policy@mtek.com (Policy Admin) (05/01/91)
To date, there have been ~250 surveys received, and a few continue to
trickle in from day to day.
When this flow basically stops, then I'll post the totals to these groups.
From what I see now, that point should be coming up in the next two
weeks or so, and I'll run the data through the report-generator script
and post it. (If the new 'comp.admin.policy' group is approved, then I
will also post the results there, once the group is up and running).
If overwhelming interest exists in specific correlations of this data,
then I will certainly try to accomplish these (within the time I can
reasonably spare from other tasks).
One problem that occurred is that a significant percentage of people
gave multiple answers to one or more questions on the ORIGINAL (Z1) version
of the survey. [After the CORRECTED (Z2) version was posted, this problem
went away in all but a tiny fraction of cases, and I have handled those
by simply sending them back -- I *know* that the instruction is now clear].
This forced some unpleasant choices. There are probably about 20 remaining
old (Z1) returns in which I was forced to "mind-read" the correct choice
to one or more questions in order to add the reply to the database. There
were others where the meaning was clear. (E.g., a number of people, instead
of giving "Both of the above", listed the two choices that constituted the
"both" -- or gave all three. Go figure.)
IF YOU GAVE MULTIPLE ANSWERS...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
...you may want to re-submit (form attached
below), and we will replace your original responses with your new ones.
IF THE MEANING OF A QUESTION WAS UNCLEAR TO YOU...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
...you may want to scan the new form to see
if that question would now elicit a different response.
This survey isn't "science", to be sure, but it would be ideal to eliminate
*any* contamination of the data.
I have no problem with taking the time to edit out the old response and
replace it with the new one if it will make the data more accurate as a
reflection of the true intentions of *every* participant. I only regret
that the confusion arose to begin with, owing to my editing blunder.
If there is ever future interest in again doing something like this, at
least we will be better equipped with the tools -- and some specific
recent experience -- to do the job alot better, with minimum lost time
for everyone, including me.
Bud Hovell
____________
policy@mtek.com
------------------ cut ------------------------- cut --------------------
$Id: Survey,v 5.1.1.5 91/04/15 14:57:25 policy USENET $
Copyright (c) 1991 by Bergen B. Hovell, Jr. You may electronically repro-
duce this form in full for public distribution, and any portion of this
form for email response to this survey. All other rights are reserved.
============================ 'POLICY' SURVEY ==============================
PURPOSE
This survey asks system administrators (including news administrators) for
brief feedback about local "policy" in their multi-user computing environ-
ments, un*x or other.
For this research, 'policy' is defined as all formal or informal rules of
use of - or access to - such computing resources.
PRIVACY OF INFORMATION PROVIDED
Your name and/or email address will *not* be released to - nor your indiv-
idual responses be shared with - any person, agency, or organization which
is not directly engaged in performing this research. You will not be solic-
ited by anyone nor be otherwise annoyed as a result of your decision to
respond or not respond.
INSTRUCTIONS
Those persons ONLY should respond who have some current responsibility for
system administration, or who supervise others who do. Such duty need not
be one's sole (or even primary) duty.
Under *each* header below, select your *one* best choice by *deleting* all
others under that header (and the header itself), then proceed on to the
next header. This is a forced-choice, multiple-choice, complete-the-state-
ment format. Just like in school: even if you think the question is perfect-
ly lousy, pick just one anyway. Please.
[ If you wish to supply comments, they are *most* welcome - but please send
them back by separate mail with "Subject: comments" (or suchlike) so we can
pick them out from survey-responses, which get automated (sorta) processing
on this end. ]
You should be able to work these in order from top to bottom, deleting as
you go. When you are done, you should have remaining a total of exactly 18
lines of actual responses. Other lines of text will be ignored.
FUNNY STUFF
It shouldn't matter if your mailer inserts ">" or other customary left-margin
marks when you reply - you send it, we'll parse it :-). If you have your own
dot-sigs or other stuff containing pipe-marks scattered about, however, it
just means someone here may have to hand edit them out. You *could* save
us that minor misery by doing this yourself. :-)
============================== BEGIN SURVEY ==============================
You can start by deleting everything above this line.
