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.