List o' importants....part deux,SEUL list

["KimBoo York" <kimboo@watermarkonline.com>]

I'm taking Roger's list of importants from his July 1 post, despite 
the fact that (as I understand) it has already undergone some 
changes. Pete is getting the survey site updated, but I havent been 
by yet (mea culpa) and so if I'm responding to outdated info, please 
disregard that section.  My comments/rewrites are bracketed in 
<<...>>, and n/c means "No Comment" -- essentially that I have 
nothing to say about that particular question, because it is well 
written and stands fine.


ROGER WROTE: 
>This is a compiled list of "how important is this?" questions,
>mostly to get them into one place. The wording is far from polished,
>since I'm still aiming for content rather than final presentation.
>What I'd like to do is come up with a couple more to fill in the 
>holes that we have in this list, then focus for a bit on the
>'experience/user profile' section, then integrate the two, and try 
>to assess if we have a real survey at that point......

>Rank the following in terms of importance (low, moderately low,
>moderately high, high):


>* local networking (connecting to other computers at my office,
>home,  or other location)
 <<rewrite for parenthetical comment: (connecting computers 
to each other at my office, home, or other location). Differentiates 
question from wide area networking question>> 
>* being able to auto-setup local ethernet connection
<<which means? I have a problem with "auto-setup" as a phrase,
because it is vague. So, is this an 'ease of installation/config.'
question or a networking question?>>
 >* wide area networking (connecting two or more locations)
 <<prefer: networking two or more locations (home to office, office 
to off-site location)>>
> * internet connection (direct)
<<n/c>>
> * internet connection (dial-up)
<<n/c>>
> * being able to dialin to an isp automatically 
<<automatically as opposed to manually? I don't know many WinXX 
people who do manual dial-ups (they usually install a program that 
sets up auto dialin so they never have to think about other options), 
so this question will seem kind of odd to those users. Perhaps 
rewrite in the negative?>> 
>* being able to use (read/write/both) other file save formats 
>[should probably reword into 'industry standard file formats']
 <<would rewrite to: ability to use (read/write/both) files saved in 
any industry standard file format>>
> * being able to read the source 
<<rewrite: ability to read source code>>
> * being able to modify the source [and redistribute, I guess] 
<<rewrite: ability to modify and redistribute source code>> 
>* cost, hardware 
<<n/c>>
>* cost, software
<<n/c>>
* privacy (ability to keep other users from reading my files)
<<n/c>>
> * security (ability to prevent unauthorized people from using my 
>system(s).
<<n/c>>
> * stability (computer and applications run without 
>crashing or requiring restart) 
<<cut "...or requiring restart" because it adds nothing to the 
question>>
> ? prompt bugfixes (or hey, bugfixes at all)
 <<what is prompting? Who is fixing? Vague question; I'd dump it 
(matter is indirectly addressed in the `source code' questions 
anyway)>>
>* adding/removing software in an easy and familiar way 
<<n/c>>
> * upgrades, ease of installation
 <<n/c>>
> * upgrades, ease of finding/getting
 <<n/c>>
> * upgrades, price 
<<n/c>>
> * having the installation stage for a program verify that all necessary
> components are present and functional
 <<n/c>>
> ? PnP support in hardware
<<I would definitely keep this question, because the `plug and play' 
concept is an important feature when people are shopping for 
components/hardware/etc.>>
> ? availability of a wide variety of apps (commercial, freeware?)
 <<A _critical_ question! Keep, keep, keep!>> 
>*support, vendor [what is a 'vendor' for an end-user, anyway?]
 <<a vendor is a lot of things. If we are going to ask `support' 
questions they need to be broken out into generals: support, software 
vendor; support, computer vendor (keep vague --could be store or 
indiv. or company direct); support, hardware vendor>>
> *support, internet [could use rewording. I can't tell if this is 'newsgroups' 
or 'ISP']
 <<rewrite: accessability of support over the Internet or 
www>> 
>* support, applications [this needs more thought]
 <<support for applications? Of applications? Can this be covered by 
the `support, software vendor' question?>>
> * being able to connect to the machine remotely
 <<rewrite: being able to connect to the computer 
from a remote location>> 
>* being able to run graphics remotely 
<<hmmm...most people are going to think that if they connect to the 
machine from a remote location, they'll get the graphics too. So this 
question either needs to be dumped or further clarified, I think.>>
> *running servers (mail, httpd, samba, telnetd, ftpd, etc)
 <<rewrite: ability to run servers....>> 
>* speed of graphics rendering
 <<n/c>>
> * speed of overall machine 
<<n/c>>
> * compatibility with existing systems [hardware] 
<<n/c>>
> *compatibility with prior versions [software] 
<<n/c>>
