[Messaging] Questionnaires

Ian Jacobs (Head of W3C Communications) has sent me some useful 
information about designing questionnaires.

Ian has two main points.
1. He thinks that we should use a Web form. He has confirmed that it 
would be possible for non-W3C members to complete WBS forms.

2. He thinks that we should have more targeted questions. For example, 
asking people to score the strength of their opinions, and to use radio 
buttons to guide people towards various options.

A Web form sounds like a good way to go, now that it's clear that 
everyone can access WBS forms. If others agree, are there people who 
would like to work closely with me to redesign the questionnaire?

Kind regards,

Susie


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: SWEO Questionnaires
Date: 	Wed, 29 Nov 2006 21:37:41 +0000
From: 	Ian B. Jacobs <ij@w3.org>
Organization: 	W3C
To: 	Susie Stephens <susie.stephens@oracle.com>
CC: 	Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>
References: 	<456DF724.9030302@oracle.com>



On Wed, 2006-11-29 at 16:09 -0500, Susie Stephens wrote:
> Ian,
> 
> SWEO would like to send out email questionnaires to vendors and 
> non-vendors to better understand their current views around the Semantic 
> Web [1].
> 
> As many of the companies that we plan to target are members of W3C, I 
> would like to check that you are happy with the questionnaires before we 
> send them out.

Hi Susie,

Thank you for the opportunity to look at the questions. I have some
suggestions:

 a) Since this is for W3C Members, I suggest you use WBS [1] instead
    of email; W3C Members are now quite familiar with WBS and it is
    easy to build these questionnaires. Someone on the Team can help you
    put together the questionnaire.

    [1] http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/showwb

    You can follow the link to [1] and look at some of the
    existing questionnaires for inspiration.

 b) I only have a limited experience building such surveys, but
    I believe that you will get more useful data by being more
    specific. Thus, instead of a general question such as:

    "How do customers perceive your usage of the Semantic Web?"

    I suggest you offer some specifics, as in:
 
    "Please rank how important (1-7) and how satisfied (1-7)
     your customers are with your usage of the Semantic Web
     in these areas:"

    [And now list the top 3-5 areas you are thinking of; I don't
     have any good ones off the top of my head.]

    Or similarly:

    "Please rank how important (1-7) your customers found these
     advantages:"

     * lower cost of integration
     * ease of migration path
     * reuse of tools
     * ...
 
    And the same for any disadvantages you have in mind.

 c) For each question where you list specifics for them to select or 
    rank, provide a text area for them to enter any additional comments.

 d) It is probably useful to go from broad questions to specific 
    questions, as in:

   I. Overall Satisfaction with Semantic Web Technologies
 
    1. Please indicate your organization's overall satisfaction with
       Semantic Web Technologies (1-7).
    2. Please indicate your customer's overall satisfaction with your
       organization's use of Semantic Web Technologies (1-7)
    3. Are you a vendor or enterprise (non-vendor)? [Radio buttons]
    3. Please rank the importance (1-7) of the following factors 
       on your decision to use Semantic Web Technology. Please use
       the space below for any additional comments on factors that
       influenced your decision.
    4. Please rank the importance (1-7) of the following factors 
       on your customers' decision to use Semantic Web Technology.
       Please use the space below for any additional comments on 
       factors that influenced your customers' decision.

       [Not so sure about #4; salt to taste.]
  
  II. Perceived Advantages and Disadvantages of Semantic Web 
      Technologies

    1. How are you using? [Please describe any implementations?]
    2. Primary Advantages?
    3. Primary Disadvantages?

      [For 2 and 3, have them rank reasons relative to one another;  
       make sure to provide an "other" option after the specific ones.

 III. Perceived Customer Satisfaction
 
    1. Primary Areas of Satisfaction?
    2. Primary Areas of Dissatisfaction?

I hope these comments are useful.

 _ Ian


> Kind regards,
> 
> Susie
> 
> [1]  http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CoreMessaging
-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447