Provide a more visual way to enable the PopCon participation

Bug #55637 reported by Aaron Whitehouse
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
ubiquity (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Wishlist
Colin Watson

Bug Description

The Ubuntu Popularity contest is very useful to Ubuntu.

From: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SimplePopconParticipation
"[It is] used for such purposes as determining which packages to include on Ubuntu CDs and sorting in package management UIs. However, choosing to participate in this program is cumbersome and should be simplified. The more users participate in this effort, the more useful the information is. However, participation cannot be enabled by default for privacy reasons. Thus, we would like to make it simple for the user to opt to participate."

The aim of popcon is to get a statistically unbiased representation of package usage. The current method of enabling popcon (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PopularityContest), and proposed methods (hiding it in the preferences of software sources), essentially mean that popcon only gets data from advanced users. This skewness in the data renders the results of far less use as the sample is biased.

In order to obtain more "clean" data, each (administrative) user should have the same probability of enabling the application.

The logical method by which this aim could be achieved would be to ask the user the first time that Synaptic or Add/Remove is started (unless the user has already enabled it). This would ensure that only those with admin rights would be asked, would ensure that the privacy implications were properly explained but maximise the use of the project.

The message could read:
"<bold>Would you like to participate in the Ubuntu Popularity Contest?</bold>
The Ubuntu Popularity Contest is an easy way to assist the Ubuntu team. By sending us information about what you have installed, we can ensure that we are focusing on the programs that people use most! For more information, please visit: <url to help on popcon>
[x] Enable the Ubuntu Popularity Contest
[ ] Do not enable the Ubuntu Popularity Contest"

Related branches

Revision history for this message
Sebastian Heinlein (glatzor) wrote :

I don't like nag screens. Perhaps a final tab in the installer could be a better place.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse) wrote :

That makes a lot of sense. I too hate nag screens and people are expecting to answer questions in an installer (and may have a more experienced user with them). It also has a big advantage because it would be asked regardless of which package manager Ubuntu settles on.

Matt Zimmerman (mdz)
Changed in ubiquity:
importance: Untriaged → Wishlist
status: Unconfirmed → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse) wrote :

I recently found out that the new (and widely acclaimed) Debian Etch installer includes such a question in the installer. I don't know if that would be of any assistance.

Colin Watson (cjwatson)
Changed in ubiquity:
assignee: nobody → kamion
status: Confirmed → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote :

ubiquity (1.3.8) feisty; urgency=low

  * Depend on python-gtk2 (>= 2.10) for gtk.LinkButton.
  * Move GRUB configuration to a new Advanced... dialog, getting rid of the
    poor UI on the summary page (LP: #63073).
  * Add a popularity-contest participation checkbox to the advanced dialog
    (LP: #55637).
  * Reset hostname_edited (so that it will be automatically generated again)
    if the hostname entry box is emptied.
  * Automatic update of included source packages: console-setup 1.13ubuntu4.
  * Track console-setup 1.13ubuntu4 changes by generating and using
    MyKeyboardNames.pl based on xkb-data, which is more up to date than
    KeyboardNames.pl.

 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Fri, 5 Jan 2007 17:55:56 +0000

Changed in ubiquity:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
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