

Ask HN: Would you benefit from a GitHub like survey tool? - cocobolo

I like survey tools from some reason, Typeform and sruveymonkey. It helps in collecting data on a wide range of tasks from market research to planning trips.
What is lacking in these tools is its &quot;closedness&quot;, there is a lot of data out there that could be useful to many but with a limited view.
I want to therefore build a tool that is completely based on the sharing model.
Your suggestions as always are valuable.
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diggan
I'm not sure if I understand what "closedness" means for you. Basically, you
would like to build a platform for creating surveys/forms and then all the
surveys/forms would share the data between them, creating data that is open
for everyone?

Would this be a completely open project or something you're planning to
monetize?

Quick disclaimer, I work at Typeform

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cocobolo
@diggan, hello. Apologies for the english. I'm not sure what you mean by
"sharing data between them". What I really meant was survey whose results are
accessible to everyone, I understand that some surveys like HR surveys are
meant to be private, but for many other people would like to know what other
people have answered in certain surveys like market research.

I have not even begun sketching this project yet, but I would have to consider
both options for the kind of path this project would take.

Since you work at Typeform, I would like to ask a few questions(If you are
willing). I'm not a heavy typeform user so some points might not be relevant.

I understand that Typeform is mostly centered towards the UX, but could it be
beneficial to add feature for a markdown like syntax as an alternative to
WYSIWYG, partly because I'm a power user and otherwise the interface is too
laggy.

As far as reporting/analytics goes, Typeform is not very useful. I would love
to see something like cross-tabs where you can cross multiple metrics to
derive data. Yes writing a generic solution would be hard for this problem I
think! it would be great to see something like this. As otherwise it is
difficult to derive answers for questions like, what is the % of people who
like trekking and would love to go to the moon?

This would be another benefit of using textual syntax, as users can point out
with the DSL what metrics can be crossed and what cannot be.

This is just my feedback! I have a some other points, I would be happy to
answer any queries you have and would love to hear what you have to say.

Have a great day.

~~~
diggan
No worries about the language, at this point, I think I understand what you're
out after...

We have a API that is currently in MVP stage (very early) that you can access
to create typeforms by POSTing JSON to our endpoint. You can get access to it
today by going here:
[http://typeform.io/landing/](http://typeform.io/landing/)

We think that by leveraging the creation of typeforms and collection of
results via API, you can build your own, customized backend on top of Typeform
I/O and you'll be able to do all the things you're looking for.

Shoot me an email at victor@typeform.com if you have any questions you'd like
to discuss privately. Otherwise, I hope I answered your questions.

~~~
cocobolo
Thanks! I think that makes sense. I should definitely check this out.

