Frequently Asked Questions

What is overall direction of the project?

The overall goal of the project is to suggest improvements to the design of web sites that support and co-ordinate Open Source Project (i.e. Infrastructure For Hosting Open Source Project (IFHOSP)) by building an evaluation model. The aim for this particular survey is to identify important issues on IFHOSP by employing Delphi survey and build an evaluation model. This model will then be applied to different situations and the model will be assessed and refined.

I understand that using a scientific approach (in this case, positivism) to investigate the Open Source phenomenon is just one of the many possible approaches, and this survey is not an attempt to build an ultimate 'authoritative judgement' on existing IFHOSP sites. Rather, I just want to provide the Open Source Communities with one more point of view.

Is this just another wishlist for CVS?

This survey is more that just a wishlist for a specific tool as it covers different areas of IFHOSP. This includes technical aspects such as features and usabilities of common tools employed as well as social aspects on culture and motivation to obtain a more holistic picture.

How is this survey different from newsgroup or online forum?

  1. The responses from all participants will be summarized. Then, the summarized responses will be re-examined in the next round for refinement (Refer to Detail Procedure of Delphi Survey).
  2. The survey includes a ranking mechanism so that the most important issues can be obtained (Refer to Detail Procedure of Delphi Survey).
  3. All participants invited are 'experts' from different area including developers, administrators and academics. Hopefully the survey can become a platform of communication for everyone (Refer to Who is invited to participate in the Survey?).

As a participant, will I be credited for my contribution?

Yes, you will be listed in the credit section if you wish. For every participant that contributes, one has the choice to remain anonymous or has their name listed in the credit section. If you want to have your name listed, you will be asked to go a simple procedure for participant to authorise their name to be listed.

Why does the researcher setup this survey?

This is a long story... I originally wanted to do a PhD on Commercial Online Communities but ended up studying the Open Source phenomenon as it was still related to communities. I had previous experience in building an evaluation model for education web sites. I also believe that quality in IFHOSP is important. Therefore, I just pull the two together.

If you have other questions, please feel free to ask the researcher.

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Last Update: 13 Jun. 2001