[Promotion] Research proposal

[Tom Chance]

Ahoy,

We discussed doing some collaborative research on the KDE marketing list and 
came up with the following as a possible starting point. What do people 
think? How could/should we go about doing this sort of research?

We've tried to get both meaningful data on target markets, based upon the 
market segmentation analysis from KDE and GNOME, and to get useful feedback 
from users with specific and open ended questions.

--------
To ask distributors, perhaps others. How can we get those figures?

* Market share:
  - What is the current market share of free desktops in
        - enterprise environments
        - home users
        - small businesses
        - government
        - non-governmental non-profit organisations
        - ISVs
        - education (school)
        - education (university)

* What are the major shortcomings of the free desktops at the moment:
        - enterprise environments
        - home users
        - small businesses
        - government
        - non-governmental non-profit organisations
        - ISVs
        - education (school)
        - education (university)

(split both of the above by geographical region if possible)

-----
Questions to ask end users. How to get a representative sample?

* What is the main role of your free desktop computer?
        [ ] office use
        [ ] recreational / gaming
        [ ] communication (email / chat / IM)
        [ ] Webbrowsing
        [ ] Server (email / web / file)
        [ ] Media (music / TV / Video)
        [ ] Fun, trying out software
        [ ] Software development
        [ ] Games
        [ ] Web design & development
        [ ] Artwork / graphic designers
        [ ] Science

* How important is the price of a piece of software for you?

* How do you usually purchase software?

* How important is it to be the legally allowed to use software?
  ( ) Very important, all my software should be legal
  ( ) Important, but if it's too expensive I might use illegal software
  ( ) I don't care, as long as I don't have to pay for software

* Do you mind advertisements in software?
  ( ) I'd rather pay for software
  ( ) If that keeps the software free, and there's no other alternative
  ( ) Please don't. I try to stay clear of adware.

* What are the most important characteristics of a piece of software for you?
        [ ] Stability
        [ ] Interoperability
        [ ] Feature richness
        [ ] Price
        [ ] "freedom"
        [ ] Professional services
        [ ] Documentation

* What do you want from your interaction with computers that you are not
currently getting? Write as much or as little as you like, but try to
be specific and unambiguous.  Tell us what you like about your current
experience with computers, what you don't like, and what you want but do
not currently receive.
-----

Since there are some people on this list with some experience of this kind of 
work, and others with lots of energy, it would be good to first have a really 
focused and productive discussion on the merits of the approach and how we 
might go about doing this kind of research.

Regards,
Tom


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