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A Broadband Survey That Asks the Right Questions
Lauren Weinstein writes "I've just deployed the first ever Broadband Survey under the auspices of GCTIP, which asks questions that the FCC neglected to ask about service types, promised vs. actual broadband speeds, user satisfaction (or lack thereof) with their ISPs and local ISP competition, etc. I'm already finding the detailed comments many persons are leaving on the survey form to be extremely illuminating and with sufficient participation I'm hoping my reports from this data will be useful to the Internet community broadly."
So, you post a survey on Slashdot. Now, I am not a statistician, and I have never played one on TV, but I think I have heard a thing or two about selection bias. Is your organization run by two college kids and an IIS server?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
This is a self-selected survey
You're getting relevant responses from people who are already actively interested in discussing the topic? Will wonders never cease?
I.e., ones that are loaded so as to produce the results that the author wants to see.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
We all know the question that everyone is afraid to ask publicly:
How can I get more pr0n faster?
""
really? really?!
The FCC-did-it-wrong tone of the post made me expect a speed test. There isn't one. It's just a questionnaire.
But I must concede this survey gets the upper hand against the FCC speed test in two aspects:
It's even later to the party than the FCC test was.
It covers an even smaller portion of the population than the FCC test did.
Shouldn't one run a survey much like the Australian Broadband survey? I mean, really, your survey is limited and open ended. With the ABs, it's interesting comparing the results from year to year... http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2009/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2008/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2007/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2006/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2005/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2004/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2003/ This is how a survey should be done! We actually have serious issues with our ISP's here, so this is done to perhaps give them a bit of a kick up the arse.
768k DSL is fast enough for most people - posting on Facebook, checking CNN, sending webmail. The people who need 10MBit are the warez hounds and ISO downloaders.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Don't they already collect this data?
Which of the questions did you consider loaded?
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
That page desperately needs text boxes to input all the answers about bandwidth/latency/jitter.
I filled out the survey, but sweet tap dancing Jesus do I pity the person(s) who have to turn the results into useable data.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I love when a so-called broadband provider tries to tell me I can't measure connection speeds. I switched from UVerse to Roadrunner, and enjoyed a speed increase of at least 3 times (and I've seen as much as 15 times faster), and a lower monthly bill. When they asked why I was leaving and I told them of the speed difference, their rep tried to convince me that it was just my imagination.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
and then I figured it's not even worth it.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I challenge whether you can even trust bandwidth tests. The OOKLA-powered bandwidth test on Broadband.gov shows 80Mbit down on my 10Mbit connection. I never see similar numbers from any other source. So, perhaps my ISP (Time Warner) is pulling one over?
This, in all honesty, is the worst survey I have ever seen, and I work with language teachers.
Not only are you setting yourself up for selection bias (as many others have pointed out), you've got all these free-answer text boxes all over it. Have you given any thought whatsoever to what you're going to do with the "data" that you get from this instrument?
Things like network speed should be in set categories. Satisfaction should be on a Likert scale, and should be broken down into aspects of interest (satisfaction with upload, download, etc.). The ISPs should be on a drop-down menu, not free answer (you'll need to include an "Other"). ZIP and City should be in separate fields (how are you going to parse those?--yes, it can be done, BUT WHY???).
Your question about maximum upload and download speed and limit and favorite color... Son, you make me want to stab out my eyes with a fork. What are you asking with that question? Whatever it is, it should be several questions with constrained responses.
One of the cardinal rules of survey design is that it should be quick and easy for people to fill out. Do the hard work for them, and let them just tick boxes. If you don't, they won't take it and all you'll get is data skewed toward people who--like you--actually care enough to type up a bunch of thoughts. I care about broadband, but even I am not interested in blathering away into a text box.
Pray tell, what "statistical purposes" would my email address be used for? Last I knew, principal components analysis only took numeric data... Same for cluster analysis. "This will only be used for magical statistics that use email addresses as variables... Or if we want to drop a line and say hi." Please.
You are setting yourself up for a world of hurt. You will need to go through with Nvivo or something to categorize all the garbage you get from this, and even if you present results, all you're really going to be presenting is "here is some stuff that people said." I have no time for listening to results of surveys like that. It's softheaded gibberish.
You are lucky you're not a student in my research practicum. There's no way I'd sign off on this as a research instrument.
