[Foundation-l] Surveys

Tue Oct 2 13:58:15 UTC 2007

Marc Riddell wrote:
> 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
>
>   

Mark, I would just like to add my strong support of this notion. I am 
very interested in seeing a survey done of both of the contributors and 
the readers.  I don't think we have the internal capacity at the office 
to start really thinking about this until (I am guessing) the spring. 
But setting aside capacity issues, I completely agree that your premise 
is worth exploring.

If you manage to make any progress, I would be very pleased to see the 
results. And if I make progress first, I will get you involved :-)