diff --git a/docs/survey-200603.xml b/docs/survey-200603.xml index 946611f9b..49c1d9784 100644 --- a/docs/survey-200603.xml +++ b/docs/survey-200603.xml @@ -35,33 +35,34 @@
- Shorewall Environment Survey 2006 + The Shorewall Environment Survey 2006 - In early March 2006, i embarked on the jorney of surveying Shorewall - users. Initially this sprang from my own curiosity: it seemed to me that - the systems at work on which i was using Shorewall were bigger and more - complex than a lot of the ones others were using, and i wanted to find out - if there were people out there who used it like i did. As started thinking - about the question's i would ask, i realised that i could ask a few more - questions that might help us as a project to understand a bit more about - all of our users. -
- -
- Survey + In early March 2006, i @@@ embarked on the jorney of surveying + Shorewall users. Initially this sprang from my own curiosity: it seemed to + me that the systems at work on which i was using Shorewall were bigger and + more complex than a lot of the ones others were using, and i wanted to + find out if there were people out there who used it like i did. As started + thinking about the question's i would ask, i realised that i could ask a + few more questions that might help us as a project to understand a bit + more about all of our users. I used Zoomerang to create the survey. It has a number of tools that make it really easy to create useful surveys. To get the most benefit out of Zoomerang, you have - to subscribe to their professional version. + to subscribe to their professional version. In the long term, it would be + great to see a practical free software alternative that we could + self-host. A number of free content management systems such as Drupal have a survey module, but when i + last looked at them, they
Take the survey The survey is still open as of this writing, and can be accessed at the - Zoomerang survey page. Further participation is - encouraged. + Zoomerang survey page. Further participation is encouraged. The + figures quoted in this document reflect the latest results at the time + of writing.
@@ -69,9 +70,8 @@ The public - (anonymised) results of the survey are also available. If you - complete the survey, a link to the results is provided on the thank you - page. + results of the survey are also available. If you complete the + survey, a link to the results is provided on the thank you page.
@@ -83,17 +83,66 @@
Summary - asdf +
Organisations Small organisations dominate the spectrum of Shorewall users. - The largest group (44%) was 1-10 users - mostly home LANs, based on + The largest group (44%) was 1-10 users - mostly SOHO LANs, based on the comments in that section. Ninety percent of Shorewall installations are in organisations with less than 500 users. - + The results for the questions about organisational size and the + number of users serviced by Shorewall closely match, which seems to + indicate that the majority of those 90% of Shorewall systems are + servicing the entire organisation in question. + + Some anomalies seem to have crept in, e.g. some responses + indicated that their Shorewall system serviced more users than exist + in their organisation. There may be some good reasons for this that + i'm not aware of. + + The vast majority (84%) of Shorewall systems are administered by + only one person. Possible reasons for this might be: + + + + Most of the organisations in which it is used are small, and + so most of them will only have one person skilled in the area of + packet filtering firewalls. This seems a likely scenario, but a + cross + + + + Shorewall is too hard for new users to comprehend, so one + skilled person in an organisation tends to get the job maintaining + it. + + + + Shorewall works so well that people don't have to touch it + much. (This is obviously the preferred interpretation of the + Shorewall project team. :-) + + + + Shorewall administrators are a closed bunch and don't like + sharing their job around. Given the nature of packet filtering, + this doesn't seem far-fetched. + + + + This question doesn't seem to have an easy answer. In + retrospect, since there were no responses indicating 10 or more + administrators, i could have made the granularity of this question + better. Possibly we can follow this up with a further, smaller survey + specifically about the people and organisations who use + Shorewall. +
+ +
+
@@ -131,6 +180,48 @@
Lessons learned about surveys + asdf + + things i did right + + + + + Treat it like releasing free software: + + + + release early and often + + + + make branches when you release alpha and beta versions, and + bring the lessons you learned in those versions into the main + trunk + + + + + + things i did wrong + + + + Start small and work towards what you want to know. I tried to + do everything in one survey, and ended up confusing some + people. + + + + asdf + + + + Be prepared beforehand + + + + asdf
\ No newline at end of file