I would write, "I can't believe Slashdot posted this," but I've been an anonymous coward for a long time.
If your survey purports to ask the "right" questions, then your survey is fundamentally flawed.
To be a balanced survey, don't you have to ask the left questions as well.
(of course if you really want to be "Fair and Balanced" then you only report the 'right' viewpoint..
The "email" question, which they are likely goign to sell the results of.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
As others have said, the survey created by Lauren is really bad. In reading his analysis of the issues that he had with the FCC's survey the survey that he created does nothing to address the issues and if the survey were actually used would only exacerbate the issues he describes.
First off, Lauren is asking people to disclose their upload and download speeds but disagrees with they way the FCC has asked people to do. The FCC asks everyone to use the same measuring tool. (at least that is my understanding according to Lauren's summary of the FCC survey which I have never seen). Using the same tool is important. As Lauren himself states in commenting on the disparity between his own tools used to measure internet speed vs the FCC, the results can vary depending on the tool used. While the FCC's tool may have its issues, if everyone uses it for the test then it has relative validity. If you are to get valid usable results you have to control as many of the testing conditions as you can.
The other issue, is the level of complexity of the survey. Again, I have not seen the FCC's survey so perhaps it is also fairly complex but asking people to measure the upload and download speeds, address issues of latency and what have you is not going to be survey that everyone will be able to understand or complete.
Aside from that, how many people remember what there isp promised in terms of these. While they can be looked up, most people will probably just rattle off some numbers that they think they remember when they signed up for their service (and this of course assumes that those speeds have not changed by the provider since the day they signed their contract. I know when I had Comcast my upload and download speeds increased considerably over the two years I had them as they made upgrades to their network.
Finally, don't ever claim that your survey "Asks the right questions". Not only is it bit conceited you are basically begging people to find fault with it.
Finally, if perfect measure of internet speeds and service were truly wanted then what should be supplied is a program that measure the desired information and then that information is then sent to the FCC to use the data as they will. This would take care of user errors in interpretation.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I remember Brett Glass! He was a columnist with PC Week or InfoWorld, back when it was actual paper, via US mail, mid 90s. At first he was a run-of-the-mill advice geek, gee Brett I can't figure out my autoexec.bat. Then he graduated to an opinion columnist, and wow did the bile fly! Right out of the gate he launched into some anti-MS diatribe, went on and on. It was quite funny. I remember thinking "wow, this guy must have had all this bottled up for some time now".
Check it out: www.brettglass.com has some advice on Windows 95. Sure enough, down at the bottom it's (c)1998. Ha ha!
There has never ever been a broadband survey? Wow you rock!
Get up!
Just seeing 20,000 plus kilobits down and over 4,000 kilobits up were obviously burst speeds that are available for very short periods and amounts. Yes those are the real, however, they are maximum values seen rarely. I wonder too how many providers are detecting the test to skew the results upward to imaginary values. Unfortunately, I suspect more than just a few.
I ran the FFC speed test, but I would love some assurance that ISPs aren't gaming the results by giving every up/down connection to these speed test suites (especially the FFC one) top drawer, white-glove priorty to achieve 99.99% of your plan's max speed.
Oh dear I get 'This form is disabled' after hitting submit.
I don't think it is an email harvester because that field is optional.
Another reason not to use a free survey. It gets slashdotted almost immediately.
Took the poll, submitted, received message that the form was disabled...
"Software is the difference between hardware and reality"
In your opinion, is there sufficient ISP competition available to you at your location? (Yes, No, Maybe, I don't know)
This should have asked something objective, like: how many companies offer residential broadband service at your address (not counting satellite).
Mod points: Guaranteed to remove your sense of humor.
Side effects may include gullibility and temporary retardation
I'm not sure how seriously the test is supposed to be taken. I think its kind of funny how the advertised rate is required and the tested rate is optional - I find it interesting (I haven't looked at the actual FCC work) that the author suggests these questions are excluded from the dialog. I think it makes me really curious based on questions he asked about what is on the FCC survey - maybe that was the intention?
Number of companies isn't necessarily a good measure of competition. You can have cutthroat competition between two providers (even if one is only potential!), or collusion among ten.
Whether there is "sufficient" competition is inherently subjective. They might as well have asked whether one felt one was getting a "good deal".
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat