Re: [Linux-aus] Salary Survey

[David Lloyd <lloy0076@adam.com.au>]

Morgan,

> I guess in truthfulness many of us don't know how much we should ask
> for because we don't know what we should be (it's hard to est. your
> own value to a company).  I'm really enthusiastic that LA can put
> together some good stats and there will be enough transparency that I
> won't be suspicious of some of the figures like in Hays.

Precisely, written in that way the proposal is starting to make
reasonable sense. 

I still don't think that Linux Australia by itself has the expertise
_alone_ to create a credible survey that a company (such as IBM) whose
HR department might have the resources to double check such surveys
would choose to believe.

If Linux Australia does come up with a set of results that someone could
easily shoot down in flames it could do irreparable damage to its
reputation.

And if we duplicate the efforts of others (i.e. the ACS) we could simply
be spreading our efforts too thinly over too many things. It might be
better to approach the ACS and see how we could create a category of:

"Open Source Programmer"

 Median $45 000
 Standard Deviation $7 500

...rather than reinvent the wheel?

I think that the membership of Linux Australia is, in some senses,
represantative of the open source communities in Australia but I'm
relatively convinced that basing a salary survey solely on our
membership details - or by attempting one without having thought it out
well enough with people who have experience doing these things - might
come up with something that is, well, at the nicest might make us look a
little foolish.

DSL