[Foundation-l] Surveys

[Brian McNeil]

Marc,

We've had some issues on Wikinews recently where people have been overly
blunt and offputting. On one side it is "I am defending the project", on the
other it is "I am doing my best to contribute".  As a far smaller project
than Wikipedia may I suggest you have a better chance of putting more of our
contributors on the shrink's couch?

If you can get help setting up a survey I'd be happy to participate and help
promote it to other Wikinewsies. Being a smaller project I think you'd get a
feel for how to handle the data before moving onto something as big as
Wikipedia and trying to select a representative sample there.


Brian.

-----Original Message-----
From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
[mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Marc Riddell
Sent: 02 October 2007 15:28
To: debbie at ictmarketing.co.uk, Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Surveys

on 10/1/07 4:34 PM, Debbie Garside at debbie at ictmarketing.co.uk wrote:

> OK... Forget the question :-)  I just realised there were another 30
emails
> above the one I responded to ;-)
> 
Thank you for responding, Debbie. What I am interested in, generally, is the
state of online collaboration and community building; and I am particularly
wanting to study interpersonal dynamics, conflict resolution and identity
within the Foundation's projects. In other words, I would like to take a
Project's emotional temperature.

In the English Wikipedia, for example, there are those on the Mailing List
who say, we're fine, the culture's fine - don't mess with it.

However, there are also enough posts from persons who say they are feeling
abused, ignored, and not being treated fairly in the Project. And, when
these persons do post, they are usually portrayed as whiners, malcontents,
and as persons who "need to get with the program".

In short, people simply don't seem to know how to talk with each other
without being extremely defensive, or grossly offensive. This severely
inhibits and degrades the quality of collaboration.

I have some ideas on how to improve some of this, but first I would like to
conduct an honest, objective survey to see if this is simply my imagination,
or is actually a true picture of the state of things.

My field is Clinical Psychology. I could assist in analyzing such a survey,
but I am not schooled or experienced in actually creating one.

My thoughts are to present the findings to the Foundation itself. There is
plenty of time to work within here. I would like to do this right. I welcome
your input.

Marc Riddell


>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
>> [mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf
>> Of Debbie Garside
>> Sent: 01 October 2007 19:34
>> To: 'Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List'
>> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Surveys
>> 
>> Hi
>> 
>> By survey can you clarify what you mean please?  I do have
>> quite a lot of experience in both designing, implementing and
>> analysing survey data - most recently conducting an online
>> survey for an ISO TC.
>> 
>> Best regards
>> 
>> Debbie
>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> [mailto:foundation-l-bounces at lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf
>> Of Casey
>>> Brown
>>> Sent: 29 September 2007 13:59
>>> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
>>> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Surveys
>>> 
>>> I believe there are currently some attempts at creating surveys by
>>> individual community members, but I don't think anything on a large
>>> scale has been done yet.  This is definitely something that a few
>>> (most?) people would like to see done, to just get a better idea of
>>> who uses or edits the site.
>>> 
>>> On 9/29/07, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Folks,
>>>> 
>>>> Has any type of survey of individual Community Members ever
>>> been taken
>>>> on any online Foundation project?
>>>> 
>>>> If there has, what were the mechanics involved in taking
>>> it? If not,
>>>> would conducting such a survey be possible?
>>>> 
>>>> I am somewhat computer-challenged, so please be gentle :-).
>>>> 
>>>> Marc Riddell


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