Who Are OpenSource developers?

aCC writes "Read on Heise (german) about an online questionary (english) that is being done by a group of the Technical University of Berlin to find out more about the nature of OpenSource developers. Quite interesting (it has realtime stats). It needs some more international entries though... so, go slashdotters go!"

Comments

The FAQ for everyone when this site is /.'d

[x-empt]

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I take part in the individual survey?
I don't want to answer all your questions. Can I take part at all?
May I refer other software developers to your site?
Who are you?
There are many other studies about that topic! Why another one?
What kind of answers to you expect?
Why is the inquiry not in my language?
I'm a bit concerned about my personal data. What do you do with these informations?
Will the results be published in any form?

Question: Can I take part in the individual survey?
Answer: Of course. However, you must be involved in any open source/free software project.

Question: I don't want to answer all your questions. Can I take part at all?
Answer: Yes. All answers are optional. Please choose the option "no entry" if you dont want to give an answer to a specific question.

Question: May I refer other software developers to your site?
Answer: Definitly yes. We highly dependend on the amount of people taking part in our survey. Every open source/free software developer is welcome.

Question: Who are you?
Answer: We are a group of computer science students at the Technical University of Berlin. This survey is part of our studies, trying to get an empirical picture about the social and economic aspects of open source / free software developers.

Question: There are many other studies about that topic! Why another one?
Answer: Our study is digging deeper into the social aspects of open source developers. Therefore, we try to extend the value of former studies to get a even better and detailed result.

Question: What kind of answers to you expect?
Answer: The main target is to get an overview about the geographic location of open source developers. This can be socialy, economicaly and politicaly highly important. Finally, we want to take a closer look at the current developer scene.

Question: Why is the inquiry not in my language?
Answer: e translated the inquiry to all the languages we speak ourself. However, if your perferred language is not available, support us by translating the survey to the language of your choice.

Question: I'm a bit concerned about my personal data. What do you do with these informations?
Answer: Please take a look at our privacy policy.

Question: Will the results be published in any form?
Answer: Yes, we will publish our results on the WIDI-Homepage.

Fav Editor

[Faux_Pseudo]

Its nice that they have that little question in there about your fav editor. The followup question of "why" is sadly lacking some options. It should read like this:
no_entry
of course
naturly
there are no others
the others are good as well
JIHAD!!
What are these others of which you speek.

An entry to look for

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

• Personal data :

Nickname (max. 24 characters): Billgatus of Borg
Nationality: United States
Country you actually live in: United States
Year of Birth : 1955
Gender: male (I think)
Top Level Email Domain: username@server.com
Other languages: no entry - no entry - no entry - no entry

• Professional data :

Profession: world dominator (junior level)
Qualification: college graduate (sort of)
Are you being paid for developing free software/open-source? no, for ripping it off
Have you profited from developing free software/open-source? no, from ripping it off
Do you think there are enough free software-related opportunities (jobs, political & social support) in your country or is it better abroad? it is ok in my country Why? we need those guys to produce good software for us.
Does your boss know that you're developing Free Software/Open Source? No (He even does not know what the GPL is)
Do you like you job ? I do it only because of the money
Approx. Yearly Income: >>>>>>>>>>>>70.000 EUR
How many hours a week do you spend developing Open Source/Free Software? no entry

• Computer experience

Number of Free Software/Open Source Projects you are involved in: -1
Which of these languages/tools are you experienced with? BASIC - Visual Basic - C (sharp)
Favorite Operating System / Distribution: Windows OS
Favorite desktop: Windows
Favorite editor: Write - No more editors should exist
Open source of free software? doesn't matter, as long as not GPL