[clug] FOSS surveys - once is happenstance.

[Mike Carden]

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

Does anyone else admin any projects on sourceforge? Have you received
several different email requests to complete surveys around FOSS in
the last few weeks?

I received my first one about a month ago and on the surface it looked
legit. It appeared to be from a European University and seemed to be
asking appropriate questions. Then another one from another uni, then
two this morning allegedly from an Italian uni.

Has anyone else seen these? My scam radar is twitching because after
several years of no such thing, I seem to suddenly have a lot of
interest in a short period. Is it just that a bunch of universities
have had the exact same idea at the same time? Here is the text of
today's:


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Dear michael,


this is to ask a few minutes of your time to help my research group
and me with a project that we  are carrying out at the Politecnico di
Milano (http://www.polimi.it <http://www.polimi.it/> ).

We are interviewing administrators of Free/Open Source (FOSS) projects
hosted on SourceForge. As you have been involved in the Xena: digital
preservation application FOSS project, we feel that you could provide
valuable information.

Our research aims to investigate administrators'  experiences and
opinions about the involvement of companies in the FOSS world.
However, your  answers will be valuable to us, even if no firm is
currently involved in your project or if you are  not currently
working on it.

The questionnaire can be found at the site of the Department of
Electronics and Information of the Politecnico di Milano:
http://home.dei.polimi.it/merlo/oss-companies-involvement/index.html

We hope that you will accept to fill in the questionnaire. The whole
interview lasts about ten minutes; partial responses are very welcome
as well.

All the information will be treated as strictly confidential and
handled in anonymous form. Survey data will be used only for
scientific research purposes, while results and related documents will
be made public.
Please send me an e-mail if you wish to receive copies of our research papers.
Your help will be invaluable to us. Thanks in advance for your time!

Best regards,

Sara Contini
Politecnico di Milano
Department of Management, Economics, and Industrial Engineering
via Giuseppe Colombo, 40
20133 MILANO
sara.contini at polimi.it
Tel. +39 02 2399 3956

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-- 
MC - puzzled