Re: Suggestions

[EAMorical@aol.com]

First, thanks Tom for your suggestions. The survey has fallen primarily
on Pete and myself with occasional suggestions from Doug and others
and occasional direction from Roger. Awhile back Karsten posted a
fairly large list of suggestions. I thought perhaps you might like to be
aware of them. We truly appreciate your suggestions and look forward
to your involvement in designing the survey.

The following is the pertinent part of Karsten's previous post.
snip

>For organization:

>I suggest five top-level categories:  Demographics, Hardware, Software,
>Support, and Technical Requirements.  Less is more.

>Within the categories, as far as is appropriate, questions should be
>ordered from least technical to most.  This will make cutting the overly
>technical questions easier ("everything after this line goes").  For
>hardware and software, I'm suggesting two lines of inquiry be followed:

> - Specificity -- addresses how discriminating a user is that a
>requirement be met -- some people will require that application X or
>device Y be supported, others only that a function be provided and some
>communications or file standard be provided or met.

> - Type -- specific hardware or software functions which must be met.




>Demographics
>  - Age, Income, Country, Urban/Rural, Children, OS/Computer Experience 
>  - Current satisfaction ("Section C" in 0x012 )
>  - Intented Use (SOHO,...)

>Hardware
> - Specificity -- specific models, specific vendors, specific 
>   protocol (ISA/SCSI/???)
> - Type -- HD, FD, CD-ROM, modem, ISDN modem, network cards, printer, 
>   monitor, , backup (tape, WORM, DLT, ...), speaker, laptop stuff 
>   (monitor, docking, removable, PCMCIA), scanner, audio input, video
>input,....
> - Setup & drivers -- PnP, manual config, mfgr driver support, 3rd 
>   party paid drivers (I'm thinking OSS sound for Linux), ???

>Software
> - Specificity -- Specific releases of products, specific products, 
>   specific vendors, compatible standard(s), specific application 
>   areas...
> - Application area -- Office suite, games, server (mail, web, print, 
>   file, DBMS), specialized (music, photo, film, ??), data 
>   analysis
> - Modifiability -- no macro/scripting, macro/scripting language, 
>   modifiable SW, free/open source software.
> - Success factors: stability, scalability, market acceptance, 
>   brand name, open source, ...


>Support
> - Online/phone technical support
> - Documentation

>Technical Requirements
> - User Interface -- CLI, GUI, standards (Mac, WinAPI, ...)
> - Networking -- Telephony, Internet
> - Multimedia
> - Administration -- Security, backups, stability, encryption upgrades, 
>   installation, maintenance (virus, defrag, ??), resource monitoring
> - Compatibility/Interoperability
> - User support -- multiple users, security, 
> - Emerging technology
> - Cost 
>    Rank in order of importance:
>     - Hardware cost/upgrades
>     - Software cost/Upgrades
>     (does this really make sense?  wouldn't "total cost" be a better
>ballpark?
>     (I might phrase this along the lines of "What percent of purchase
>price 
>     (do you plan to spend per year on.... -software -hardware
>-maintenance
>     ( -service".  The question should be clarified, or dropped.


>Cheers.
>-- 
>Karsten M. Self (kmself@ix.netcom.com)

Bob