Dear all,Thank you so much for participating in the first round of the online survey. Currently,We have a ~30% response rate, butWe need a 60%-80% response rateThis means…We need 1,500 NEW/more NS members to take the survey, andPlease complete your survey if you have not finished yet (Old answers are saved so you do not have to do double work) Question 29 is key for our research – Please fill in your username! (Otherwise I cannot identify you on the NS social network map)Here is the link to the survey: http://www.revolens.de/Surveys//TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=4L06o3KLlp8KGAmong all the completed answers, we raffle $25 iPod gift certificates.Thank you very much for your time and effort!!Best,Thomas & cko... if you want to know more, please continue reading*********************************************************************** Background InformationI know that taking the survey took/takes away your time and sometimes became/becomes a pretty “boring” exercise. However, the survey is an excellent opportunity toBetter understand the NS community with respect to impact and outreach into the global snowsports industry, and toDraw conclusions on how communication, information sharing, and idea generation on the NS website can be improved in the future. In total, today, we have had 952 respondents to the survey. During the period, where the survey was online, 3,000 NS members (in average per day) visited http://newschoolers.com.The first picture on the left depicts the development of users that were online per day during the first six days of the survey period. The second picture on the right shows the number of respondents to the survey over time (first twelve days).SummaryBy increasing the response rate, we could reduce the amount of “islands”, which we have in the network map right now. I refer to “islands” as NS members who have taken the survey (see green circles below), but where their network contacts haven’t taken the survey (see red circles below) yet. This, in turn, skews the network map and we haven’t got the full picture. I am sure that there are far more connections among disconnected subgroups than the network map depicts right now. However, as long as some of the active NS members do not take the survey (red circles), I cannot identify all the connections in the NS social network.Next StepsIt would therefore be great, if you had the time to go to the survey again and answer the questions, which you have not answered yet. If you have entered the survey at least once, the survey software will recognize you, so that you won’t have to fill out all the questions again.In the upcoming days, I will try to get in touch with each one of you who has been online on NS during the survey period and did not take the survey individually (IM). By sending the link to you, I’ll ask you to take the survey. In doing so, I hope to motivate you to take the time and complete the survey. Please help me to raise the response rate and get a fully fledged image of the NS community!!

 Here is the link to the survey: http://www.revolens.de/Surveys//TakeSurvey.asp?SurveyID=4L06o3KLlp8KGMost Common Issues/QuestionsWhen you decide to take the survey, please go through it all the way to page 12, and answer question 29 properly (with your NS username as the ALIAS). Question 29 is the ALIAS question and the most important question for the NS network mapping. Without your username, I cannot locate you in the NS network map!!! So please, go through the survey and fill in your NS username/NS Alias in question 29!Here is a list of the most common questions/issues I encountered during the first phase of the survey• Some of you entered “myAlias” in question 29 (“What is the ALIAS name you are using on http://newschoolers.com?”) instead of your real ALIAS. Please use your real NS alias/username such as “freeheel_hard” or “cko”.• The network questions (e.g., 4-6) ask for distinct NS member names. Please do not fill in things like “The guy from my ski shop” or “The instructor from the summer camp” • We raffle four $25 iPod gift certificates among those members, who have taken the survey and where I was able to identify the usernames. We will announce the winners of the raffle as well as the results of the survey in another posting on the NS homepageThank you very much again for taking the time to go through the survey!