Seeking BlackBerry users for usage study

Hello,

My name is Earl Oliver. I am a Ph.D. candidate in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. I am conducting a study to understand how BlackBerry users interact withtheir devices. Understanding how users interact with their devices is fundamental to the design of systems thatutilize periods of non-usage to exchange information with other devices using opportunistic wireless communication.

To participate in this study, you may load a simple application on to your BlackBerry smartphone. This application runs as a background process that recordswhen the device�s screen is turned on or off, and when the device is plugged into a power source for charging. The application is totally non-invasive and will not affect your use of the device. You may withdraw from the study at any time by revoking your consent to participate in the study, or by uninstalling the application from your device.

The application periodically uploads logs that contain an anonymous usage pattern. Usagelogs contain no personal or identifying information.

To participate in this study, install the application by entering the following URL into your BlackBerry browser:

blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/eaoliver/blackberry/Usage.jad

For more information on this study, please visit:

blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/eaoliver/smartphone_usage.html

You may also contact Earl Oliver at +1 519-574-6512 or eaoliver at uwaterloo dot ca

This project has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance though, the Office of Research Ethics at the University of Waterloo. You may contact this office at +1 519-888-4567 ext. 36005 if you have any concerns or questions resulting from your involvement in this study.

did you get clearance from kevin for this? :rolleyes:

No, I didn't know that I needed it. How should I request clearance?

Earl

email the admins or pm one of the mods. Just to make sure everything is on the up and up. Not saying its not a legit survey but you never know. Better to be safe than sorry. ;)

Earl,

I don't mind participating, but how much data does this eat up when uploading the logs ???? I only have 50 megs free per month.

Thanks for the tip. Will do!

Originally Posted by mexiken

Earl,

I don't mind participating, but how much data does this eat up when uploading the logs ???? I only have 50 megs free per month.

It takes about 25 - 35 KB per month. The application tells you exactly how much you have uploaded.

Earl

Cool, I'll give it a whirl.

Cool. I will give it a shot.

Will this program automatically load, or does it have to be started after every battery pull/reset?

Originally Posted by brentoli

Will this program automatically load, or does it have to be started after every battery pull/reset?

It starts automatically and when in the background it only runs when the screen turns on and off. It's totally event driven by callbacks in the OS, so you'll never notice it.

Earl

Can you post the source so paranoid users like me can know it isn't malicious and report back to the community in general?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I've uploaded the source code for the logging thread to:

blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/eaoliver/BacklightLogger.java

Cool, thanks. :)

Ok, had a browse through it and it looks good. Nothing hidden.

Sorry for being so paranoid, but I like to know what does on my device. I am not in the habit of installing random apps from just anyone. ;)

Yeah, the app is pretty simple. The app writes little log files that are in a "log" directory on your SDCard or local file system. The application uploads the logs every week and shows exactly how many bytes have been uploaded (very few).

Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate any help I can get.

Earl

Originally Posted by eaoliver

Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate any help I can get.

Earl

Are you sharing the results with the crackberry community?

-M

Of course. I've setup a mailing list on my website for people to subscribe to for updates. The data is anonymous, so I'm happy to share it with anyone that wants it.

Earl