[Foundation-l] Attribution survey, first results

[Phil Nash]

Gregory Kohs wrote:
>> *phoebe ayers* phoebe.wiki at gmail.com writes:
>>
>> ++++++
>> I'm not sure there's any way to get a non-self-selected survey about
>> anything on the projects due to anonymity concerns.
>> ++++++
>>
>> I'm a 17-year veteran of implementing professional quantitative
>> survey research.  Self-selection bias is a very complicated study,
>> but there are some fairly accessible and intuitive techniques one
>> may implement to create a thoughtful survey of a target population
>> which minimizes self-selection bias concerns.  This allows the
>> stakeholders to focus on the challenge of deriving meaning from the
>> response data rather than feeling nausea over the sampling
>> methodology.
>>
>> I am willing to give, pro bono, 45 minutes of telephone consulting
>> time to any Wikimedia Foundation staff member who is attached to
>> this particular survey project, on the condition that they will be
>> open and attentive to the possibility that a properly-designed and
>> fairly-executed survey may not return results that foster their
>> preconceived desires

Except of course, that such a survey would arguably not have "preconceived 
desires". So much for empiricism!