Toward an Open-Source Methodology: What We Can Learn from the Blogosphere

During the 2004 election campaign, millions of political enthusiasts downloaded poll data on the Internet, while "Weblogs" provided a new forum for commentary on survey methodology. At the same time, traditional public opinion surveys came under pressure from declining cooperation, contact, and coverage rates, and many automated and Internet surveys began to proliferate. This article provides some examples of "blog" commentary on automated and Internet polls and then explores the lessons to be learned from the spirit of innovation and openness of the Internet in evaluating new survey methods such as automated polls and those conducted over the Internet.