Re: [dow2tf] Whois tf 2 survey - clearing up confusion

["Jordyn A. Buchanan" <jbuchanan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Milton:

Actually, the intention of the task force to allow responses from the  
general community, constituency representatives, as well as the  
constituencies as a whole in the form of more coordinated responses.   
In fact, the cover sheet on the questionnaire (approved by the task  
force) is quite explicit in this regard:

> Although these questions have been distributed to each of the
> GNSO constituencies, the task force would be glad to receive responses
> from any individuals or organizations that have a knowledge or interest
> regarding this matter.  Responses that are not made on behalf of a
> constituency should include an indication of the author's affiliation
> and interest in Whois privacy.

The data gathering that we are doing is qualitative as opposed to  
quantitative, so sheer number of responses should not be a primary  
consideration by the analysis teams.  Additionally, we have asked  
respondents to identify their affiliation and interest in the use of  
the Whois data, which should make it possible for team members to place  
responses in "buckets" relating to particular GNSO constituencies if  
they feel it is appropriate to do so.

Jordyn

On Feb 19, 2004, at 11:13 PM, Milton Mueller wrote:

> Hello,
> Niklas and I met by telephone today as part of data analysis "Team 3".
>
> An ambiguity developed as we discussed the data collection effort.
> I was under the impression that the survey was intended for GNSO
> constituencies only. However, there have been some suggestions that
> we are expecting to get data from any and every Internet user.
> And indeed I see some responses from random Internet users already
> in the results.
>
> I see from the message from the GNSO Secretariat circulating the
> survey that my initial impression was correct. (see below)
> The survey is intended for constituencies only.
>
> > > > "GNSO SECRETARIAT" <gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 02/16/04  
> > > > 12:48PM >>>
> > One of the milestones of this Task Force is to determine whether the  
> > data
> > which is collected and disclosed at present should be changed. To be  
> > able to
> > arrive at a informed decision we are asking all GNSO Constituencies  
> > for
> > guidance on their use of the current data fields.
> http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/questionnaire-tf2-all 
> -06feb04.shtml
>
> This greatly simplifies our task and also eliminates the potential for
> bias in the data collection. If we are polling GNSO constituencies,
> then our population of respondents is exactly 7 (counting ALAC)
> and we can reasonably expect to get a response from every member
> of that population, making our data perfectly representative of
> the population.
>
> Any attempt to broaden the intended population would of course
> result in a much larger population to be sampled, and given the short
> response time frame, lack of adequate publicity, and inability to use
> scientific sampling techniques the results would suffer from a
> selection bias so severe as to make the results completely useless
> from a statistical point of view.
>
> In analyzing the results, I will then insist upon analyzing only the
> constituency responses.
>
> --MM