(Basic Info)
My *primary* job location is in:
================================
|AA| Africa
|AB| Australia
|AC| Canada
|AD| Europe, except Soviet Union
|AE| Far East, except Japan and Soviet Union
|AF| Indian Subcontinent
|AG| Japan
|AH| Mexico and Central America
|AI| South America
|AJ| Soviet Union
|AK| United States
|AZ| Other
My local organization is *primarily*:
=====================================
|BA| Commercial - Hardware or software manufacture
|BB| Commercial - Hardware or software sales or service
|BC| Commercial - Other manufacture
|BD| Commercial - Other sales or service
|BE| Educational (university or other)
|BF| Governmental, except military
|BG| Health-care
|BH| Military
|BI| Religious or fraternal
|BJ| Research, except educational
|BZ| Other
Multi-user facilities of some kind have been locally available:
===============================================================
|CA| Fewer than six months
|CB| More than six months
|CC| More than 1 year
|CD| More than 2 years
|CE| More than 3 years
|CF| More than 4 years
|CG| More than 5 years
|CH| More than 10 years
I have total system administration experience of:
=================================================
|DA| Fewer than six months
|DB| More than six months
|DC| More than 1 year
|DD| More than 2 years
|DE| More than 3 years
|DF| More than 4 years
|DG| More than 5 years
|DH| More than 10 years
I have total experience as a user (including sysadmin) of:
==========================================================
|EA| Fewer than six months
|EB| More than six months
|EC| More than 1 year
|ED| More than 2 years
|EE| More than 3 years
|EF| More than 4 years
|EG| More than 5 years
|EH| More than 10 years
Total users on all systems I currently administer:
==================================================
|FA| 1-5 users
|FB| 6-25 users
|FC| 26-50 users
|FD| 51-100 users
|FE| 101-500 users
|FF| More than 500 users
|FG| More than 1000 users
My primary administration activities are on systems which are:
==============================================================
|GA| Un*x (any flavor)
|GB| VMS
|GC| PC LAN
|GD| Combination - 2 or more of the above
|GZ| Other multi-user
(Historical Practice)
Historically, our policies (written or not) have included:
==========================================================
|HA| General guidelines
|HB| Specific "Dos & Don'ts"
|HC| Both of the above
|HD| None of the above
|HE| Don't know
|HZ| New site - no historical practice
Historically, actual policy has been *mainly* defined by:
=========================================================
|IA| Informal day-to-day user practices
|IB| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|IC| Directions of user's immediate supervisor
|ID| Sysadmin or system manager decisions
|IE| Upper management decisions
|IF| Don't know
|IZ| New site - no historical practice
Historically, actual policy-enforcement authority came *mainly* from:
=====================================================================
|JA| No one - each user did what he needed to do
|JB| Users, through active peer pressure
|JC| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|JD| User's immediate supervisor or manager
|JE| Sysadmin or system manager
|JF| Upper management
|JG| Don't know
|JZ| New site - no historical practice
Historically, policy information was presented to users *mainly* by:
====================================================================
|KA| Verbal info, primarily from other users
|KB| Verbal info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|KC| On-paper-only written info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|KD| On-line interactive displayed (as well as on-paper) written policies
|KE| Don't know
|KZ| New site - no historical practice
(Current Interest)
Recently, users raise policy questions:
=======================================
|LA| Virtually never
|LB| Probably about once a year
|LC| Probably about once a month
|LD| Probably about once a week
|LE| More frequently
Recently, middle and upper managers raise policy questions:
===========================================================
|MA| Virtually never
|MB| Probably about once a year
|MC| Probably about once a month
|MD| Probably about once a week
|ME| More frequently
(Future Expectations)
Future policies (written or not) will include:
==============================================
|NA| General guidelines
|NB| Specific "Dos & Don'ts"
|NC| Both of the above
|ND| None of the above
|NE| Don't know
Future actual policy will be *mainly* defined by:
=================================================
|OA| Informal day-to-day user practices
|OB| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|OC| Directions of user's immediate supervisor
|OD| Sysadmin or system manager decisions
|OE| Upper management decisions
|OF| Don't know
Future actual policy-enforcement authority will *mainly* come from:
===================================================================
|PA| No one - each user will do what he needs to do
|PB| Users, through active peer pressure
|PC| User-committee decisions (or similar formal means)
|PD| User's immediate supervisor or manager
|PE| Sysadmin or system manager
|PF| Upper management
|PG| Don't know
Future policy information will be presented to users *mainly* by:
=================================================================
|QA| Verbal info, primarily from other users
|QB| Verbal info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|QC| On-paper-only written info from manager, supervisor, or sysadmin
|QD| On-line interactive displayed (as well as on-paper) written policies
|QE| Don't know
Please include this next line:
==============================
|Z2| Usenet Survey
**************************************************************************
Now delete all lines that are not responses to questions, and please
email to "survey@mtek.com" or "tektronix!bucket!mtek!survey"
**************************************************************************