Statistical Speech Sunday Oct. 23 2011 Ithaca GA

METHODOLOGY

Mostly the same as October 20, except that there were no supplied questions. A sign directed respondents to check all boxes that apply. The sampling time was from 2:18 PM to 4:30 PM. The facilitator was one of the respondents.

RESULTS:

In original order of the questions:

US Citizen? 16 yes, 1 no

Registered to vote (US citizens): 12 yes, 3 no

Voted in 2010 (US citizens born before Nov 2 1992): 9 yes, 4 no

Voted in 2008 (US citizens born before Nov 2 1990): 10 yes, 3 no

Attended previous Occupy Ithaca events: 15 yes, 1 no

Attended OWS in New York City: 5 yes, 9 no

College student (undergraduate): 2 yes, 11 no

College grad (BS/BA level): 5 yes, 7 no

Age: 1 under 18, 5 18-24, 6 25-44, 2 45-64, 2 over 65

OBSERVATIONS

Numbers responding to questions were more even than last time. Partially this was because there was no ethnicity question and because the age question was multiple choice instead of a series of yes/no questions.

It was surprising that only one respondent had not been to an Occupy Ithaca event before. Perhaps more effort needs to be put into promotions.

General Protocol Advice for Facilitators

In the protocol described for the October 20 General Assembly in Ithaca, the only protocol concerns were that results should be accurately and promptly reported and methodology should be explained in full. In particular, no question should be unreported due to concerns about the results' value to the facilitator or to a movement. That is what partisan polling firms do.

In more complex speech protocols, reporting may be limited due to privacy concerns. I have considered having a methodology with individual questionnaires, and in that case I recommend that reporting be limited to the aggregate number of responses for questions, and the aggregate numbers for pairs of responses. For instance, facilitators may report how many people voted in 2010 in a subsample of questionnaires such as speakers with reported ages between 25 and 44. However, posting complete results of all of the individual questionnaires should only be done with individual consent.

First Statistical Speech Oct. 20 Ithaca NY OWS General Assembly

METHODOLOGY

Two poster boards were set out at the Occupy Ithaca General Assembly on the evening of Thursday October 20, 2011. At the announcements part, participants (henceforth called "speakers") were encouraged to speak statistically and sampling commenced at 7:47 PM. It lasted for one hour, ending at 8:47 as the meeting winded down.

One poster board contained only yes or no questions provided by myself (Harry Bowman, 108 N. Geneva St. Apt. 8, Ithaca NY 14850, @HBowman108, hbowman108@hotmail.com). The second was open to questions submitted by the speakers themselves.

RESULTS:

This is the original order of the questions I provided:

White? 23 yes, 0 no

Black? 0 yes, 8 no

Asian? 1 yes, 8 no

Latino? 0 yes, 8 no

US Citizen? 21 yes, 3 no

Registered to Vote (US citizens only)? 18 yes, 4 no

Voted in 2010 (US citizens born before Nov. 2 1992)? 15 yes, 6 no

Voted in 2008 (US citizens born before Nov. 4 1990)? 16 yes, 4 no

Live in City of Ithaca? 17 yes, 6 no

Male? 14 yes, 3 no

Female? 9 yes, 6 no

Employed (other than participating in OWS)? 17 yes, 4 no

College Student (undergrad)? 7 yes, 10 no

College Graduate? 15 yes, 5 no

Native speaker of English? 19 yes, 3 no

Submitted questions (in submission order):

From Finger Lakes area? 5 yes, 5 no

Aged under 18? 1 yes, 4 no

19-25? 4 yes, 3 no

26-45? 6 yes, 1 no

46-64? 1 yes, 2 no

Over 65? 2 yes, 3 no

LBCATQ? 2 yes, 2 no

What is your economic background? 2 responses: $120,000 a year, $12,000 a year

Indigenous? no yes, 2 no

OBSERVATIONS (includes personal opinions of the author)

On some questions, it may be useful to explicitly describe the format. Results suggest that many speakers may have viewed the ethnicity questions as not being independent and only submitted a single response. My intent was to allow multiple responses as is allowed on the US Census. The age question was different, as speakers presumably should only identify with a single age group, and for this multiple choice may be a better format than yes or no.

One question was submitted without a yes or no answer. Such questions are more difficult to report if the number of responses is large.

I found that facilitators may need more pens than I thought due to the often chaotic conditions under which statistical speech may occur. In large settings such as Liberty Plaza, boxes of writing instruments will probably be needed and I will check on prices on those. I recommend that pens should be used instead of pencils since the marks may smudge in transport away from the speech site.

SUPPORT THIS WORK

Donations to the facilitator of this statistical speech should be sent to PayPal at the account linked to my email address, hbowman108@hotmail.com. Facilitators are free to link to statistical speeches in the comments section or elsewhere.

Introducing Statistical Speech

Statistical Speech is a new process to be used at events such as Occupy Wall Street. It allows people to express themselves in the aggregate and post results easily to the Internet.

In recent weeks, the right-wing pollster Doug Schoen has posted results from an alleged survey of 198 Occupy Wall Street participants taken in Liberty Plaza (aka Zuccotti Park) on October 10 and October 11, the weekend of Columbus Day. I did not see any evidence of survey taking, and I have not talked to anyone who has. Unless someone can show otherwise, I suspect the survey may be a fake. So, we see that data is not required for the political establishment to "pigeonhole" the movement. The only way to counteract this narrative is for us to speak statistically ourselves.

So far, the method used in Statistical Speech is simply to set out poster boards with questions to be answered. The results are then tabulated and posted. The method is intended to be carried out by entirely autonomous individuals, and can be conducted at very low cost.