Multimedia:Initial survey

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We are considering the possibility of running an online survey in order to answer specific questions that we have.

Several options are considered:

An online survey (typically using our LimeSurvey setup)
A quantitative statistical analysis of data already available, coupled to a qualitative open venue (typically, a (set of) wiki pages)
A mix of the above.

This page is about the online survey. See Multimedia:Preliminary user research for more information.

[edit] Target

All Commons users (sitenotice for registered and unregistered users)
Registered Wikimedia users

[edit] Schedule

The goal is to have some data before the Meeting in Paris (6-8 November 2009). The fundraising team needs the sitenotice starting November 2nd. We have a very short window of 1 week (26 October - 1 November), which means translating the survey in 2-3 days. We should be able to translate it in major languages (French, German, Spanish...) but it will probably not be possible to wait for many other languages.

[edit] Online survey

The survey is now being translated at meta. Please do not edit it any more except to fix grammar/spelling. Thank you!

English text

[edit] Results

[edit] Preliminary analysis

Reasons for looking up files in Commons (or not).

The survey run during three days and was linked from all Wikimedia websites for logged-in users; it was available in 20 languages. During that time, 25,150 complete responses to the questionnaire were recorded.

2/3 of the respondents declare using Commons (users), 1/3 declare they do not (non users)
The #1 reason for searching Commons is to illustrate Wikipedia or another Wikimedia project (more than half the users). The #2 reason is to use media files offline.
The #1 reason for not using Commons is that respondents simply do not know about Commons (70% of non users) (!).
More than half the users declare they participate in Commons (participants, 60% of users), the others declare they do not (non participants).
Half the participants uploaded less than 10 files to Commons (!). 1/3 uploaded between 10 and 100 files.
The #1 reason for participating in Commons is to illustrate Wikipedia or another Wikimedia project (2/3 of the users).
The first three reasons for not participating in Commons seem to come from a lack of appeal/coolness from Commons (!). Technical or licensing complexity come last.

[edit] Preliminary conclusions

The most striking finding is that Commons is not very well known across Wikimedia projects: 25% of all respondents declare not knowing what Commons is. It is not very appealing, or "cool" either. Most of the people who declare they don't participate say it's because they have other priorities, or they're not interested, rather than because of the technical or legal complexity (although both sides are obviously linked).

Only 37% of respondents declare participating in Commons. Their primary goal appears to be to illustrate Wikipedia or another Wikimedia project. They do so mostly by uploading new photographs, however only occasionally: half of the participants declare they have uploaded less than ten media files to Commons. They rarely involve themselves in other, more "internal" activities. This finding is also supported by the statement from participants that they are interested in Commons, but they have other priorities.

This preliminary analysis also shows the need for a large-scale communication and outreach campaign. Obviously, in order to facilitate the perennial recruitment of new participants, this campaign should be started only after significant usability improvements have been made.

Limits of this preliminary analysis

based only on rough results (no correlation made between answers; see Factor analysis)
assuming the respondents understood the intended meaning of the questions
assuming the respondents told the truth
overrepresentation of en.wikipedia
only for logged-in users