[gnso-ff-pdp-may08] The need for facts

["Mike O'Connor" <mike@xxxxxxxxxx>]

i'd like to kick off another conversation (in Sunday morning, 
drinking-coffee, lowercase, informal mode).
a fair amount of the conversation on the list so far has been 
"solution" oriented.  but it seems to me that before we get to 
solutions, we need to understand the problem we're trying to solve a 
lot better than we do now.
facts people, we need facts.   sure, there are a lot of dire things 
that happen on the Internet (and in the larger world as well).  but 
sometimes they don't happen very often, or don't happen to very many 
people, or don't really cause much damage, or are cheap and quick to 
fix, etc.  without some facts, it's hard to tell which problems are 
really worth focusing on.
so i'm going to use this thread to pose a little series of 
hypothetical questions...
for any "problem statement" (or "solution statement") that we make;

1) what facts would we need in order to understand its scale and scope?

2) where could we get those facts?

3) are the statistics being collected now?   how well -- is the data credible?

4) if they're being collected, is the person/organization willing to 
share them?
5) if they're not being collected now, what's the best place to get 
them and is it worth it to go after them?
i'm feeling quite fact-starved in our dialog so far, and (in off-list 
conversations) so are others.
we've handed out an Action Item to Dave, Rod and Greg to head out 
into their respective communities and gather up the facts that they 
can.   i'm feeling the urgency/need for this -- how's it going 
lads?  can we have a first-viewing of the pile of facts by our call 
this Friday?
in some of the 425 prior jobs/careers i've had, i've used a little 
aphorism as guide.
                       "that which gets measured, gets done."

i'd like a side-order of facts to go with my morning coffee, please...  :-)

thanks,

m


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