Re: Annual Oracle World Database Survey

Daniel Morgan <damorgan_at_exxesolutions.com> wrote in message news:<1062652891.503101_at_yasure>...
> Joel Garry wrote:
>
> >Mark Townsend <markbtownsend_at_attbi.com> wrote in message news:<D1f5b.159402$2x.45327_at_rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net>...
> >
> >
> >>As many of you will know, we (Oracle Database Development) survey the
> >>attendees at Oracle World every year to determine such mind shattering
> >>things as
> >>1) Sizes of databases in use
> >>2) Versions of software in use
> >>3) Options/Features in use
> >>4) Satisfaction with different Functional areas
> >>
> >>This years survey is a little different, in that it is online.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >The survey has some poorly designed sections, particularly in not
> >allowing multiple selections, or requiring an answer without allowing
> >a correct answer.
> >What if you have no dba's? What if you use several different
> >platforms? What if you are a service organization that supports many
> >things?
> >
> >
> >
> >>So you don't have to necessarily BE attending Oracle World if you want
> >>to take part (hint, hint)
> >>
> >>
> >
> >But one has to wonder exactly what you are surveying. Do you even ask
> >if it is important to be backwards compatable?
> >
> >jg
> >--
> >@home.com is bogus.
> >Lies, damned lies, statistics, online surveys.
> >
> >
> On trying to answer the survey questions I am unfortunately required to
> agree. The survey questions are designed to elicit not a bit of accurate
> information except in the most unusual of circumstances.

The more I've thought about it, the more I expect to receive some stupidflashgigantormailclientcrashingspam about six weeks after Oracle World.
I'm tempted to sacrifice a virgin email account as a honeypot to find out if this whole "survey" is just email harvesting. Even the best anti-spam legislation would probably not protect against "prior business relationships."

A bad survey just has that spam smell.

>
> I, for example, answered the questions based on the database I use most
> often. One user, on a laptop, where I instruct university students. I
> could also have answered based on the telecom system I worked on today
> that is an good size AIX system running 9.2.0.3 Enterprise Edition that
> will have thousands of simultaneous users, OLTP and OLAP components,
> etc. And in the case of my personal copy used for instruction ... what
> is my job title? Developer? Yes. DBA? Yes. Instructor? Yes.
>
> I'd suggest fixing that survey before the results get someplace where
> someone might attempt to make a business decision based on the results.

The business decision is getting more obvious to me in retrospect. Harvest email. Make some useless rah-rah presentation at Oracle World. Target-market email. Target-market snail-mail.

jg

--
@home.com is bogus.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20030902-1310-oracle-peoplesoft.html