Re: Conducting Research on FOSS communities

[Thomas Ingram]

On 11/12/18 1:23 PM, Drew Adams wrote:
> "Willing to answer some questions" can depend on the
> questions.  Maybe you can post the questions somewhere
> and ask people to get in touch with you if they want
> to participate?

Yes, good point, I can provide you with the approved questions:

Note: “community” refers to the FOSS community and the GNU Emacs 
community specifically.

1. Describe your role in this community.

2. How long have you been a part of this community?

3. Why are you involved in this community?

4. What would you say are the shared goals of your community? (Why does 
this group exist? What does it do?)

5. What mechanisms do members use to communicate with each other? 
(examples: meetings, email, text messages, newsletters, reports, 
evaluation forms, handbook, etc)

6. What are the purposes of each of these mechanisms of communication?

7. How do new members learn about the mechanisms of communication and 
how to use them?

8. Are there any shared texts or mechanisms for communication that you 
think are not working well? What do you see as the problem?

9. What are some examples of specialized language that the group members 
use in their conversation and written communication? (examples: 
acronyms, slang, specialized terms that “outsiders” might not understand)

10. How do you help new members learn the specialized language of the 
community?


Hopefully that helps clarify what I'll be asking about.


Thomas Ingram
Michigan Technological University
Computer Science