Iraq Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari & President Bush
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Is the US at a critical moment in Iraq?
On the first anniversary of Iraq's sovereignty President Bush gave an address to the American people from Fort Bragg the home of the Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division.
President Bush argued that there is no need to change course in Iraq despite the upsetting images produced by daily insurgent attacks.
What are your views on a conflict that has cost the lives of more than 1,740 U.S. troops and has no end in sight?
Participate in this weeks Survey Galaxy Public Survey:-
Is the US at a critical moment in Iraq Survey
President Bush argued that there is no need to change course in Iraq despite the upsetting images produced by daily insurgent attacks.
What are your views on a conflict that has cost the lives of more than 1,740 U.S. troops and has no end in sight?
Participate in this weeks Survey Galaxy Public Survey:-
Is the US at a critical moment in Iraq Survey
Monday, June 27, 2005
Payment problems now resolved
We have now hopefully resolved all the intermittent problems that we were experiencing with the WorldPay payment process.
We are now using a different WorldPay payment process and apologise for any inconvenience that was caused.
We are now using a different WorldPay payment process and apologise for any inconvenience that was caused.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Conducting telephone surveys
Sometimes it is necessary or desirable to conduct interviews over the telephone either exclusively or in addition to inviting respondents through email or by adding links to the survey on websites.
By setting the Input Operator field to yes on the user profile you will be able to select a published survey and use the Capture Response menu option to enter survey responses on behalf of other people.
In the case of telephone interviews the interviewer would simply access the survey through the Capture Response facility, enter an optional reference number, and then step through the survey reading the questions and entering the response of the person being interviewed.
It is also possible to use this facility to conduct mobile interviews by linking a PC tablet to the Internet through high speed internet connections. If you think you could benefit from mobile surveys email surveys@surveygalaxy.com to discuss your specific requirements.
By setting the Input Operator field to yes on the user profile you will be able to select a published survey and use the Capture Response menu option to enter survey responses on behalf of other people.
In the case of telephone interviews the interviewer would simply access the survey through the Capture Response facility, enter an optional reference number, and then step through the survey reading the questions and entering the response of the person being interviewed.
It is also possible to use this facility to conduct mobile interviews by linking a PC tablet to the Internet through high speed internet connections. If you think you could benefit from mobile surveys email surveys@surveygalaxy.com to discuss your specific requirements.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
RIP United States F1 Grand Prix, Born 2000, Died 2005?
Only six of the expected twenty cars started the 2005 US F1 Grand Prix.
14 cars retired after the parade lap because their tyre manufacturer Michelin could not guarantee that their tyres were safe for the Indianapolis track.
The six cars left running on Bridgestone tyres started to the sound of fans booing and throwing bottles on to the track.
For the record in was the Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello who gave Ferrari its first 1-2 finish of the season, with Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro finishing 3rd but victories do not come any hollower.
Was this just an unfortunate incident, was it the result of too stringent tyre rules and who if anyone is to blame?
Register your views by participating in this weeks free public survey:-
Did the US F1 Grand Prix Born in 2000, Die in 2005?
14 cars retired after the parade lap because their tyre manufacturer Michelin could not guarantee that their tyres were safe for the Indianapolis track.
The six cars left running on Bridgestone tyres started to the sound of fans booing and throwing bottles on to the track.
For the record in was the Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello who gave Ferrari its first 1-2 finish of the season, with Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro finishing 3rd but victories do not come any hollower.
Was this just an unfortunate incident, was it the result of too stringent tyre rules and who if anyone is to blame?
Register your views by participating in this weeks free public survey:-
Did the US F1 Grand Prix Born in 2000, Die in 2005?
Monday, June 20, 2005
Like a word document
I started my working life working with computers, not anything special you might think except at the time computers filled rooms and were locked behind security doors and hidden from most peoples view.
I was however fortunate to land a job that used Digital Equipment Corporation(DEC) computers and while many other computer operators at that time had to feed their machines with punch cards I instructed the machine through the use of online command files compiled using online editors.
So having been brought up on online editors that later spawned sophisticated word-processors I would find it very hard now to write a letter with pen and paper as my entire thought process is based on the ability to cut and paste and move sentences around. As such I will often write a report from the middle out, getting my thoughts down knowing that I will be able to go back at a later stage to hone a sentence and write a snappy introduction and maybe a summary or conclusion. The point I'm making is that I don't write letters or articles by starting at the begining and ending at the end.
Similarly when preparing surveys online I rarely write the survey sequentially. I will instead cut to the heart of the survey knowing that I will be able to move items around, insert and remove as the design of the survey develops.
