Last week we launched the Eclipse Community Survey. This is the third time we have done a community survey and each year we learn something new.
There are a number of reason I think it is important to do these type of surveys:
1) Any supplier needs to understand what their customers are doing; this is no different for the Eclipse Foundation and the Eclipse open source projects. This survey gives a useful insight into how people are using Eclipse and interacting with the Eclipse community.
2) Due to the large and diverse Eclipse developer community, I think the survey results provide an interesting perspective on the larger general developer trends. My belief is this helps the wider open source community and the industry in general.
3) Our Eclipse member companies often want to have a better understanding of the Eclipse developer community. The survey results helps the Foundation provide a snapshot into what Eclipse developers are doing.
As with all survey data, the Eclipse survey is just one data point and will have certain biases. However, what I find interesting is the trends that begin to emerge between the two different survey points. This is why, I am looking forward to the 2010 results.
The survey should take 5-10 minutes, so I hope you will take the time to complete it now. Deadline for participation is May 15. We will publish a report and the data sometime in June.
btw, as an incentive, one lucky respondent will have a chance to win a pass to Eclipse Summit Europe 2010 or EclipseCon 2010. Five respondents will receive nice new Eclipse SWAG.
