Workshop on Internet Survey Methodology and Web Demographics

January 29-30, 1996

Cambridge, MA

Organized by

• Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
• Laboratory for Computer Science
• Political Science Department

• World Wide Web Consortium

This call for participation is at:

http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Demographics/960129_Workshop/

and

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/conferences/survey96/cfp.html

The explosive growth of the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web, has caught the attention of media researchers, advertisers and political organizers. All major Presidential campaigns have already established sites on the World Wide Web with press releases, news clips, position papers, and opportunities for participation. Surveys and Web logging tools are used for commercial and political marketing.

The goal of this two-day workshop is to evaluate the current state of the art in measurement of online demographics and suggest future directions. The workshop will assemble a select group of survey and media researchers, methodologists, and Web technologists who will focus on techniques for online surveying and server logging. Particular attention will be paid to methodologies for analysis and interpretation of results.

1. What can learned from online surveys, focus groups, or log analyses?
2. How reliable are the survey and logging techniques?
3. How can online findings be projected to the general population or specific sectors?
4. What distortions in surveying and logging are caused by the current Internet and Web protocols and what protocol extensions are needed?
5. Are ethical issues raised by this activity, and what might be needed to protect individual rights?
6. What tools and methodologies are likely to be relevant in 1996?
7. What are the trust models for surveys and log analysis?
8. What extensions to web protocols could ease these problems?

On the first day, presentations will:

• Review current practice in online surveying and server logging.
• Offer proposals for protocol extensions in support of these activities.

The second day will involve presentations and breakout sessions on:

• Methodologies for analysis and interpretation of results.
• Requirements for extending protocol functionality.

The outcome of the workshop may include a proceedings and working groups that:

• Develop guidelines for conducting and interpreting online surveys;
• Recommend extensions to common World Wide Web Protocols to enhance surveying and tracking by servers in ethically appropriate ways.

Proposals for presentations can be about implemented survey systems, log analysis tools, or special algorithms for analyzing them. We are interested in both commercial products and development systems and want to include a representative sample of different measuring systems, and methodologies for evaluating their findings. For your reference, some systems and studies are listed at:

Survey Methodology: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/iiip/conferences/survey96/resources.html
Web Demographics: http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Demographics/

Statements of positions, that are not presentations of systems, should clearly address the goals of the workshop, making a case either for a particular technology or a methodology.

Program Committee (in formation)

Tim Berners-Lee

World Wide Web Consortium

Jim Conaghan

Newspaper Association of America

Ed Goeas

Tarrance Group

Stanley B. Greenberg

Greenberg Research, Inc.

Dave Harkness

A. G. Nielsen Company

Evelyn Hepner

Audit Bureau of Circulations

Roger Hurwitz

Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Massachussets Institute of Technology

Marion Just

Political Science Department
Wellesley College

David R. Karger

Laboratory for Computer Science
Massachussets Institute of Technology

John C. Mallery

Artificial Intelligence Laboratory & Political Science Department
Massachussets Institute of Technology

Roberta McConochie

The Arbitron Company

J. Walker Smith

Yankelovich Partners, Inc.

Philip J. Stone

The Gallup Organization &
Psychology Department
Harvard University

Other members to be confirmed.

Instructions and Schedule

Participation will be by invitation only based on statements of interest.

• Presentation: To submit a proposal, please send an extended abstract of no more than 1000 words describing your interests, current activity, and proposed presentation before January 2, 1995. Submissions should be sent by email to workshop-present@wilson.ai.mit.edu.

• Attendance: To attend the workshop only, please send an abstract of less than 500 words describing your current activity, affiliation, and position statement before January 2, 1995. These should should be sent by email to workshop-attend@wilson.ai.mit.edu.

All submissions will be reviewed by the program committee. Invitations to present or attend will be sent by January 8, 1995.

The workshop will be held at the Cambridge Center Marriott Hotel, which is in the immediate vicinity of MIT. The hotel is offering a discounted rate of $129 per night to workshop attendees, for the nights of January 28 and 29. Details about reservations and cut off dates will be sent with the invitations to the workshop.

Further Information

Please address questions scope or content of workshop to the chair and questions about organization to the Workshop Coordinator:

Workshop Coordinator:

TBD (workshop-coordinator@wilson.ai.mit.edu)

Chair:

TBD (workshop-chair@wilson.ai.mit.edu)