In particular I will only include demographic type questions to-wards the end of the design process. This is mainly because I make use of the Survey Galaxy library features to allow me to 'drop' a number of standard demographic questions into a survey and so it allows me to keep the survey design slim while composing making it easier to manipulate.
When first designing surveys I used to prepare them using a word processor but I soon found this to be a pointless exercises as I find it much easier to use the Survey Galaxy composer from the onset as it gently reminds you of the mandatory and optional parameters applicable to each type of question/answer format.
With the ability to switch between answer formats, move items around and having a dynamic display showing the effects of all changes I would certainly recommend that anyone coming fresh to online surveys learns that writing the survey sequentially from the first to the last may not always be best.
Relax and have fun knowing that rearranging and modifying surveys is quick and easy. Don't get writers block - not sure of the exact wording put something down and move on, then go back to the question later when you are likely to have found your writing rhythm.
I was however fortunate to land a job that used Digital Equipment Corporation(DEC) computers and while many other computer operators at that time had to feed their machines with punch cards I instructed the machine through the use of online command files compiled using online editors.
So having been brought up on online editors that later spawned sophisticated word-processors I would find it very hard now to write a letter with pen and paper as my entire thought process is based on the ability to cut and paste and move sentences around. As such I will often write a report from the middle out, getting my thoughts down knowing that I will be able to go back at a later stage to hone a sentence and write a snappy introduction and maybe a summary or conclusion. The point I'm making is that I don't write letters or articles by starting at the begining and ending at the end.
Similarly when preparing surveys online I rarely write the survey sequentially. I will instead cut to the heart of the survey knowing that I will be able to move items around, insert and remove as the design of the survey develops.
In particular I will only include demographic type questions to-wards the end of the design process. This is mainly because I make use of the Survey Galaxy library features to allow me to 'drop' a number of standard demographic questions into a survey and so it allows me to keep the survey design slim while composing making it easier to manipulate.
When first designing surveys I used to prepare them using a word processor but I soon found this to be a pointless exercises as I find it much easier to use the Survey Galaxy composer from the onset as it gently reminds you of the mandatory and optional parameters applicable to each type of question/answer format.
With the ability to switch between answer formats, move items around and having a dynamic display showing the effects of all changes I would certainly recommend that anyone coming fresh to online surveys learns that writing the survey sequentially from the first to the last may not always be best.
Relax and have fun knowing that rearranging and modifying surveys is quick and easy. Don't get writers block - not sure of the exact wording put something down and move on, then go back to the question later when you are likely to have found your writing rhythm.
Friday, June 17, 2005
Detailed Results
Continuing on from yesterdays entry where the online summary results were discussed I thought it a good idea to cover the detailed results.
The detailed results will be required to analyse survey response data that cannot be summarised, such as free text fields where each response is likely to be unique. The detailed results will also be required if there is a need to perform complex analysis on the response data and/or display results in a number of graphical forms.
Survey Galaxy provides the survey information in two CSV formated files so that survey information can be easily imported into Excel or other third-party analysis applications.
One CSV file contains the survey data in rows, where each respondents responses will be listed on a separate row, the other CSV file will provide the survey data in columns where each row will show all the responses from a single respondent.
We also provide an Excel template that is used in conjunction with the CSV rows data file that uses a Excel Pivot table to summarise the information.
Included in the Excel Pivot table are a number of Survey Galaxy macros that will make creating charts and performing calculations a one click operation.
Our goal has been to provide the detailed results in a flexible format so that members can generate their own customised survey analysis reports by simply cutting and pasting the information into a final report document.
For example using the built-in Survey Galaxy macro's you are able to generate pie charts, cut and paste the pie charts that you require into a final document and then use the macro to then generate bar charts and cut and paste those bar charts that you require into the final document. In this way there is no predetermined graphical format and the most appropriate graphical format can be used for each data element.
For security all the Survey Galaxy macro code is visible and documented so it can be inspected prior to use allowing our members to remain confident that the macros do not contain any malicious code.
With Survey Galaxy generating professional survey reports is now quick, easy and fun.
The detailed results will be required to analyse survey response data that cannot be summarised, such as free text fields where each response is likely to be unique. The detailed results will also be required if there is a need to perform complex analysis on the response data and/or display results in a number of graphical forms.
Survey Galaxy provides the survey information in two CSV formated files so that survey information can be easily imported into Excel or other third-party analysis applications.
One CSV file contains the survey data in rows, where each respondents responses will be listed on a separate row, the other CSV file will provide the survey data in columns where each row will show all the responses from a single respondent.
