Dave Lester’s Finding America

Early Monday morning I officially released OregonTrailSurvey.com, an online survey about the Oregon Trail computer game. Its purpose is to understand and gather data on user’s perceptions of the game. Rather than approaching this research by a traditional paper-based survey, I have opted to perform it entirely online. I have also challenged my peers and professors to rethink the way we use technology to do our own research.

Although the survey has been online for less than 48 hours I value it as proof of concept. Online surveys and web-based academic research can work. The survey authenticates users via the Facebook API and connects to a pre-existing social network, thus bypassing traditional limitations of online polling. Additionally, the ability for users to easily share information within the Facebook community with their friends has led to survey responses from not only all around the country, but around the world. At the time of posting this, my survey is the second most popular Facebook developer product which has led to its recognition on Facebook’s own developer site.

While I have infrequently blogged in the past, my hope is that this will become a place for dialogue; both of my ongoing research as well as greater methodological and disciplinary debates which are currently taking place. I welcome anyone who wishes to discuss these issues with me.