[Promotion] Get things rolling?

[John Williams]

On Sat, 2006-01-28 at 12:39 +0100, Mr Bulldog wrote:

> What do you want from you Computing Environment? Tick any Two
> 
> X Easy and Fully Configurable Environment
> X Performance and not a Memory Hog
> X Regular Updates, Security Fixes on the fly (Safe Environment) 
> X Simply Layed out to get the Job Done 

Good first try, but I would like to suggest an improvement:

"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."

This wording could be improved, but I think you get the idea.

Note that this is a "free response" question.  Providing a limited list
of responses and a limited way of responding is, you guessed it,
limiting.  You get, in a very real sense, the answers you expect.  There
is no possibility for you to get new information.  You should only use
such a format when you pretty much know what the answers are, and you
only want to make your estimates of proportions more precise.

I suggest that, as open/free desktop developers (and marketers), we have
next-to-no clue about what computers users (in general) really want.  I
know that some people who will read this will think that they know what
users want.  That's fine, but I am interested in facts, not opinions.  I
am sorry if that sounds inflammatory, but that is the scientist in me
speaking.

The next problem, of course, is finding a way to pose the question to
the people that matter, i.e. the sampling plan.  I have a few ideas
about this but am not sure that any of them are any good.  Has anyone
else been thinking about this?

Cheers,

John