We also provide an Excel template that is used in conjunction with the CSV rows data file that uses a Excel Pivot table to summarise the information.
Included in the Excel Pivot table are a number of Survey Galaxy macros that will make creating charts and performing calculations a one click operation.
Our goal has been to provide the detailed results in a flexible format so that members can generate their own customised survey analysis reports by simply cutting and pasting the information into a final report document.
For example using the built-in Survey Galaxy macro's you are able to generate pie charts, cut and paste the pie charts that you require into a final document and then use the macro to then generate bar charts and cut and paste those bar charts that you require into the final document. In this way there is no predetermined graphical format and the most appropriate graphical format can be used for each data element.
For security all the Survey Galaxy macro code is visible and documented so it can be inspected prior to use allowing our members to remain confident that the macros do not contain any malicious code.
With Survey Galaxy generating professional survey reports is now quick, easy and fun.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Querying online summary results in real-time
With Survey Galaxy when viewing the online summary results of private surveys in real-time you are able to perform queries on the live summary results data.
To active the query facility check the Show filters check box that is at the top of the online summary results and click on the Apply button.
Check boxes will be added to each of the result fields and you can then build the query you require by checking the relevant boxes.
For example if a survey contained gender and age groups you could choose to select male only or perform more complex queries such as looking at the results for females who are aged 30 or over simply by checking the box that related to 'females' and then checking all the ages that were 30 and over and clicking on the Apply button.
The query will be run on the live data and the results displayed online.
You are able to run as many queries using as many different permutations as you like.
To active the query facility check the Show filters check box that is at the top of the online summary results and click on the Apply button.
Check boxes will be added to each of the result fields and you can then build the query you require by checking the relevant boxes.
For example if a survey contained gender and age groups you could choose to select male only or perform more complex queries such as looking at the results for females who are aged 30 or over simply by checking the box that related to 'females' and then checking all the ages that were 30 and over and clicking on the Apply button.
The query will be run on the live data and the results displayed online.
You are able to run as many queries using as many different permutations as you like.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Improvements to including images
We have made some improvements to the way that images are displayed on surveys so that now both a Title and Text can be associated to an image.
If the image is aligned either 'left' or 'right' any text will be displayed to the right and left respectively of the image. If the image is aligned centrally any text will be displayed underneath the image. If the image Title is set to be shown as an image caption and a title defined it will always appear under the image.
If the image is aligned either 'left' or 'right' any text will be displayed to the right and left respectively of the image. If the image is aligned centrally any text will be displayed underneath the image. If the image Title is set to be shown as an image caption and a title defined it will always appear under the image.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Internet porn
The online porn industry is said to be worth $12 billion.
Someone recently joked that if all the Internet porn sites were closed down there would be one website left - and that would be the "bring back porn" website.
Those that oppose regulation say that the Internet is a powerful medium that would be stifled if regulated.
Content regulation of the Internet has however come to the fore of public debate and is an issue that both individual governments and Internet users are concerned about with a recent survey indicating that censorship is the number one concern of Internet users.
Recently is was announced that a new web address '.xxx' would be created so that porn websites could be easily identified allowing parents, business and countries to block porn website where appropriate.
Is online porn a reason to regulate the Internet or is the unregulated principles of the Internet what makes the Internet the peoples medium?
Participate in this weeks survey and register your views:-
The porn problem
Someone recently joked that if all the Internet porn sites were closed down there would be one website left - and that would be the "bring back porn" website.
Those that oppose regulation say that the Internet is a powerful medium that would be stifled if regulated.
Content regulation of the Internet has however come to the fore of public debate and is an issue that both individual governments and Internet users are concerned about with a recent survey indicating that censorship is the number one concern of Internet users.
Recently is was announced that a new web address '.xxx' would be created so that porn websites could be easily identified allowing parents, business and countries to block porn website where appropriate.
Is online porn a reason to regulate the Internet or is the unregulated principles of the Internet what makes the Internet the peoples medium?
Participate in this weeks survey and register your views:-
The porn problem
Monday, June 13, 2005
Survey Galaxy website updated
A new version of the Survey Galaxy website was released today after a major rewrite of some areas where browser compatibility issues had been reported. If you identify areas of the website that do not appear to function correctly we would very much appreciate you notifying us so that we can make the necessary corrections.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Browser compatibility issues
Our goal is to ensure that the Survey Galaxy website is fully compatible with the most popular browsers.
We have identified some areas of the website that are not compatible with the Mozilla Firefox browser and are working hard to resolve them as quickly as possible.
