Re: Boston Globe Survey

[johnlb@Primenet.Com (John Bowling)]

I removed the gno and programmer newsgroup as inappropriate.

Surveys such as this are always slanted.  If they could be conducted with
a accurate cross section of all people, it could be realistic.  There are,
with all surveys, a slanting because of the group that is selected.  If
you want to know the opinion of a computer company, you have to also get
opinions from people who don't use computers.  Having a survey just on the
internet will slant the survey to match the quantities of people on
internet who are using that computer system.

If I asked everyone in the A2 newsgroups about IBM's there would be very
few who liked IBM's.  And vice versa in the IBM newsgroups.

If the internet survey were about who likes specific nationalities of 
food, it could still be slanted because, in general, computer users are in
a higher income bracket than non-computer users, and thus their likes in
food may be slanted towards more expensive foods.  And if the same survey
were given among the homeless, the result may be vastly different.

John

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- John Bowling          -- Did anyone notice the recent switch by the
- johnlb@primenet.com   -- southern baptists to become anti-christians?
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