2/25/2010

Research Survey

I have to be careful how I discuss this, because I don't want to influence the results of the survey I take, but I need to set my thoughts in order regarding my survey. I'm going to be doing a survey to examine viral messaging habits on various platforms and to produce a picture of the average user who sends these messages. Obviously, I can't discuss the actual structure of the survey here.

Which is frustrating, because that is one of the areas I am having a lot of difficulty with. I'm also not sure how I want to distribute my survey. I have considered using Survey Monkey, but I'm not sure I will be able to convince my subjects to go use it. Which is a pity, I've heard it's great software for just this sort of thing. I've also considered using Facebook to distribute, but frankly it doesn't seem that people spend much time communicating on Facebook. It seems like it is mostly dedicated to broadcasting messages of your own, or more commonly playing poorly designed, scammy games. I don't have enough reach on Twitter or Buzz, so that's out as well. I suspect I'll be distributing via sneakernet.

I'm really slammed at the moment with the two express classes that are wrapping up next week, but I'd really like to have a good draft of my survey done by the end of the weekend. I then hope to beg, wheedle and plead for help from a few classmates in my American National Government class who are taking statistics. This sort of thing really falls far outside my purview, though I don't regret stating that I would do this when I sold my topic. Working outside of your comfort zone is something I think you really ought to be doing as a college student.