Last Fall I teamed up with Student Pugwash USA to create a Facebook survey evaluating the positions of 18-25 year olds on science policy and politics, and the results are in! The full report is available for download and while its content falls outside the scope of this blog, I think it’s another great example in addition to my Oregon Trail Survey of how we can target niche groups and wider demographics on the social web. The survey was designed to inform the creation of a 2008 Science and Technology Policy Guide about the candidates.
Despite my optimism of the survey, its self-selecting nature makes it in no way a representative sample of all youth 18-25. One of the most striking numbers was that 96% of respondents said they were planning on voting in the 2008 election. I would consider most of the respondents hardcore political junkies or environmentalists, which is still OK. Overall I’d suggest this approach for collecting oral histories, or other information from the most active members of an online community.