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Bits and pieces from the Crowd Scientists
Ray Poynter on the Future of Online Panels
Ray Poynter posts an analysis of an article in the current edition of ESOMAR's Research World that looks at possible reforms to the provision of quantitative sample.
Online access panels cannot be used for random probability sampling. As we fully digest this information we will start to explore alternatives. Both alternative paradigms and alternative sources.
In ten years I think we will be doing far fewer quantitative surveys with panel members. I think we will be interacting more with custom communities and finding ways of reaching people who are not on panels or communities (for example customers, Facebook, LinkedIn).I agree with Ray. I think panels will become smaller and more specialized, and we'll see a shift to newer techniques, including social network and community-based research, which tends toward the qualitative side, and intelligent probability sampling (the technique that Crowd Science uses).
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