Survey for Linux users

[jana]

A survey some of you might want to take (link to the survey). From the website:

This research study is being conducted by Don Davis and Iffat Jabeen, graduate students at Texas State University-San Marcos. The purpose of this research is to examine the role and possible benefits of legitimate peripheral participation** and learning in the Gnu/Linux FOSS community.

** Legitimate peripheral participation -- in a nutshell -- is a theoretical framework for understanding how newcomers become experienced members in a community (of practice).

Comments

[feathertail]

What is "peripheral participation," and what makes it legitimate or illegitimate? o.o

[jana]

Legitimate means that someone is 'allowed' to participate in a community; for instance, someone who doesn't like social networks and thus refuses to sign up on dreamwidth can not become an experienced member of the dw community. What is perceived as legitimate or illegitimate depends pretty much on community rules and standards. Here at dw, pretty much anybody can sign up and start participating whereas in, say, a hospital certain requirements must be met first (you need to be a doctor, nurse etc.) before you're allowed to participate in hospital-related activities.

Peripheral participation simply means that someone who is new in a community and who doesn't know the ropes yet is located on the periphery of said community, because of limited knowledge and skills. That person's participation gradually increases in engagement and complexity until s/he, the former newcomer, has become a full part or member of the community. The focus in LLP is on informal learning structures and how knowledge and skills are developed in interaction with other, more experienced people.

Hope that answers your question :)

[feathertail]

Ah, okies ... do you know why in particular they're doing this study? Like, are they trying to justify the presence of newbs to experienced Linux / FOSS community members, or something?

[jana]

I'm not involved in that study in any way, in case that's what you're wondering about (I just stumbled upon the survey and thought someone here might be interested). So I can only guess as to what their purpose is (and I haven't taken the survey myself yet). What I do know is that LPP is a widely accepted framework and is often used to explain informal learning processes, and (informal) learning processes in online communities have become a popular research topic in recent years.

I guess they want to learn more about how and to what extent people new to Linux get involved in the Linux community, who their interact with, where they can find useful information, how and to what extent more experienced users help the newbs, etc.