey
> belongs, then identify the subgroup. For deserters, the questions should be
> meant to identify causes for desertion and what would bring them back to
> KDE. For these who haven't used KDE, questions should identify strengths of
> desktop environment they currently use, whether they would switch, would the
> strengths of KDE appeal to them.
>
> Regarding results, I believe these of the mentioned surveys would help
> discern problems at upstream and downstream more easily, and address them
> better. Hardware surveys, I believe, would help make problems clearer, and
> bugs could be submitted and explored more easily. Thus specific driver
> problems could be submitted to ATI or NVidia or Intel, and maybe this would
> help to better communicate with them.
>
> (*) I wish to say something about what are the strengths of KDE for me and
> promotion, since that's part of the purpose of surveys.
>
>> I've seen a lot of promotion for applications. The reason I want to use
>> Linux and KDE is that I'm under the impression that if I'll make them work
>> properly and to my satisfaction, I'll be able to utilize my computers more
>> and in a much better way and would benefit more as well (then when using
>> Windows). The technologies manifested in Linux and KDE attract me, even if
>> they are far from being usable. Nepomuk, PulseAudio, network transparency,
>> Akonadi, Telepathy - I see great (unfulfilled) potential in them, and this
>> keeps me a floating user. I want to use that potential in my computer, and
>> these things would help me. In addition, the ability to use more fully the
>> potential of older machines is a great benefit for me, as well as part of
>> the essence of being free. For example, Windows 7 does not allow me 3D
>> acceleration on my laptop, while Linux does (old intel 915). Application
>> wise, I like Okular a lot, and wish I could easily use it on Windows.
>>
>
>
>> Nepomuk and Akonadi can't be promoted yet since they don't hold up to
>> their promise or potential. I guess they require more development resources
>> than available. I believe the survey system would help this as well, since
>> it might indicate what direction for development is more important to
>> certain groups. Thus, for example, the project might decide than 4.7 should
>> have significant performance improvements to attract users, or to the
>> contrary, implement many new features for media centers. Results can also be
>> used to indicate what promises are most highly anticipated. Imagine having a
>> sort of advertisement on KDE's and Nepomuk (and amaroK) websites stating
>> that Nepomuk performance is considered one of the most annoying issues, and
>> calling for help for this specifically. It's a tailored "Getting Involved"
>> ad. Wildly imagining, we might even approach people showing a tendency to
>> contribute asking them to help on issues they're most concerned about and
>> giving them an easy way to do it.
>>
>>
>> A comment about Brainstorm - I think brainstorm would benefit from some
>> tool that would help identify similar ideas, or ideas belonging to similar
>> areas, or applications, or KDE components. It's not easy - I wonder if a
>> tool similar to this for identifying similar bugs is possible. This relates
>> to surveys in that ideas could be linked to surveys' results, maybe even
>> linking the results to the people who submitted the ideas related to them
>> (for feedback or other involvement) and developers related. Use case is
>> contacting a user who has submitted an idea to implement something more
>> efficiently to test the implementation, since it came up as important in
>> survey results and was implemented as a consequence.
>>
>> Since sharing is very important in F/OSS, I believe the system I described
>> could benefit other projects as well, including GNOME. If so, it might be
>> better to get help building such a system, by building it jointly. Maybe
>> some of the ideas described above would help KDE receive funding as well.
>>
>> Tasks and components I see related:
>>
>>
>> 1) Surveys written for specific audiences, goals and times
>> 2) Survey servers
>> 3) Database (on identity.kde.org?) of users and their
>> distributions-hardware, issues and solutions, etc. (Similar a bit to
>> ThinkWiki)
>> 4) Survey (and support) Plasmoid
>> 5) Survey and support data-engines(?)
>> 6) Survey results analyzer
>> *) Some mechanism to integrate data and search the database mentioned
>> above, on servers or on desktops or both.
>>
>> If you find the written above interesting, I believe that Aaron Seigo and
>> Tom Albers should become correspondents as well.
>>
>> I hope this is helpful
>>
>> Ron
>>
>> About my systems and why I fail to use Linux. This is actually more
>> related to Linux then to KDE. I don't have much time to invest in getting
>> things to work, so I stick to Windows.
>> I have 3 computers at my disposal, neither of which is extremely strong
>> nor new. I use 2 regularly with Windows 7, and 1 is intended as a server.
>> I'll list their hardware and usage:
>>
>> 1) IBM X41 tablet - 1.5GHz Pentium M, 1.5GB RAM, i915, 30GB HDD + 16GB SD.
>> Used for note-taking, mails, reading and writing. Sometimes for Matlab
>> calculations. Problems - power consumption and tablet support. Tablet
>> requires a lot a hassle. Power consumption is crucial - Win7 has around 3.5
>> hours of work off the battery. Linux consumes much more leaving about 2.5
>> hours of juice (I think. I need to try in fact ...)
>>
>> 2) AMD 3.2GHz (Dual-core) Athlon X2 6400+, 2GB RAM, integrated ATI HD3200,
>> plenty of HDD room. Used for calculations and simulations, HD movies and
>> music, with 2 screens. I'm mostly worried about Full HD movies playback and
>> sound, and the dual-screen configuration.
>>
>> 3) 2.8GHz Intel 4, 768MB RAM, NVidia GeForce 440MX, 80GB HDD. Currently
>> unused, I meant to use it as a server (possibly for surveys as well) and
>> media center for regular TV. Been trying to make LIRC work with and old
>> Creative iNFRA CDROM without success. Have not idea how to set up a server.
>>
>> By the way, I thought to pick up programming by starting writing a
>> plasmoid. I have a nice idea for it. Sounds like a good plan?
