Re: 0x009

[Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

In message <a0a9ad5.35e22e63@aol.com>, eamorical@aol.com writes:
>Mission statement
>Lets get something down, we can always change it. From my
>understanding of what Roger wanted:
>
>The SEUL-Research group was tasked with developing a survey
>which will determine  what end-users want in an operating system
>and how they currently use their computer system.

Woah. I leave for a couple days, and you guys start discussing
a mission statement?! :)

As a clarification: what I want to do with this survey is, pure
and simple, to figure out what the Linux development and advocacy
community should care about and talk about. I would like to limit
it for the most part to things that are Linux-community-related:
things we can actually influence and affect to some amount. (Note
that that's a really broad statement.)

>I would prefer changing 'operating system' to 'computer system'
>otherwise we will probably have to delete some maybe important
>questions. I would also prefer changing 'currently use their
>computer system' to 'use their current computer system'.
>
>Price
>I'll give it a try.
>
>For each of the following items, select the response that best
>describes your purchasing decisions: great importance / large
>importance / medium importance / small importance / no
>importance / don't know

I think it's crucial that we have one spectrum of choices total.
I don't want people to have to keep reading directions. It takes
away from the time for taking the survey itself. We were originally
envisioning something like:

Rank the following in terms of importance -- how they would influence
your decision to use a computer with this feature for all of your tasks.
Essential, xx, preferred, yy, unimportant

Essential: A computer system that I use must have this feature.
xx (Nearly essential, strongly preferred): I will be greatly inconvenienced
  if my computer system does not have this feature.
Preferred: I will be inconvenienced if my computer system does not have this
  feature.
yy (slightly preferred): It would sometimes be useful if my computer system
  includes this feature.
Unimportant: I do not need or use this feature.

And the 'unsure' is something I'm considering to try to reduce the number
of "unimportant"'s that are due to ignorance rather than decision.

Maybe it would be better to end with

Unknown: I do not see a use for this feature, but I don't have enough info
Unimportant: I do not need or use this feature.

I want to discourage people from answering 'unknown', though. I guess I'll
have a better feel for that once I've tried to examine the questions we
come up with from a viewpoint of actually trying to answer them...

Of course, wording is up for grabs...:)
--Roger