data gathering

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data gathering

glen ep ropella

I like the idea of informal data gathering:

   http://www.randomiseme.org/

"RCTs are used by scientists to find out what works best. Here, you can
create a trial on anything you wish, and participate in trials set up by
other people."

--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com
See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over
and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the
propaganda. -- George W. Bush


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Re: data gathering

Steve Smith
Glen wrote:
> I like the idea of informal data gathering:
>
>     http://www.randomiseme.org/
>
> "RCTs are used by scientists to find out what works best. Here, you can
> create a trial on anything you wish, and participate in trials set up by
> other people."
>
I like the *idea* as well, however reviewing the active and completed
trials leaves me rather underwhelmed.

I tried to go through the tutorial and see if I could ascertain (or even
intuit) how well their methodology should work.    It didn't seem very
promising.  In particular, it doesn't look like they offer "laymen"
enough guidance in what makes for a good sample set or "enforcing" it?  
The style of questions asked also seem likely to suffer various
selection biases?

For example, among their completed trials the first two  (1-how to
remember things; 2-does complementing th ebarista improve my chances of
free coffee) were declared "completed" yet the first one consisted of a
sample set of 8 and the second a sample set of 11 ?    The first one
apparently onlyr *required 1 participant?* while the second required 100
(but as declared complete with 11?).

I guess I was only mildly surprised (in a disappointing way) at the
inanity of the questions to date.   As I remember the early days of
Kickstarter, most of the projects were pretty inane but as some really
good examples came on, more followed.   I find the "Whitehouse.gov"
petitions nearly equally inane, so there is good company here.  Maybe it
is just "internet culture"?  Perhaps it is too early to evaluate this?

These all seem like good tools *in principle*, I wonder what it takes to
make them good tools *in practice*?   I suppose an easy, trite answer
is, *good participation*, and maybe it really is that simple?  Kind of
like (presumably) democracy, the free market, and innovation.


hmmmm?
  - Steve

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Re: data gathering

glen ep ropella
Steve Smith wrote at 06/28/2013 11:56 AM:
> These all seem like good tools *in principle*, I wonder what it takes to
> make them good tools *in practice*?   I suppose an easy, trite answer
> is, *good participation*, and maybe it really is that simple?  Kind of
> like (presumably) democracy, the free market, and innovation.

Yeah, I agree with you.  I particularly enjoyed trial 156:

http://randomiseme.org/trials/156

"As you know, people in Britain are often anaemic. Sometimes this is due
to poor diet, but most often it's due to vampires.

We need people who live in the vampire infested counties of British
isles (consult Wikipedia for your local prevalence) to consume garlic on
a daily basis, or not."

I had a similar feeling about Quora when it started.  A friend of mine
gave me an account before it went public and I tried interacting, asking
and answering questions to my best ability.  I was put off by the snarky
answers and inane questions.  So I killed my account.  But now it seems
to be somewhat interesting, though far less successful than
stackoverflow, I suppose.

In the end, we have the age-old aphorism: "You get what you put in" or
"you reap what you sow."  I expect that if randomiseme.org were _used_
by people who know and care about the difference between good data and
bad, then it would become useful.  Not surprisingly, this is why I still
use Google+, but avoid Facebook like the plague.  And, just like the
transition from the internet to the WWW, I expect I'll soon have to
abandon G+ as well.

--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-255-2847, http://tempusdictum.com
Talking about non-linear mathematics is like talking about non-elephant
zoology. -- Stanislaw Ulam


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Re: data gathering

Steve Smith
Glen -

I took an early interest in social networking and in the potential power
of crowd sourcing but got burned out looking for the needle in the
haystack or the gem in the coal-bin as it were.   I am highly motivated
to believe it can work but the dearth of good examples seems to continue.

Wikipedia and Google Search are the closest things to success stories I
know of, but I may not be thinking hard enough.  Search, of course,  
mostly doesn't depend on "smart usage", though I am surprised sometimes
when the rank ordering of results reflects some aspect of pop culture
that I am clueless about (which is many)... Wikipedia is so much more
intentional and despite the crowd-source for content, I think the
somewhat hierarchical control of style and nature provided by the
network of paid and volunteer staff keeps it (somewhat) coherent beyond
what a true anarchy might.

