Seeking Advice Regarding the 2010 TeraGrid User Survey SAB Meeting Tuesday July 21, 2009 Sergiu Sanielevici, GIG AD for User Support

2010 User Survey Planned for March GIG and TGF seek your advice regarding: –What we should ask, e.g. satisfaction (past) vs. requirements (future) –Whom we should ask, e.g. active users? prospective users? past users? community at large? specific disciplines and demographics? –Who should craft the survey, administer it, and analyze the outcome e.g. TG staff? Independent polling organization? Academic team specializing in evaluating impact of technology on scientific research? –How we should ask : default is online form e.g. surveymonkey, but is some other approach preferable?

TG User Surveys in 2008 and 2009 Satisfaction survey with open-ended opportunities to offer comments and suggestions GIG subcontracted the development and administration to an independent pollster at U Colorado GIG provided the “layman’s formulation” of the questions; the pollster formulated the actual questionnaire and refined it by means of pilot face to face interviews with a subset of users GIG provided a list of ~2500 TG users, both SU-consuming and not. The pollster sent inviting them to complete the survey online. In 2009, $10 gift certificates are awarded to all respondents who completed the survey (answered all questions). In 2008, there was no material incentive offered. During the 3 weeks the survey was open in June 2009, we got 595 respondents vs. 349 respondents during a 3-week period in October 2008.

Should 2010 be different? You have the 2008 final report, the question/response tables for 2008 and 2009, as well as the June 2009 open-ended comments. How helpful do you think this process and its outcome would be for getting the user feedback we need in 2010, including the transition to XD and other strategic issues you are investigating? What alternatives, if any, do you suggest?