We welcome members feedback and appreciate any problems being reported to us through the "Report an Error/Complaint" facility found on the Survey Galaxy website's Information Page menu.
We have identified some areas of the website that are not compatible with the Mozilla Firefox browser and are working hard to resolve them as quickly as possible.
We welcome members feedback and appreciate any problems being reported to us through the "Report an Error/Complaint" facility found on the Survey Galaxy website's Information Page menu.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
X-rated security scanners that will leave nothing to the imagination
America's Homeland Security Department is preparing to install and test high-tech scanning machines that will be able to see through clothes.The new machines known as backscatters give a detailed image of the body including nipples and a clear outline of genitalia.
Similar to the X-ray security screens featured in the film Total Recall the scanners are designed to detect any device no matter what it is made of and how well concealed on or in the body.
With the technology available will society allow the technology to be deployed, how will it be balanced with legitimate privacy concerns and how safe is it?
Register your views by participating in this weeks free public survey:-
X-rated X-rays security survey
Similar to the X-ray security screens featured in the film Total Recall the scanners are designed to detect any device no matter what it is made of and how well concealed on or in the body.
With the technology available will society allow the technology to be deployed, how will it be balanced with legitimate privacy concerns and how safe is it?
Register your views by participating in this weeks free public survey:-
X-rated X-rays security survey
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Warning of attempted Phishing
Phishing is where a fraudster spams the Internet with email claiming to be from a reputable financial institution or e-commerce site. The email message urges the recipient to click on a link to update their personal profile or carry out some transaction. The link takes the victim to a fake website designed to look like the real thing. However, any personal or financial information entered is routed directly to the scammer.
We have had a number of reports where Survey Galaxy members are being asked to validate their accounts for security reasons.
Please be vigilant for these fraudlent attempts to gain account information and report any suspicious emails so that we might investigate them further.
We have had a number of reports where Survey Galaxy members are being asked to validate their accounts for security reasons.
Please be vigilant for these fraudlent attempts to gain account information and report any suspicious emails so that we might investigate them further.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Specifying an Exit URL
With Survey Galaxy you are able to specify an Exit URL that will be displayed after respondents have completed a survey.
This could be a simple 'Thank You' but equally it can be used as a 'call to action' opportunity by provided the respondent with additional information and/or product related to the survey's subject.
The Exit URL is an ideal method for driving traffic to a home page and can maximise the effectiveness of surveys that are being used for marketing and educational purposes.
This could be a simple 'Thank You' but equally it can be used as a 'call to action' opportunity by provided the respondent with additional information and/or product related to the survey's subject.
The Exit URL is an ideal method for driving traffic to a home page and can maximise the effectiveness of surveys that are being used for marketing and educational purposes.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Worldpay Payment Process Problems
We seem to be experiencing intermittent problems with the WorldPay payment process with some customers reporting that their browsers are hanging while trying to make a payment.
We have also had instances where the payment has been actioned but no confirmation has been returned back to the Survey Galaxy website resulting in the order not being processed.
We apologise for this inconvenience and would like to reassure everyone that we are aware of the problem and are working with WorldPay to try and trace and resolve the problem.
If you experience problems please contact us using Help Request so that we can manually rectify the matter.
We have also had instances where the payment has been actioned but no confirmation has been returned back to the Survey Galaxy website resulting in the order not being processed.
We apologise for this inconvenience and would like to reassure everyone that we are aware of the problem and are working with WorldPay to try and trace and resolve the problem.
If you experience problems please contact us using Help Request so that we can manually rectify the matter.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Ranking format
Survey Galaxy ranking format allow surveys to list a number of options and then ask the respondent to choose their selection in a particular order, such as favourite first or most important. The survey publisher is able to select from a number of different scoring options such as allocating the highest value to the first choice so that the most popular responses receive the highest score.
Yesterdays public survey is an example of where the ranking format can be used Sample Survey
To select the ranking format choose the Text Entry Grid format and then in the Column Titles section use the Column text attributes to define the column to either 'ranked, ascending, scoring reversed' or one of the other ranked format s that are listed.
You can limit the number of choices the respondent makes by specifying a number in the 'Max Selection field'.
Yesterdays public survey is an example of where the ranking format can be used Sample Survey
To select the ranking format choose the Text Entry Grid format and then in the Column Titles section use the Column text attributes to define the column to either 'ranked, ascending, scoring reversed' or one of the other ranked format s that are listed.
You can limit the number of choices the respondent makes by specifying a number in the 'Max Selection field'.
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