Re: Joint user survey with EnterpriseDB?

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 05:52:57PM -0700, Josh Berkus wrote:
> All,
>
> EnterpriseDB would like to do a survey of PostgreSQL users, at least
> the ones they can reach through postgresql.org. The results of the
> survey, anonymized, will be published under an OSS license for our
> use.
>
> Under these circumstances, is it OK for EnterpriseDB to use
> pgsql-announce, pgsql-general and/or postgresql.org News to
> advertise the survey and solicit users for it? My personal thought
> is "yes". Yours?

It would be nice to get access to the "anonymized" data. I use quotes
there because it turns out that anonymity is *very* hard to guarantee
while sending out any data at all. It would be interesting to see
timestamps on survey submission, for example.

> List of questions below my signature; suggestions on better questions
> welcome!
>
> Questions:

[cut for brevity. Refer up-thread for the rest]

> 15)I would use Postgres Plus Standard Server if: (freeform)
>
> 16)I would use Postgres Plus Advanced Server if: (freeform)

The above two look to me like a lead-in to:

> 17)Would you like to be contacted and provide us more detailed responses?

This one looks like pure, crystalline sales outreach, which is a
perfectly legitimate thing for EnterpriseDB to do. It's likely to
skew the results, though, as there is a significant proportion of
people being surveyed which does not trust that checking, "no" here
will in fact result in, "no" behaviour.

That's just generally, although previous EnterpriseDB incidents will
almost certainly increase that proportion.

Further questions:

* How many people are there in your organization?

* How many people do you anticipate your organization having this
year?

* Next year?

* Where is your organization located? (pick n)

* Which human languages do you need PostgreSQL support for?
(pick n)

* Of those, which need more support, and what kind? (free form)

* Which programming languages do you need PostgreSQL support for?
(pick n)

* Of those, which need more support, and what kind? (free form)

Cheers,
David.
--
David Fetter <david(at)fetter(dot)org> http://fetter.org/
Phone: +1 415 235 3778 AIM: dfetter666 Yahoo!: dfetter
Skype: davidfetter XMPP: david(dot)fetter(at)gmail(dot)com

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