>* being able to run something like doublespace (dynamic disk 
>compressor)
 <<rewrite: ability to run a dynamic disk compressor (for 
example, doublespace)>>
> * being able to taskswitch between applications quickly 
<<rewrite: ability to switch between tasks/applications quickly>> 
>*having many large applications open at once [easier than asking 
>"supporting >64 megs ram"] 
<<rewrite: ability to run many large applications at once>>
> * using a system which protects the user from making potentially
 dangerous changes to system configuration
 <<n/c>>
>* automatic virus protection (the system takes care of it for you) 
<<n/c>>
> *manual virus protection (you run a program to scan or 
>detect)
 <<n/c>>
 >* automatic hard drive defragmenting (the system takes care of it 
for you) 
<<n/c>> 
>* manual hard drive defragmenting (you run a program 
>to defrag)
 <<n/c>> 
>[the above pair are leading questions. I need to 
>figure out a good way to word the difference between linux (viruses 
>just don't happen) and windows (where it's important to take 
>precautions and run anti-virus software)]
 <<I don't think you can. You are not going to convince any WinXX 
user -- or Mac user or OS/2 user-- in a short survey like this that 
with Linux, viruses "just don't happen." You know why, I know why, 
but no one who isn't already familiar with Linux is going to believe 
it. Period. Just keep the questions as they are, since they are 
giving the information we are looking for anyway>> 
>* being able to make a backup of your system 
<<n/c>>
> * being able to make backup copies of large data files
 <<n/c>>
> * being able to undelete files 
<<n/c>>
>* administration questions [suggestions?]
 <<ummmm, no suggestions here...>> 
>* multi-user (several people can use machine at different times)
>* multi-user (several people can use machine simultaneously)
 <<wow, really need to reword these two questions in relation to each 
other. People who use machines at different times might also be able 
to use them simultaneously, and just because people use a machine 
simultaneously doesn't mean they won't use it at different times!! 
Urk! How about: `multi-users (several people have ability to use one 
machine at different times)' and then maybe `conncurrent users 
(several people can use one machine simultaneously)'>>
>* applications (I need to run specific applications on my computer) 
<<rewrite: customization of applications to run specific tasks>>
>* uses (I need to use my computer for specific tasks.  Specific 
>applications don't matter as long as they fill the need) 
<<this strikes me as an obscure rewording of the `avail. of wide 
variety of apps.' question. If a person just has a specific task that 
needs to be done and the software is readily available, they're 
happy.>> 
>* ease of use (this *MUST* be split up into "what 
>constitutes EOU" elements). [no progress here yet :( ] 
<<hmmm, not sure what you are getting at. I sort of see that EOU is 
addressed in toto by all the questions being asked in the survey. Am 
I missing something?>>
>* consistent user interface (things behave the same way even 
>comparing  between two separate applications) 
<<n/c>> 
>* having a graphical interface to applications and system 
<<n/c>> 
>*having a command-line interface to applications and system
 <<n/c>> 
>* documentation, printed 
<<n/c>> 
>* documentation, electronic
 <<n/c>> 
>[might ask about "documentation, obtainable-from-internet" as well] 
<<you could break the electric documentation into two questions: 
`documentation, from Internet or www' and `documentation in the form 
of help files within the program.' Rough start, but you get what I'm 
going for....however, most people I think would take the earlier 
question, `support, Internet' as covering the documentation issue as 
well>>
>* corporate reputation (vague -- good or bad reputation is 
>important.) Note that responses here scale differently from most of 
>above. Maybe "importance of vendor satisfaction, ..." would fit 
>better. I still don't know what a 'vendor' is for our audience. I 
>don't like that word -- the computer might come from a different 
>place than the support, and the OS from a still different place. 
<<stay away from the vendor thing here. For instance, I don't know 
many people who would classify M$ as a vendor, even though literally 
speaking it is. How about just: `brand reputation (good or bad)' You 
don't have to ask `importance of...' since that is what they are 
ranking anyway...>> 
>* Support in my native language (how can I ask this so as to not 
>have them confuse things if their native language is English? 
>"Support for a non-English language"?)
 <<rewrite: Support for non-English-speaking users>> 


AND there you have it. Whew. Comments and further suggestions to my 
suggestions are, of course, more than welcome!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
KimBoo York
Staff Reporter/On-Line Editor
Waterfront Editor
Watermark Media, Inc.
kimboo@watermarkonline.com

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* NEVER tell me the odds! *
*       -- Han Solo       *
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