>>
>> Cheers.
>>
>>

>  Hi
>>>
>>> I agree with Thomas, but I've added a few extra comments in your original
>>> email below...
>>>
>>> > Hi Ron,
>>> >
>>> > thanks for sharing your ideas with us. Since promotion is about the
>>> > bridge between users and the community it is not the worst place to
>>> > send your message here :-)
>>> >
>>> > I like your idea. Surveys could keep us in touch with our users even
>>> > better and it would make it easier to get a picture of the whole group
>>> > than counting single statements in the Forum or on BKO or IRC or
>>> > something. I am not sure if our forum offers the possibility to do
>>> > simple surveys as well. We had some usability surveys done a couple of
>>> > months ago.
>>> >
>>> > The main lack from my perspective is time. Limited time of the
>>> > contributors. There are always so many projects and tasks that should
>>> > be done.
>>> >
>>> > Ron, you wrote that you have two weeks until the start of your
>>> > studies. Take that chance an experience KDE (the community) and KDE
>>> > Software. Get involved into your fascinating community. You can find
>>> > some information how to start [1] and [2]. Or just reply to that
>>> > group. *We would be glad to guide you.*       ***(1)***
>>>
>>> >
>>> > If you want to work on a possibility to make it easy for us to do
>>> > polls: Perfect! Just find a tasks that is relevant to you and start.
>>>
>>> Yep - if you have a good idea and want it to happen then the thing to do
>>> is to
>>> make it happen. Say you put together some survey questions, we can
>>> provide
>>> feedback and add some of our own. Then we can work out how to host it and
>>> give
>>> it a publicity push (dot story, Planet KDE, both of which other sites
>>> such as
>>> LWN, Tuxmachines etc often pick up)  *** (1)* **
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> > We hope to hear from you.
>>> >
>>> > Cheers,
>>> > Thomas
>>> >
>>> > [1] KDE in general: http://www.kde.org/community/getinvolved/
>>> > [2] KDE Promotion: http://www.kde.org/community/getinvolved/promotion/
>>>
>>> In relation to these, you write clearly and seem good at getting ideas
>>> across,
>>> so one thing you might think about in the future is writing articles - if
>>> you
>>> fancy it. ** *(1) ***
>>>
>>>
>>> > > Hi all,
>>> > >
>>> > > My name is Ron Katzir, and I'm a student starting MA in Math in about
>>> 2
>>> > > weeks' time. I've been following KDE since 4, for the last 2.5 years
>>> or
>>> > > so. I've tried to port myself to Linux, trying different
>>> distributions
>>> > > over time, but found myself always sticking to MS Windows.
>>>
>>> Why? To turn the survey around on you for a moment ;-) (I'm always
>>> fascinated
>>> to find the problem for someone who wants to use free software but is
>>> being
>>> stopped by something) ** *(2) ***
>>>
>>>
>>> > > Still I have
>>> > > a special place in my heart for F/OSS and KDE especially.
>>>
>>> You're in the right place then :-)
>>>
>>> > > I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but it seems
>>> the
>>> > > fittest. If not, I apologize for spamming and would gladly deliver it
>>> > > where it belongs.
>>> > >
>>> > > One of the strong points I find in Google's on-line free services is
>>> the
>>> > > connection with users. Satisfaction polls (surveys) are quite
>>> regularly
>>> > > conducted and feature requests are easily submitted. While KDE has
>>> > > Brainstorm to account for easy feature request, I believe surveys are
>>> as
>>> > > important.
>>> > >
>>> > > To shorten things, since this can be discussed a lot and I have quite
>>> a
>>> > > solid philosophy for my opinions on this matter :) I think that KDE
>>> > > should start conducting surveys to measure the satisfaction and
>>> > > discontent of its users, and identify the key elements of want.
>>> > >
>>> > > Since identity.kde.org is open for registration for everyone, I
>>> think
>>> > > this would be the ideal place to conduct such surveys regularly.
>>>
>>> Maybe, though do we need registration? It might restrict us to more
>>> serious
>>> users of KDE software (which could be a good and a bad thing). There are
>>> plenty of free (as in beer) survey sites where we could set this up. Of
>>> course, there are probably also some free software solutions that we
>>> could
>>> host ourselves. For the longer term that might make sense. Someone has to
>>> do
>>> it though ;-) ** *(3)* **
>>>
>>>
>>> > > This post has already become longer than I had intended. I'll just
>>> > > mention that the reason I saw it fit to post the idea here is that
>>> > > there's some relation between promotion and communications with users
>>> > > (developers/project and users). In a sense, surveys can be used to
>>> > > promote as well.
>>>
>>> Yes, we can talk about the survey and then talk about the results too...
>>>
>>> > > For example, a survey of people who switched from KDE
>>> > > to GNOME or Mac or Windows can help identify issues for desertion and
>>> > > address them.
>>>
>>> How do we reach those people? They might have stopped visiting KDE
>>> websites? ** *(3) ***
>>>
>>> > > Some questions for example:
>>> > > 1) Which part are you most (least) satisfied with in KDE:
>>> performance,
>>> > > stability, look, responsiveness, power management, power consumption,
>>> > > etc. 2) What is your computer configurations (Distribution, KDE SC
>>> > > version, processor, GPU, size of RAM)
>>> > > 3) What applications are you using most: Dolphin, PIM, Gwenview,
>>> Konsole,
>>> > > amaroK, etc.
>>> > >
>>> > > Anxious to have feedback
>>>
>>> These could be interesting questions. Some info on hardware might be
>>> quite
>>> useful for e.g. the KWin devs ** *(3) ***
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Stu
>>>
>> --
Ron

 
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