National Census

[Deleted]

It's interesting how quickly "Do you want any help with the national census?" turns into "It's all yours." Thanks, Mick.

In any case, I am hereby announcing my intention, with the grace of Secretary of State Preston, to begin working on a National Census, per the recently-passed Domesday Act (39RZ7). Two items the act requires to be included in the census are: "Level of involvement" and "Amount of activity in Talossa."

I am interested in your brilliant ideas about how to quantify, and gather, these two tricky, and somewhat nebulous, bits of information.

Please feel free to throw your ideas up here, or to contact me directly.

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

I would suggest simply allowing self-reporting; provide a scale from one to ten (one the least and ten the most) and allow people to rank themselves in involvement in Talossa; and provide options for a question about activity that range from "often" to "never." With these questions, it's a person's own judgment about their activity that is most important.

[Deleted]

Why not break the scale down in to levels of government?

Describe your level of involvement in Talossa:

1- I am not involved in Talossan society
2- I am involved in the social/cultural/educational aspects of Talossa
3- I am a member of the Ziu (Senator or MC)
4- I am an active civil servant
5- I am a Cabinet Minister, Prime Minister, Secretary of State or Member of the Royal Household

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

Governmental involvement is not necessarily the only way someone can be highly involved, and I'm not sure that we should rank accordingly. Let people use their own metric... if a professor of the university considers herself to be "somewhat involved," regardless of whether she is a member of the Ziu, let that be sufficient.

[Owen Edwards]

I would suggest something less nebulous.

"How often do you speak to a fellow Talossan?" with time periods as answers

An anonymous count of activity (by you, from stats) of current citizens' activity on Wittenberg; no names, just categories of activity and numbers of citizens (non-dandelions) falling into that category.

"What, if anything, would increase your activity within Talossa?"

...just some thoughts as a series of census stats to look at activity within Talossa.

[Eðo Grischun]

How about adding some questions like these (that fall into different categories):

(A: Regarding Citizen Interaction)

1. How quick are you to reply to your Private Messages and/or emails from fellow Talossans?

2. How often do you converse with fellow Talossans on Instant Messaging Services?

(B: Regarding Wittenberg Activity)

1: What is your current post count?

2: How many of these posts have been within the past 12 months?

3: What category of Wittenberg do you feel you post most often in?

(C: Regarding Talossan political, Social & Cultural Activity)

1: What societies and/or organisations are you a member of?

2: How often do you participate in these societies/orgs?

3: Do you hold a position within the political process in any capacity, if so give details?

4: How often do you participate in the political process?

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

I would use both Alexander's and Tim's questions. One self-assessment question asking how involved the respondent is in Talossa (not at all, slightly involved, somewhat involved, very involved, pathologically involved, etc. or just "0-10 with 10 being most involved and 0 being not involved at all") and another saying "in which of the following ways do you participate in Talossa (check all that apply)." Another 0-10 self-assessment question could be "how important is Talossa to you" or "how much does your Talossanity mean to you."

Owen's question "How often do you speak to a fellow Talossan?" is good, but should be followed by one asking "How much of the time do you speak about Talossa specifically?" considering our citizens who have close pre-existing relationships with other Talossans. The question "What, if anything, would increase your activity within Talossa?" is crucial. Maybe we could come up with a list of suggested ideas, and also a blank to fill in with their own. Along the same lines, "What keeps you from being more active in Talossa?"

As for Éovart's questions, I would incorporate his section A into a question finding out what methods of communication respondents use to talk to fellow Talossans (check all that apply, face to face, telephone, email, snail mail, instant messaging, Witt, Witt private messages, social networking sites, etc). I like asking people which societies/organisations they belong to (section C). Probably not much use asking them about Wittenberg post counts, though, since we can pull that information directly from Wittenberg more accurately, and making people look up boring stuff like that may deter them from responding.

