[Swarm Announce] [SWARM USER SURVEY]

[Sven Thommesen]

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With this year's SwarmFest coming up soon, the SDG would greatly appreciate 
feedback from the Swarm user community to guide our work in the time ahead. 
We would like to know (a) how you rate various aspects of Swarm as it is 
today; (b) which aspects of Swarm you most urgently would like to see 
improved; and (c) what additional features or functionality you would like 
to see added to Swarm. Filling out the survey should take no more than 
10-15 minutes.

Please return this survey to me at <mailto:address@hidden>, rather than 
to the list. I will summarize and edit the responses, and present them at 
SwarmFest. They will also be presented on the Swarm list. Please respond to 
the survey whether you intend to participate at SwarmFest or not -- but 
most especially if you won't be there!

Feel free to submit answers on behalf of groups where appropriate.

Thank you for your participation!

Your "random" SDG board member,
Sven Thommesen

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SECTION 1: Rating the current version of Swarm

For each of the items below, please indicate on a scale of 0 - 10 (10 best) 
how satisfied you are with this aspect of Swarm. For completeness, if you 
have no opinion on an item indicate "-1" as your answer.

a) Installation: how easy is it
        Answer: [ ]
b) Installation: number of platforms supported
        Answer: [ ]
c) Documentation: the quality of the installation guide
        Answer: [ ]
d) Documentation: the quality of the Reference Guide (API)
        Answer: [ ]
e) Documentation: the quality of the User Guide
        Answer: [ ]
f) Documentation: the quality/usefulness of Paul Johnson's FAQ
        Answer: [ ]
g) Documentation: the quality/usefulness of the sample programs
        Answer: [ ]
h) Overall support: the timeliness of the answers provided
        Answer: [ ]
i) Overall support: the quality of the answers provided
        Answer: [ ]
j) Support: the quality of installation support
        Answer: [ ]
k) Support: the quality of help debugging user problems
        Answer: [ ]
l) Support: the quality of answers to programming questions
        Answer: [ ]
m) Support: the quality of answers to modelling questions
        Answer: [ ]
n) the Software: how easy is it to use?
        Answer: [ ]
o) the Software: how much does it help you understand your modelling problem?
        Answer: [ ]
p) the Software: the core Swarm functionality
        Answer: [ ]
q) the Software: the random library
        Answer: [ ]
r) the Software: the GUI functionality
        Answer: [ ]
s) the Software: the integration with R and hdf
        Answer: [ ]
t) the Software: the integration / ease of use with scheduling packages 
such as Drone
        Answer: [ ]


SECTION 2: Aspects most in need of improvement

Please list up to 3 aspects of Swarm that you feel are in the greatest need 
of improvement. (Do not feel limited by the list above, if you have 
additional concerns.) For each, indicate by a weight from 1 to 10 how 
urgent the item listed is to you.

        Answer: [ ]
        Answer: [ ]
        Answer: [ ]


SECTION 3: Comparing Swarm to other simulation packages

If you have experience using one of the other agent-based modelling 
environments that are available (Ascape, RePast, AgentSheets, StarLogo, or 
others), please describe how you feel Swarm stacks up against the other 
package(s) you have used, in any of the dimensions listed in (1).

        Answer: [ ]


SECTION 4: Future Swarm development

Please describe what additional features, functionality, or technologies 
you would like to see added to Swarm in the future. For each item you 
suggest, please add a weight (1-10) to indicate how important this feature 
is to you.

        Answer: [ ]


If Swarm were a commercial package, what do you feel would be a fair price 
for a copy? (Consider that Mathematica and Mathcad sell for about $1500, 
while good Discrete Event simulation packages sell for thousands of 
dollars.) NO, we're not saying Swarm is even likely to go commercial; this 
is just another way to get a line on Swarm's value to the user community!

        Answer: [ ]


SECTION 5: Tell us about yourself

A. How long have you been using Swarm?
        Answer: [ ]

B. Are you using Swarm chiefly for personal use, for academic research, or 
for commercial development?
        Answer: [ ]

C. At the place where you do your modelling, how many people are involved 
in Swarm modelling?
        Answer: [ ]

D. Which language versions of Swarm have you used: Objective-C, Java, or both?
        Answer: [ ]

E. How many different models (simulations) have you written using Swarm?
        Answer: [ ]

F. The name of your institution, group or company (optional):
        Answer: [ ]

G. Your name (optional):
        Answer: [ ]

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