[libreoffice-users] Re: Engaging Users in the LibreOffice Project

On 11/2/13 3:48 AM, Charles-H. Schulz wrote:
> Le Fri, 1 Nov 2013 22:59:33 +0000,
> e-letter <inpost@gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> > On 01/11/2013, Charles-H. Schulz
> > <charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org> wrote:
> > > But when we come to think of it, these people started somewhere, one
> > > day, to contribute, and while they all have their own reasons, we
> > > (the people in charge of "marketing") thought that everybody has
> > > the ability to contribute. The question is: how  can we make it
> > > 1)interesting 2) accessible 3)easy to understand what the various
> > > tasks are 4)possible to spread the word about it?
> >
> > Question 2 requires a definition of "contribute", e.g. is a bug
> > submission contribution? Is helping another user via the mailing list
> > a contribution?
>
> Users support, yes.
>
>
> > Q5 answers above, therefore should appear in the survey before q2!
> >
> > Q11 what is the relevance of knowing users' locations?
> >
> > Agree with Mr Springer's message.
> >
> > LO people should simply read the mailing list; every random date,
> > select a random number of mailing lists threads, read, analyse and
> > consider whether further action is necessary. You will get much better
> > information than a biased "survey"
>
>
> I read Mr Springer's message and we do not want to have a biased survey
> at all. One of the reasons we came up with a survey is that  we were
> precisely not able to get the big picture by reading mailing lists.
> It's important to note that there is no good or bad answer in this
> survey, it's about understanding opportunities we could create for
> users.

Most if not all of these surveys that tend to be biased in some way, and 
all of multiple choice surveys in general, have the same problem.  Not 
enough options for the user.  IMO, the survey could simply be modified, 
and then the construction of the questions as well as the actual 
questions aren't so important.

        1.  Always have a "None of the above" selection
        2.  Allow the selection of more than one option, or no option at all.
        3.  Always have a comments window for each page so you can explain
                your choice(s).  Multiple choice only limits the feedback you get.
        4.  At the end of survey, have a general comments section where the user
                can express just about anything regarding LO.

Surveys constructed without the above features will almost always be 
biased in some way.

A scenario:  100 people check out the survey.  40 of them are like me, 
they can't give you accurate answers.  They exit, and you just lost 40% 
of potentially useable information.

All surveys are meant to tell the originator(s) information they want to 
know.  But the information you want may not be what you *need* to know 
to be successful.

I could go on about why I'm looking for LO alternatives, but that's not 
the topic of this thread.  If you are interested and have the time, I'd 
discuss LO off list.  The email address in the header is valid.

> Last but not least the geography might count, yes. You do not see your
> contribution potential whether you're in a country that has ubiquitous
> broadband or in a country where most people connect to the internet via
> phones or for the wealthiest, satellite.

The geography info also tells you where your users are, also.  That can 
be helpful to identify where you may need to find out why usage in some 
locations is low.  Low usage may not have anything to do with LO at all.

As for satellite usage, wealthiest does not always apply if you consider 
only cost alone, not speed.  I've lived at my location for 9.5 years. 
Modem and true satellite (no "mixed" systems) were the only options 
until 2-3 years ago when a main trunk line was replaced with fiber 
optics.  I had satellite for many years.  For the same price, DSL 
basically just gave me more speeds and unlimited data.  Not enough 
difference in price for the base packages to really be a factor.

I do hope you have the time to contact me via email.  (HTML preferred) 
I'd like to see some serious competition for MS Office, but there 
appears to be none, either open source or commercial.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 17.0.8
LibreOffice 4.1.2.3


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