Metrics and progress

[danielabarbosa]

One of the things early one that we discussed as part of the
Evangelism group was being able to set some metrics, in support of the
project. I wonder if it is time to starting to put some metrics in
place that we can track over a 3-6-9-12 month period?

Metrics are tricky but helpful to help us understand our messaging and
impact. I have been thinking about potentially doing a survey to see
if these issues/concerns and ideas are getting to the "real users"-
not for technologists and advocates but for users- something i can
send to my brother,co-workers etc.

I am certainly concerned about this being considered a PR stunt or
effort so would like to bounce this off the Evangelism group.

thoughts? ideas?

[danielabarbosa]

Any thoughts on the survey idea above?

[Mary Trigiani]

Surveys are always useful. You can never have to much information
about the market, Daniela. I'm glad you put this on the table,
because as you know, I've been calling for "more user" for a while
now. So in my case, you're preaching to the choir!

I think it doesn't even have to be an evangelism exercise. We can
"publish" the results and/or use them as part of the best practices
conclusions.

Also, the alternative wiki construction that the steering committee
asked me to develop for everyone's review is essentially organized by
topic or activity, not by action group. If this alternative view is
something that everyone endorses, a survey would become a Project
initiative -- not so much an Evangelism effort. So the survey would
actually become an activity that would not be labeled in terms of an
internal function.

Whatever the ultimate wiki organization, I would consider the survey
part of market research and the Project's effort to make data
portability a mainstream topic.

[Steven Greenberg]

I think that this a good idea. There is a bunch of stuff that I'd like
to see tracking polls on.

For my part, I'd like to know more about what users actually do. There
is a lot of contradictory information out there, and I think that it'd
be worthwhile to try and get some clarity.

1) How many "social" sites does the average user visit in an average
week? I define a "social" site as being one that has friend
relationships or uses an address book.

2) How many connections does the average user have on these sites?

3) How many individuals does the average user communicate with? For the
purposes of this question, I'd like to know (a) how many individually
addressed messages are sent, and (b) how many individually addressed
messages are received.

4) How many public (or group/semi-public) messages does the user post in
an average week?

5) How many "friend" invitations does the average user receive in an
average week?

6) How many of those "friend" requests does the user accept?

Anyway, what's what I would like to know.

Regards,
Steve

[Mary Trigiani]

I wonder if we could get a survey company to participate as a
volunteer in the project and execute this for us?

[Elias Bizannes]

Glad you asked again Daniela, because I missed this! +1 from me.

This can provide real value:
- it will act as a reality dose to all the hot air being said in the
industry about what users truly want
- it will be a measure to assess the effectiveness of DataPorability's
user-targetted campaigns in the future to show if our awareness
campaigns work
- it helps identify opportunities and weakenesses that the industry
can reflect on based on what people really want

[Brady Brim-DeForest]

Definiteily +1 for me.

If we can use polls to solicit information on end-user behavior, that
will also be incredibly helpful in the development of the best
practices documentation.

I would also like to see some data on how valuable end-users feel
portable data to be.

-Brady

[Phil Wolff]

I'd love to know and track...

Of non-social sites/services (e.g. Salesforce, Monster, Intuit, Target), how many are adding social features in the next 12 months? 24 months?

What is the frequency distribution of number of contacts in mobile phone address books, IM/Skype address books, social network address books, email address books? How does this vary by country, age, occupation, industry, experience (months)?

Does the size of your buddy list influence how much you use a service? how much you refer friends to an activity on the service?

Of the top 100 English language sites, how many have dp-friendly TOS/EULAs that permit users to withdraw their data completely? that acknowledge users "own" the data they contribute to the site?

How do people think a "plan B" might work in case their favorite social site announced they were closing in 30 days? What would they want to be able to do? How angry, how concerned would they be?

Out of 100 people, how many would give a site the full contents of their email and IM addressbooks in exchange for a cute rubber duck?

How much time (seconds) and effort (clicks/scrolling) does it take to bring your friends to a new site?

How empty/complete are personal profiles?

--
Phil Wolff
managing editor, Skype Journal
http://SkypeJournal.com
pwo...@skypejournal.com
skype:evanwolf
+1-510-444-8234 San Francisco
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[Elias Bizannes]

Any progress on this?