Open source for learning

Tryggvi:

This is pretty cool! What shall we post on here? I am going to try to put together some questions on here this weekend. Perhaps our interviewees could just answer them on here. It would probably save time both for them and for us.

Here is some demo info I found interesting on blueoxen.org

Later, PW
2.2. Demographics
In the past three years, a number of surveys have attempted to shed light on the questions, “Who develops open source
software, and why?” Three in particular stand out:
 Who Is Doing It (WIDI) Survey (2001)
 The Boston Consulting Group/OSDN (BCG/OSDN) Hacker Survey (2002)
 Free/Libre and Open Source Software: Survey and Study (FLOSS) (2002)
The results of all three surveys are reasonably consistent, and paint a good picture of the typical open source developer:
 Overwhelmingly male. All three surveys reported that over 98 percent of their respondents were men
(FLOSS 8, BCG 21, WIDI Part 1).
 Predominantly Generation X. Over 70 percent of respondents from all three surveys were between the ages
of 22 and 37, with the mean age ranging from 27 to 30 (FLOSS 9, BCG 21, WIDI Part 1).
 Concentrated in the United States and Europe. Over 80 percent of respondents from the surveys were
from either the United States or Europe. The WIDI and FLOSS surveys also asked about the residences of
open source developers, and found that the majority of them are also currently living in the U.S. and Europe.
The FLOSS survey differed from both the WIDI and BCG/OSDN survey in that a much larger percentage of
respondents were from and lived in Europe than were from or lived in the United States (FLOSS 16-17, BCG
22, WIDI Part 1).
 IT professionals. Over 50 percent of those surveyed work in IT. Students ranked second in all three surveys,
ranging from 20 to 30 percent of respondents (FLOSS 13, BCG 25, WIDI Part 3).
 Mostly college and high school graduates. Both FLOSS and WIDI report that between 33 and 46 percent of
respondents have college degrees, whereas between 17 and 24 percent have only a high school degree. This is
consistent with the age demographics. FLOSS reports 28 percent of those surveyed have Masters degrees,
whereas WIDI reports 12 percent (FLOSS 12, WIDI Part 3).
 Part-time participation. Between 34 and 48 percent of those surveyed spend less than five hours a week on
open source software, with a clear downward trend among respondents as the numbers of hours increase.
Between 9 and 15 percent spend 20 to 40 hours a week, and 5 to 7 percent spend more than 40 hours a week
(FLOSS 21, BCG 23, WIDI Part 4).
2.3. Motivations
The FLOSS report found that 46 percent of its respondents do not earn any money, either directly or indirectly, for their
work on open source. 16 percent are paid to develop open source software, whereas 18 percent are paid to administer it,
and 12 percent are paid to support it. 26 percent claim to have received indirect financial compensation for their work
on open source, and 18 percent claim their work helped them get a job (65).
4
Both the FLOSS and BCG/OSDN surveys explored the motivations for working on open source software. Both found
that the overriding reason that people joined and continued working on open source projects was to expand and share
their knowledge. 93 percent of respondents to the BCG/OSDN survey said that “increasing their personal knowledge
base” was a benefit of participation, and 48 percent said that it was the most important benefit. 79 percent of the
FLOSS respondents said that they joined to “learn and develop new skills,” and 50 percent said that they joined to
“share their knowledge and skills” (FLOSS 45, BCG 17). Figures 2.1 and 2.2 show the overall results from both the
FLOSS and BCG/OSDN reports.

TT:
We've hit the charts. I plugged in a google search and found this site at #2. We're #2...We're #2! I posted a site that has some good ancillary information entitled Open Space, you can look at it and delete it if you want. I will post some other things Thursday or Friday. This weekend, I will develop a set of questions from my behalf. Tata, PW

Cool, what did you search for?

Open Source Blog Thayer

What is your phone # again?

My whole contact list on my phone was erased.