There seems to be more and more surveys done on web development, web applications, content management systems and web developers themselves. This might possibly be a good thing. Surveys are a way of questioning the way things are done. The outcome of many surveys effect how businesses and other groups see web development as a profession. If we use the results of the many surveys to self govern the web developer profession then it is a good thing. But if we choose to try and influence the results of a survey to prove a point or to promote our own personal views on a particular subject or software then, surveys are only as valuable as the bytes that they are written in.

Always after the bell

If you are like me you only see these surveys after they are done and the results are posted. For some reason I never get notified about them beforehand so that I can participate. Maybe one of the subjects of a survey should be on "How to better market a survey".

Some of the surveys you can participate in are:

• A List Apart - the survey for people who make websites
• Drupal - state of Drupal 2008 : help shape the future of Drupal
• TheServerSide.com 2008 Java Trends Survey

Not a long list I know. If you know of more surveys that concern web developers, web publisher or content management systems please contact us to have them listed here. After all a survey is only a dependable source of information if the target group knows about the survey and participates in it.

Ask and improve

Many CMS projects would do well to have such surveys. Two of which come to mind are Xoops and Xaraya. Both of these open source PHP CMS projects have horrible websites and could do with a make over to improve the visitor experience. A survey on what changes need to be made within the websites infrastructure is always a good place to start.

Happy Publishing!

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