Academic research

First link should be -

If you are reading this and didn't just post your original as a hit-and-run, your survey totally fails to take into consideration the number of people who own pattern-drafting software and use it to create patterns. I found it quite difficult to find an accurate answer a number of questions in your multiple-choice concept, but it probably will give you funny results on your survey. I did, however, leave a comment at the end about pattern-drafting software.

If you want to research commercially-available customized patterns, you should research the companies already out there doing this and see if they are doing well or not.

I was not interested in volunteering "...10-15 min.." of my valuable time to a first-time poster asking for 'our' help with its commercial(?) project. YMMV

Beverly

Well, I was curious enough to see what the focus of the survey was.

Different strokes for different folks.. ;-)

I always run a search on an unknown-to-me poster's nym to see if they have contributed *anything* previously *to* the group. If they haven't I ignore them.

Beverly

Then how did you happen to see that other post with a link was to an eBay page? :-)

Then there's the whole issue of self-selected survey participants and invalid statistics...

I "see" them, I just (usually) don't respond *to* them. In the case of the eBay shill, I was just a tiny bit intrigued by the subject line, and wanted to see what it was about. However, it just proved the veracity of my usual rule. ;-}

Beverly

Ooookay.......

.com/~bernardschopen/

I'll try to reply all the things here:

@Samanth Hill, There are of course some MTM pattern software out-there including the newly released Bernina's MyLabel. However, these software are negligible if you consider the 'usual' companies.

@BEI Design, Not commercial. The survey is anonymous and no publicity/ spamming/ soliciting is done there.

@Pogonip, Link to e-bay?! I've linked to my online portfolio and to a post in Fashion-Incubator. Those links are there so people who don't know me - as most of the world probably doesn't ;) =96 that my interest in this subject is there for several years now.

You can find me posting mostly in Fashion-Incubator and PatternReview. I agree it wasn't very groups-friendly of me to write the first post and 'run' but since I plan to publish the survey findings, I thought it would be interesting enough for the community.

Ever heard of Pattern Master Boutique?

Riiight, and you'll be giving away the results of your research?

Another thread on another group. Joanne and I know what she was referring to.

Will the published results be given away free? No? Then, it *is* a "commercial" endeavor.

Beverly

I am glad to see you came back! Hang around for a while and get to know us!

Your survey still failed to include the possiblity of people already using pattern-drafting software, whether it's software that lets you design your own patterns or software that has one or more specific patterns that you can print in your own size. It would really be to your benefit to factor that into your survey or else to exclude those people who primarily use pattern-drafting software of some sort, otherwise your results will be based on false premises.

If you have done your homework and know for sure that usage of pattern-drafting software is negligible, then in order to obtain truly useful information, you need to exclude those people. If you haven't, then you ought to provide an option for them to indicate that they already use what you are trying to research.

There are a large number of people on this list who use pattern-drafting software and/or more independent designers and very few Big 3 pattern companies. For such as person, answering your survey is a confusing process with all the questions that don't really apply and will make your survey results somewhat inaccurate because of the necessity of using "best guess" method to choose the "least incorrect" answer instead of choosing the "most correct" answer.

Beverly, Yes, I am going to publish - free of charge - the results. I'm a true believer in the open-source concept. My plan is to close the poll on 1- SEP. but if you still find it hard to believe, I'd be happy to share the current results with you - that simple :)

Samantha, I must agree with you. Thanks for explaining your point - I've added this option in the survey (the longer version). I think my mistake is that I assumed people coming to the survey will not be aware enough to the MTM options. In a way this mistake is coming from the fact that I used to work in OptiTex for many years, and even pattern makers were not aware pf the MTM concept. The whole idea of the work is coming from this experience - from the question are people really ready to except the technologies?

Thanks for the invitation to stay - I think I'll accept it :)

How trustworthy is your "academic research" going to be if you don't know the difference between "accept" and "except"?

sb

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Amitai, I'm wondering if your confusion is related to cultural or language differences but this is considered to be market research. Iow, no, you're not charging a fee but you intend to use the results of discovery for profit minded purposes. Sure, your project may benefit people who may choose to take advantage of it but this is a place people come to enjoy their hobbies and past times so it is considered to be very inappropriate. People are fatigued with marketing so in an enthusiast environment, people will resent it. It's nothing personal.

As Beverly mentioned, there are other options for custom drafted patterns. There is also a service similar to one you hope to start (after collecting your market data). I reviewed one service called String Codes

Well, English isn't my first language - Hebrew is. Don't you agree there is a difference between writing a post and writing a work?

My apologies, I didn't realize you were not an English speaker. Had you posted from your own ISP (@bezeqint.net) instead of google-groups-gmail it might have alerted me to your location.

sb

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SB, No problem :)

Excuse me, but SB, you are posting through a web-based access yourself! What's the difference between Google.com and sewgirls.com other than that Google offers a lot more?