[Koha] Open source ballot design

[MJ Ray]

Thomas Dukleth wrote:
> However, the reason that advancing a Koha foundation is being rushed
> presently is that there have been significant recent problems in the
> community which some think the foundation may address, not because people
> have become tired of the occasional discussion over the years.   [...]

Speak for yourself - I've been looking to put a sustainable
vendor-neutral user-involving community organisation at the heart of
the project for years.  Yes, the LibLime communication cutback has
probably motivated a few more people, but it's not a quick fix for the
recent problems and I'm not sure anyone thinks it is.

> The general consensus from people on #koha IRC channel which I have
> noticed had been that there has not been enough discussion on the mailing
> list about the various options for a foundation with people advocating for
> and against them. [...]

OK, so what do we do about this?  Should we turn the wiki pages into
some sort of consultation information brochure?

> 2.  OPEN SOURCE BALLOT DESIGN.
[...]
> Discussion of wording text such as for ballot design needs a longer format
> such as email in which complete examples can be presented and in which
> there is the opportunity for due reflection.

I've too much email already.  The suggestion of longer emails really
doesn't fill me with joy.

[...]
> Does anyone think that more eyes make bugs shallow does not work for
> ballot design as well as program code?  Why is open source good for the
> project software and documentation but not good for the ballot design
> process?  Please show me the code.

Well, it might not work as well because it's currently cheaper to test
program code than it is to test survey design and this community has
many more programmers than statisticians.  I think the statisticians
here are currently working as programmers, including me.  (I gained a
BSc with first class honours in Mathematics with Statistics, taught
stats in HE and FE for a few years and also took a private sector
opinion pollster's field training.)  Are there other statisticians
here?

I suspect statistics is less obvious to most of the community than
making a great Library Management System, but I think it's worth
posting the ballot design and taking comments into account.

I beg everyone to check that any suggested changes have some grounding
in statistical theory before posting them, else the review process
probably won't work because we'll get overloaded.  I wrote
http://people.debian.org/~mjr/surveys.html a few years ago which might
interest some people.

[...]
> At Wednesday's IRC meeting it was announced, if I recall correctly, that
> two weeks would be taken to analyse the previous poll before a final
> ballot would be presented.  That period should give sufficient time for
> most if not all of my suggestions to have an opportunity to have some
> effect on the drafting of a final ballot.

I feel that recollection is incorrect.  No particular time was
suggested, although I'd prefer it not to drag forever. Please check:
http://stats.workbuffer.org/irclog/koha/2009-10-07#i_316162

So:

1. do we need information brochure(s) about the options?
   - who will produce it/them?
   - who will referee it/them to make sure it's fair?
   - how should it be distributed?

2. are there other trained statisicians in our community?

3. how do we gather opinions on the survey design nicely?

Hope that helps,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)  LMS developer and webmaster at     | software
www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op