Big data and new technologies to do survey research. These were in my view the two themes of the 2014 AAPOR conference . The conference organisation tried to push the theme ‘Measurement and the role of pubic opinion in a democracy’, but I don’t think the theme was really reflected in the talks at the conference. Or perhaps I have missed those talks, the conference was huge as always (> 1000 participants).
The AAPOR conference last week gave an overview of what survey methodologists worry about. There were relatively few people from Europe this year, and I found that the issues methodologists worry about are sometimes different in Europe and the USA. At the upcoming ESRA conference for example there are more than 10 sessions on the topic of mixing survey modes. At AAPOR, mixing modes was definitely not ‘hot’.
With 8 parallel sessions at most times, I have only seen bits and pieces of all the things that went on.
Before people believe I’m old-fashioned, I do think that Internet-surveys, even panel surveys are the future of survey research. John Krosnick makes some good points in a video shot by the people from www.pollster.com