In Action
9/8/08
The Godless West?
Gallup just released some interesting polling numbers on Americans’ beliefs about God. Over three quarters (78 percent) believe in God, while 15 percent do not believe in God but do believe in a universal spirit. Only 6 percent of Americans believe in neither. But when you slice the data by geographic region, you get some […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
8/28/08
Modeling the DNC
The Democratic National Convention held in Denver last week was an overall success thanks to countless hours spent planning by law enforcement, the convention committee, local leaders and a math class from the University of Colorado. Yep, that’s right – a math class. NPR aired a story last week about a math class at the […]
By Joe FitzlerRead More
8/4/08
Be Careful What You Ask For
It’s the season for political polling, which is a convenient occasion for illustrating the many potential pitfalls of conducting opinion research. Last week there was a particularly good example of biases in opinions caused by the way a question is asked. There is currently a bill (House Bill 1366) in the North Carolina State Legislature […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
7/22/08
Forget Gen Y, What About the “Google Generation”?
Since our work on Digital Natives (pdf) for the Idaho Commission for Libraries on digital natives (mentioned in this post), we’ve been noticing others’ work on defining the behavior of GenY and the subsequent generation (whom I refuse to call Gen Z) who have all grown up with ubiquitous computers, cell phones, and the Internet. […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
7/14/08
Three laws of Great Graphs?
What graphs should you use in your presentations? Marketing uber-guru Seth Godin recently posted an interesting set of guidelines (and a follow-up coda) on his website. As is customary for our culture, Seth’s rules were three: 1. One Story 2. No Bar Charts 3. Motion His rules quickly were a lightning rod for controversy, so let’s […]
By Geoff UrlandRead More
5/23/08
Shift Happens
While this video has been making the rounds for a while, I recently ran across it again.Clean presentation, gets to the point and it’s more motivating than daunting.That’s one of the reasons I like research – here are the questions, so now what are the answers? Occasionally, we get to provide some of those answers.We […]
By David KennedyRead More