[@OKau] Looking into dark places: Dealing with controversial topics in survey design

Sat Jan 23 00:49:48 UTC 2016

https://openaus.net.au/blog/2016/01/23/looking-into-dark-places-dealing-with-controversial-topics-in-survey-design/
Looking into dark places: Dealing with controversial topics in survey design
January 23, 2016

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There are few topics more controversial than transparency and accountability. At it’s broadest, transparency deals with everything from asylum seeker legislation to corruption at the race track. I thought I’d write about the issues that can arise when researching controversial topics given my current foray into social research<https://infoaus.net/openaus/survey.php>.

The point of the OpenAus Accountability Survey<https://infoaus.net/openaus/survey.php> is to show both respondents and wider audience the gamut of issues<https://infoaus.net/openaus/question_one.php> and actions<https://infoaus.net/openaus/question_two.php> that can be taken to improve transparency in Australia. A survey is basically a crowdsourcing mechanism- not that this term existed before the interwebs when I was a student of social research.

Collecting this information anonymously but sharing it publicly allows people to pool information about their opinions, their actions, the tools and resources that help them in their efforts. This is a different approach to traditional research which aims to measure something concrete and static. Ideas, opinions and actions change and I wanted an approach that would accommodate that effect rather than eliminate it. Rather than try to capture a moment in time, the survey provides a way for people to share information and in doing so create a new data set that can be given back to the community to inform their future actions.

The whole process of putting together this survey was very instructive to me to better understand transparency. It made me think more broadly beyond the issues of most interest to me to include the wide array of issues<https://infoaus.net/openaus/question_one.php> transparency touches from cheating in sport to political donations.

To avoid overloading people I used multiple choice with checkboxes. I wanted to keep the structure simple so the survey would not take long to do. I have 5 basic questions, the last of these is for people answering on behalf of organisations. There are different types of organisations working toward transparency in Australia from political parties like The Pirate Party<https://pirateparty.org.au/> and The WikiLeaks Party<http://www.wikileaksparty.org.au/> to government organisations for example, the Australian National Audit Office<http://anao.gov.au/Publications/Audit-Reports> or ASADA<https://www.asada.gov.au/> and of course non government organisations like Transparency International<http://transparency.org.au/> or Whistleblowers Australia<http://whistleblowers.org.au/>.

Participation in such a survey is a way for such organisations to share the work they do with a broad audience and get information from the survey on what other people and organisations are doing. Interesting issues had to be confronted during my short but helpful testing phase. I had originally included a check box for ” I am a whistleblower” and “I provide support for whistleblowers” in Question 2<https://infoaus.net/openaus/question_two.php>.

I attended the Whistleblowers Australia<http://www.whistleblowers.org.au/> Annual Conference late last year and was super impressed by the organisation and the whistleblowers who presented their stories at the conference.

Originally I saw no issue including the questions as whistleblowing in and of itself is not an illegal activity and I wanted to include and credit the wonderful work done byWhistleblowers Australia<http://www.whistleblowers.org.au/> in providing support to whistleblowers.

I chose to code the survey from scratch rather than use something like survey monkey so whatever choices I make I have to implement myself. During my short testing phase I received feedback that the government may ask me to provide details of people who had answered yes to the whistleblower question (this did not come from Whistleblowers Australia incidentally). At the time I had set up registration with the survey to require supply of email address so if people forgot their password I would have a way of identifying which was theirs. The data is otherwise anonymous.

I sought a second opinion on the whistleblower question and got a more positive reply but in the end I took those questions out anyway- along with the need to use an email address for registration. While I thought that discussing the pros and cons of asking people about whistleblowing activity was a very interesting public discussion to have, I decided that the potential for people wanting to be reminded of their password and potentially re-doing the survey as another user was less of an issue than people deciding not to do the survey at all out of fear.

Personally I can’t see a legal basis for being asked to provide information for activities that are not actually illegal but in the end I didn’t think the number of positive responses I’d get to those questions were significant enough to warrant raising concerns with users generally. I realised that similar but less specific questions are asked in other places such as Questions Two <https://infoaus.net/openaus/question_two.php> & Five<https://infoaus.net/openaus/question_five.php> so figured I’d capture input from the same people anyway.

Such conversations provide a fascinating entree to what I hope will continue an informed and robust public discussion about issues in transparency in Australia. You are welcome to complete or comment on the survey and become part of the public debate on accountability in Australia.

Rosie Williams BA (Sociology)
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 NoFibs.com.au<http://nofibs.com.au> - Open Data Reporter | OpenAus<https://openaus.net.au> - Founder and Developer

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