Modifying GNOME-About to count users

[John Williams <jwilliams business otago ac nz>]

Hello all

We in the GNOME Marketing team (http://live.gnome.org/MarketingTeam)
have been discussing ways to estimate the number of GNOME users
worldwide.  A summary of our discussions can be found at
http://live.gnome.org/CountingUsers.

Essentially we propose modifying the GNOME About box to include a toggle
that indicate the user's permission to activate a program that would
periodically contact a central GNOME server.   Information that would be
transmitted and recorded has not been decided yet, but the prime
requirement is to record the number of current GNOME users (not
installations) on a (say) monthly basis.

Gathering further information, such as country, GNOME version,
distribution, etc. is currently being mooted.  Feel free to record your
thoughts on the wiki.  I am sending this message to this list on the
advice of Vincent Untz.  If anyone can suggest others who should be
contacted, please let me know.

cheers,

John

http://live.gnome.org/JohnWilliams