Open Source Developers and Users Survey

[patchrick]

Hi,
Hope you don't mind me posting this here but I could use your help
with some research.

I'm doing a Masters thesis in Trinity at the moment on the subject of
Open Source projects and their efficiency. Part of the research
involves looking at some of the motivations developers and users have
in using open source.

I've created a survey (using phpsurveyor) which guides participants in
ascertaining their reasons for developing / using open source. I'll be
using the results as some sort of empirical evidence showing
developers and users motivation.

If you have 5 minutes I'd really appreciate you taking the time to
complete it. As a bonus I'm offering a prize pool up to €200 (€50 per
50 participants up to €200) to be given to those who would like to be
entered into a raffle.

I'll also give the results and / or a copy of the thesis once its
completed to anyone who's interested.

Open Source Developers and Users Survey

Thanks in Advance,

Patrick O'Connor

Synchronous

p.s. Feel free to pass this onto anyone you think might be interested.

[Freston]

Hi,
Hope you don't mind me posting this here but I could use your help
with some research.

I don't mind, welcome to the forum

Before I participate, may I ask what your hypothesis is? In other words, what are you measuring here?
I'm just curious

[patchrick]

No probs, I'm glad to elucidate.
I'm writing a paper which in part examines the ability of open source / free software to surpass its proprietary rivals despite the hurdles of widely distributed teams, no formal managment and all the other annoying things that tend to go hand in hand with commercial software development.
The rationale behind it is that I would like to examine the plausibility of using a. the motivations of open source / free software developers and b. the tools open source / free software developers use in other areas. Specifically in creating distributed virtual enterprises.

I work in my day job as an independant consultant to small businesses providing all sorts of technology services, 99% of the time using open source / free software...except for those pesky M$ desktops >
I took on the Masters part time and jumped at the opportunity to use some of the insights I gained through working with open source / free software and dealing with small businesses to explore ways the organisation models can work together.

I hope this explained it ok for you!

Thanks,
Patrick

[Freston]

Yes that explains a lot, thanks for the quick answer.

Organizational models...

*sigh*

If you really want to explore that continent of misconceptions and bias, I should point you to





and


(I leave interpretation to readers discretion )

[patchrick]

LOL, got a great laugh from those, thx
I whole heartedly agree with you. That is one of the main reasons that I work for myself.
Basically my main interests lies in how to allow people make a living by doing what they enjoy most. Lots of people prefer independance but find it difficult to compete or are scared of the lack of support by doing things for themselves.
What I see in the open source / free software world is people doing things that they really enjoy AND making a good job of it.

Where's you mediocrity and conformity there?

[Freston]

Where's you mediocrity and conformity there?

OK, you can have dispensation

Anyway, scriptblock and your survey don't go along.

[patchrick]

Anyway, scriptblock and your survey don't go along.

Yeah, I don't want to get drawn into the whole javascript thing but in fairness what with the amount of *good* javascript out there (AJAX etc) I find scriptblock to be a pain. When I have it switched on I need to explicitly allow every single page anyway.
That's fine if you always browse the same sites but when researching or browsing a lot of different sites it becomes a real chore. As a result it becomes the most annoying type of protection.... lots of effort for little reward.

Am I right or am I missing something?