My wife and daughters are big on Pinterest but I've never taken the
plunge... I get some good "forwards" from them in their respective
domains.   It seems as if the mail-list or group paradigm is still
generally the best "referral" service for me. Despite my snarkiness now
and again on FRIAM I think I do get more signal/noise than many other
places.

I think one of the things I'm contemplating on this general topic is
what does it take to transcend the mundane in these environments?  
There must be precedent in analog systems for noise cancellation, etc.?

On your implied recommendation, I've just joined Quora and was pleased
to find right away a colleague who I highly respect (someone I would
"follow" on nearly any forum) there already. We'll see how it all works out.

- Steve

> Steve Smith wrote at 06/28/2013 11:56 AM:
>> These all seem like good tools *in principle*, I wonder what it takes to
>> make them good tools *in practice*?   I suppose an easy, trite answer
>> is, *good participation*, and maybe it really is that simple?  Kind of
>> like (presumably) democracy, the free market, and innovation.
> Yeah, I agree with you.  I particularly enjoyed trial 156:
>
> http://randomiseme.org/trials/156
>
> "As you know, people in Britain are often anaemic. Sometimes this is due
> to poor diet, but most often it's due to vampires.
>
> We need people who live in the vampire infested counties of British
> isles (consult Wikipedia for your local prevalence) to consume garlic on
> a daily basis, or not."
>
> I had a similar feeling about Quora when it started.  A friend of mine
> gave me an account before it went public and I tried interacting, asking
> and answering questions to my best ability.  I was put off by the snarky
> answers and inane questions.  So I killed my account.  But now it seems
> to be somewhat interesting, though far less successful than
> stackoverflow, I suppose.
>
> In the end, we have the age-old aphorism: "You get what you put in" or
> "you reap what you sow."  I expect that if randomiseme.org were _used_
> by people who know and care about the difference between good data and
> bad, then it would become useful.  Not surprisingly, this is why I still
> use Google+, but avoid Facebook like the plague.  And, just like the
> transition from the internet to the WWW, I expect I'll soon have to
> abandon G+ as well.
>


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Quora mining

Steve Smith
Glen-

Along with finding an esteemed colleague worth following right away, I found this wonderful nugget buried away deep in the archives:

Answers that used to be on this list but which have been deleted:

It was a wonderfully Glen Ropella-styled answer!

Neither of these terms (as used here) are part of my regular vernacular, yet somehow you managed to tease out the essence of both terms in this context quite well!

- Steve


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Re: Quora mining

glen ropella
Steve Smith wrote at 06/28/2013 12:53 PM:

>  * 11 votes: Glen Ropella <http://www.quora.com/Glen-Ropella>'s answer
>    to What is the difference between a "tool" and a "douchebag"?
>  
> <http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-tool-and-a-douchebag>
>
>    --- "A douchebag is a specific tool for a specific use.  Tools are
>    more generally useful."
>
> It was a wonderfully Glen Ropella-styled answer!
>
> Neither of these terms (as used here) are part of my regular vernacular,
> yet somehow you managed to tease out the essence of both terms in this
> context quite well!

Heh, that reminds me of this piece of "pop culture" I stumbled into this
morning (and by searching for it on Google, my usage and clickage puts
it that much closer to the top):

"Blurred Lines" Is Cocky, Yes. But Rapey? No.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/06/27/robin_thicke_s_blurred_lines_is_cocky_yes_but_rapey_and_misogynistic_no.html

"If you want more proof that the repetitive "I know you want it" chorus
isn't creepy, let's do a closer reading of the other lyrics. The end of
the chorus goes: "The way you grab me/ must wanna get nasty/ go ahead,
get at me." The last part, "go ahead, get at me" very clearly kills any
"rapey" vibe. In fact, he's putting the ball in her court by telling her
to make the move and not the other way around. He's saying, "You're
clearly turned on by me. Go for it." (Again: Douche? Sure. Rapist?
Probably not.)"

I'll never get that time back. [sigh]

--
⇒⇐ glen e. p. ropella
I'm living easy where the sun doesn't shine


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