In university marketing, entrepreneurship, statistics or sociology classes (pretty much any class dealing w/ social science ) students seem to always be conducting surveys for some product/topic or another. Beyond classes, individuals/groups/researchers (excluding marketers/gov agencies) are always conducting surveys for something.

But I wonder, what happens with all this data once the class/project is done? Published in an obscure journal no one reads? Handed in as an assignment, forever stashed away on a professor's shelf?

That data might be useful for someone: journalists, entrepreneurs, marketers, companies, even researchers.

I propose an open marketplace for anyone to find, post or request survey data.

Kind of like an appstore for survey data, I could search for surveys/data based on the parameters I need: topic, sample size, demographic, etc.
-- goodmars, Dec 18 2009

I really like the idea of open repositories for social science data. It must be very often that someone more clever than the data collector can pull more meaning from the data. [+] It would need some standards about reporting methods and something akin to IRB oversight.
-- swimswim, Dec 18 2009


I think before implementint this idea, you should implement a survey of survey-takers: their privacy standards, criminal history, qualifications, post-survey usage for information, etc. Then implement feedback standards: do you want your finformation to be fed to other polls, plus an individualized list of the other polls your answers are going to, how their questions are going to be answered by yours, and make your info/answers available on an "opt in" basis, plus postage-paid both ways and a small stipend for the time you take.

Do you see that happening ? I don't.
-- FlyingToaster, Dec 18 2009


//journalists// "Latest form OpenSurvey: Women with naturally brunette hair and a second toe longer than their first are more likely to die from lightning strike than those with more than two children!!"

Also add "financiers" to [FT]'s list. Using research that's already been done is always cheaper than doing it yourself, but only reliable if it's objective. Ensuring this is on an open source database is tricky.
-- shudderprose, Dec 18 2009



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