[Deleted]

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. Keep 'em coming! I do think I've got some great ideas here already, however. I'm currently putting together a list of citizens, and gathering what info is already recorded, and will begin construction of the actual questionnaire hopefully this week.

[Deleted]

Thought I'd share a tidbit of the statistical info I've extracted in pouring over the Citizen lists (public info on the website) as I prepare for the Census. A little Excel number crunching revealed:

Population that have been citizens for:

• 1 year or less: 26%
  
• 2 years or less: 58%
  
• 5 years or less: 89%

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[Deleted]

Okay, so I'm bored at work, and I like playing with Excel. Here's a little more statistical info from the citizen list. Percentage of people becoming citizens by month, as a percent of total*:

• Jan -- 9%
  
• Feb -- 14%
  
• Mar -- 14%
  
• Apr -- 7%
  
• May -- 8%
  
• Jun -- 7%
  
• Jul -- 6%
  
• Aug -- 7%
  
• Sep -- 8%
  
• Oct -- 5%
  
• Nov -- 6%
  
• Dec -- 9%

(* Data excludes two citizens whose month of citizenship are not listed.)

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

Also, though I think this might be a little more controversial we should put age/race/religion (this could be anonymous) on there.

[Deleted]

Mar 4, 2009 15:19:50 GMT -6 Dréu Gavárþic'h said:

Also, though I think this might be a little more controversial we should put age/race/religion (this could be anonymous) on there.

Those things will be included (age is stipulated in the bill), and all info published from the census will be strictly void of individual identifying information. All will be in the form of population statistics, such as the ones above.

[Deleted]

Now may be as good a time as any to throw up my draft of the census questions. I'm open to comment/suggestions. Most of what I've constructed here is based on U.S. census surveys. Questions are in no particular order at present.

• Age
  
• Sex
  
• How person found out about Talossa originally
  
• Level of involvement
  
• Amount of activity in Talossa
  
• Race
  * White
  * Black
  * Hispanic/Latino
  * American Indian and Alaska Native
  * Asian
  * Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
  * Other
  
• Household size (number in household)
  
• Religious affiliation
  * Protestant
  * Catholic
  * Mormon
  * Jehovah's Witness
  * Orthodox
  * Jewish
  * Buddhist
  * Muslim
  * Hindu
  * Unitarian or other liberal faith
  * New Age (Wicca, pagan, other new age)
  * Non-religious (atheist, agnostic, etc...)
  * Don't know or Nothing in particular
  
• Primary residence: City + State/Province, Country
  
• Political party affiliation
  
• Occupation
  * Managerial
  * Professional
  * Technical
  * Admin support / clerical
  * Sales
  * Private household service
  * Protection services
  * Farming / forestry / fishing
  * Precision production / craft / repair
  * Machine operators
  * Transport / Material moving
  * Handlers / equipment
  * Other
  
• Employment Industry
  * Agr/For/Fish/Mining
  * Construction
  * Manufacturing
  * Transportation
  * Communications / public utilities
  * Wholesale trade
  * Retail trade
  * Fin/Insurance/Real Estate
  * Business/Repair Services
  * Personal/Ent/Rec Services
  * Health
  * Educational
  * Other Professional Services
  * Public Administration
  
• Employment status
  * Armed Forces
  * Employed (civilian)
  * Unemployed (civilian)
  * Not in Labor Force
  * Student, Full-time
  * Student, Part-time
  * Self-employed
  
• Education
  * Less than high school graduate
  * High school graduate
  * Some college
  * Higher degree
  
• Marital Status
  * Single (never married)
  * Married
  * Separated
  * Widowed
  * Divorced
  
• Gross annual income
  * Under $15k
  * $15k-24,999
  * $25k-34,999
  * $35k-49,999
  * $50k-74,999
  * $75k-99,999
  * $100,000+

[Flip Molinar]

I like it as it is in the last version, as long as the "Prefer not to respond" option is included for all questions.

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

Sounds great. Student should be in there somewhere though.