NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/educatio/4402

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-19 | 1.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!uwm.edu!biosci!agate!rsoft!mindlink!a269
From: [e-mail] (Mischa Sandberg)
Newsgroups: misc.education
Subject: Re: Usage of Online Campaign Materials
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 20 Nov 92 00:00:54 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (Usenet)
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
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Does anyone else on the net have the same serious questions as I do,
as to who exactly benefits from the results of such a survey? Beyond
a bit of transient, "Wow! I never knew so much/little political stuff moved
through the net", novelty news?

There can be little doubt that political organizations would be thrilled to
find yet one more medium to flood/manipulate. I would like to know what,
if any, compensatory benefits the USERS of the net could realize from
such a survey (hey! maybe they'll begin distributing free coupons for
upholstery cleaning, like all the other surveys).

Working in a business where very subtle means are used to develop
precise demographics, I'd take as less than benign ANY such survey,
even by an ostensibly unaffiliated research group. Every time a gas
station attendant puts your license plate no on a visa slip; every
time you make a purchase in the Safeway "Air Miles" program; you are
adding to a database. And (at least in the consumer goods world), the
typical use for such a database is not to make sure your personal
preferences are kept in stock; it is to determine what the minimum number
of products is required to cover the most sales. But I digress.
--
Mischa Sandberg ... [e-mail]
                 or uunet!van-bc!rsoft!mindlink!Mischa_Sandberg
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Engineers think equations are an approximation of reality.
Physicists think reality is an approximation of the equations.
Mathematicians never make the connection.