The city is collaborating with researchers at Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life on a project about civic life in Newton. As part of that effort, they’re looking for folks to complete a survey they say should take about 20 minutes to complete.
Even though I’m more than a little annoyed that they don’t include Village 14 as an option when asked where one gets their local Newton news, it otherwise seems like a good project and so I’m sharing the survey link anyway.
What’s Village 14? 😉
I took the survey a week or so ago and have been thinking about what the city will learn from the answers. The most important information in the survey (and the one rewarded with a chance for gifts) is your “rolodex” (that’s ancient-speak for your Contact List of e-mail addresses) and a reasonable snapshot of the web of interactions among the cognoscenti (those of us who observe and participate in City Life in Newton). How embarrassing it would be to find out that only 500 or 1000 of us talk to each other and echo the same thoughts! The ubiquitous nature of the internet may not be reaching those who would rather play Pokémon!
By the way…I didn’t give them my contact list! Have you taken the survey yet?
What do you think of its possible purposes and uses? I am not opposed to creating a database of e-mail addresses that people have willingly given to City Hall. I am opposed to passing my contact list on to Tufts or the City so that someone can be asked to participate in a survey. If the City wants residents’ e-mail addresses, it could ask for them with the snail mail sent out with tax bills or water bills. New residents could be asked to supply those addresses when they come in to register to vote in Newton. Those addresses would not be associated with any other information (such as the questions in the survey) and would be for communication purposes only between the resident and City Hall!
I didn’t share emails either
Nor did I.
I don’t even like that it asked for other’s emails and for money. One of my three choices for news was “other.” Shame on them for not including V14.
I called before taking the survey and was told I didn’t have to supply my contact list, so i wouldn’t have to be eligible for a gift (There is no way I would want to be coaxed out of my contact list for money or gifts!) Remember the concept of ethics? I am an elected official, after all, although I admit, a very lowly one!
I, too, received the survey test from Tufts, but the tone was a bit condescending and I didn’t like the mix of gifts and requests for my email list. I didn’t respond at all.
I listed names but not emails.
I didn’t list names or emails. I didn’t understand the point of the question.
I took the survey a couple days ago and had some of the same concerns as you all and now regret no entering them in the survey comments themselves.
A lottery themed reward system is a common hook for a lot of surveys these days but it also caught me as kind of sleazy and uncalled for as part of a civic participation survey. I don’t volunteer my time (if you even can call it that) to get a prize other than a better community so I don’t need a survey making thin promises of a chance for $30 (was it?).
Also, I harped about wanting better avenues of communication and then in the end they asked if they could share my email with the city and I checked NO! That probably seems hypercritical to them but I considered the survey confidential and while they probably wouldn’t share the entries I made just because I said they could share my email it seemed inappropriate to have parts of the survey confidential and then ask if some could be shared. Maybe I have trust issues but when they started by asking for personal info for survey verification ONLY then later asked to share, I felt slightly betrayed.
Saw that they were asking for names/emails and didn’t respond.
Smart, Tricia…but curiosity got me.
I wanted to know what they considered a civic survey. It was not what I had hoped. It seemed more like an info grab. Even asking about the groups you are in being affiliated in some way with other groups seemed strange. It wasn’t like any other university survey I have seen before.
Thanks for the link. Took me 5 minutes.
I read the description at the link, This is positively creepy..It seems aimed at gathering intelligence on those “active in civic life.” How much is the city spending on this Orwellian project?