[Linux-aus] FLOSS 2013 Survey you may be interested in

[Peter Lawler]

On 19/11/2013 4:28 AM, Chris Neugebauer wrote:
> On 19 Nov 2013 15:27, "Noel Butler" <noel.butler at ausics.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> I certainly didn't in the first instance, but the fact remains they are
>> irrelevant questions for FLOSS
>>
>
> They're relevant if they're trying to figure out the sort of people who
> develop FLOSS... Which is the entire point of the survey.

tl;dr - Agreed
--------------

I've not looked at the survey, Chris, but my gut reaction is that 
hacking on FLOSS happens quite a lot on people's 'free time' (ie, we're 
not paid to hack).

Thus I suspect lack of stuff that may be available in the commercial 
world (after school care, day off to care for ill child, super, etc.) 
aren't as much available in FLOSS.

I've noticed on a couple of FLOSS projects where folks have bowed out 
due to free time/work/family mix changing on them. Thankfully (or sadly 
depending on your point of view), only one project (which I was sort of 
involved in) flamed out.

With this in mind, I'd say what I understand the questions to be would 
be highly relevant to cover the "workplace" FLOSS hackers of all sorts.

It may, in fact, be the most important question of the survey as data 
from that could probably be extrapolated to provide a groundwork for 
what could be better 'work' conditions for the self-employed, 'free 
time', 'lone' hacker who's likely not covered by any awards or workplace 
safety insurance and the like.

It's always a big decision whether one gives up some personal data, 
whether it's anonymised or not. I do appreciate this. But. If I consider 
what I believe to be the consequence of not providing the info:

Given the lone hackers are the people who apparently have the higher 
suicide rates in our community (see Blue Hackers et al), I'd be more 
than prepared to argue that collectively not answering some questions 
about 'home life' is actually potentially far far far more damaging for 
LA and our associated peeps... than giving up a bit of info to help out 
finding out Who we are and What we need, by answering.


Regards,

Pete.