iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 2h

October 1980 poll - guess the state? (I'll put it in the alt-text)

Alabama, 1980 - 16% republican, 39% independent, 46% democratic

Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 3h

Every once in a while, I see a poll finding that shows me how different people's lives are. According to an AARP/NORC poll in 2025, 1/3 of people over 50 listen to AM radio while driving. I don't think I've heard AM radio in 40 years. Not even once.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 9h

No, not everyone likes Lego. My kids weren't builders in the slightest, particularly not of something that involving a long, step-by-step guide. One of them used to ask me to make the kits people inevitably gave him on the theory that all kids like Legos, which was like my own personal torture.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Yes, the article is condescending, but I would absolutely listen to a heritage interview with Mrs. Public Opinion.

LANCASTER, Pa. -Frances M. Davis, of 620 Emerald st., Harrisburg, Pa., is an ample, energetic lady of a certain age, with a vivid interest in human nature and cookery. Recently she has been very busy canning beans and peaches, pickling pears and cucumbers and making apple butter. She is also an authority on the subject of shoo-fly pie.
"It must be gooey," she said with finality.
But besides being an admirable housewife, Mrs.
Davis has a public role of
great importance in this
election year. She is the
chief field worker in the
Harrisburg-Lancaster area
for no less than 14 opinion-
testing firms, ranging from.
Alfred Politz to Louis Har-
ris and Oliver Quayle. In
short, she is Mrs. Public
Opinion in this corner
Pennsylvania.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

She was consistent, I will give her that.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I remember my mom, whom no one would accuse of being left-wing, getting into it with her Opus Dei friend over the death penalty. "You don't get to pick and choose!" She would get off the phone and roll her eyes, saying that some people think they know more than the Pope.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Remember those "personalized" books grandparents would buy that inserted the kid's name throughout? I have never once heard anyone wax nostalgic about those books. Because they sucked. Kids knew better.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I’m loving using these cradled wooden panels for collage. I flip them over, so they are pre-framed and when I cover in resin, there are no problematic edges. But boy, near-impossible to photograph. Particularly for me, who has fewer pics of kids/dog than anyone I know. Anyway, Choosing the Bear

Wooden panel with paper collage. A sketched B&W female figure, with a drapery of red patterned fabric, embraces a B&W engraved bear, her face full of exasperation. Behind her to the right, painted woods, with a three-color print tree at the center. To the left, a hill in the distance, with a small figure of a knight riding away.
Resin to come, which will pop the colors, but increase the existing difficulty in photographing.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Clearly Cooper's innovation was limited in utility until they saw the potential to advance it. But I still think he deserves some recognition? And I wonder if he would have gotten it had he worked at a network, not a marketing firm.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

100% it was revolutionary to get that coverage efficiently and affordably. I just think that moving from selecting every X person on every X page of the phone book to identifying active blocks and randomizing the last 4 digits was a damned big step, and I always assumed Mitofsky took it first.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This sure has. Maybe related to the previous innovation, too.

What is invasion of privacy? To some, it is as simple as answering the telephone only to find that it is a survey or a sales solicitation. Some people clearly think that their telephone is for communication between friends and those they are doing business with.
Carlson' puts it well:
The average telephone subscriber does not see himself as just another potential sampling point in one of our surveys. He pays a monthly rental for his phone and usually has a proprietary feeling about it. The day may come when he reacts to increasing sales solicitations and public opinion surveys by asking why he should help subsidize the sales and research activities of others.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Some things have indeed come to pass

recorded message enaing the interview with thanks.
Fantasy? Maybe so, but possibly not. In any case, enjoy an anecdote, though we cannot identify the research firm involved because it may suggest that an interviewer had developed too standard a patter. This interviewer had developed a fairly standard approach, and perhaps had become a little bored and boring in the process. Suddenly, at one point, a respondent said, "Is this a recording?"
"Certainly not," came back the indignant answer. "I am a person!" Well, it might just happen that the voice the respondent hears sometime in the future will be a recording!

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

We have the technology, but not the desire. The horror! (I know there are examples of video interviewing, but not for standard polls)

The Videophone. The videophone, already technically perfected, is a device that sends video images between the telephone caller and the correspondent. However, a market test showed that while people enjoyed it, they were not willing to pay the fee for the extra service, so it was never offered to the public at large.
If this is ever offered at large, and becomes popular, it could result in a whole new stage of the professional telephone survey. It could make the telephone interview almost as personal a matter as the present house-to-house interview, without its obvious limitations.
It would also mean that visual materials could be shown to the respondent, thus overcoming one of the major limitations of the telephone interview.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

There are also predictions. Some of these have not come to pass - I wonder if we will look back on articles about synthetic respondents and smile at their optimism

The evening news is on. A Walter Cronkite or John Chancellor or Harry Reasoner reads off the headlines. A pause. Then a request to the millions out there watching: How do you feel about a specific issue of the day? In a matter of minutes the announcer reads off the results of this instant poll. A nonsense idea, you say? Read this prediction of Richard C. Wald, President of N.B.C. News, on how it will be ten years hence. "I hate to say it, but I think we will probably come into a period of instantaneous polling. ... I am sure that within ten years there will be a mechanism by which some anchorman sitting somewhere can say: And what do you think of Henry Kissinger's plan to nationalize whatever it is? And he'll push a button, and within ten minutes a national poll sample will have been taken, and people will say what they think...

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The 1977 Blankenship book doesn’t just track development of telephone survey methodology, it also gives insights into the choice of interviewers. are they fit enough to (checks notes) sit at a desk? Do they wear jeans?

Young People. Sylvia Barr, of Walker Research, reports a high proportion of young people on their interviewing staff, and many other professional telephone research firms say the same thing. If it is true that this is a job calling for constant effort on part of the interviewer, then a younger, more physically fit person could take the strain better.
A Real Mix. Some firms report a real mix of types on their interviewing staff. Sarah Huneycutt, vice president of Opinion Research Corpora-tion, says that they have young people, old people, men, women, and various ethnic groups represented. Trendex also varies. Their continuing staff includes one retired school teacher of 65, one part-time artist who wears jeans, and a "real lady." Take your choice!

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

thank you! I was feeling like somehow I had egregiously missed something everyone else knew!

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Not to discount MItofsky and Waksberg at all! But the story is more complex than usually presented. Before I fell into this, I was a pastry cook. And that world is all lore and apprenticeship, legend and lineage. I'm constantly suprised at the parallels in early polling, despite the differences.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Ah, I see, he got a computerized file from AT&T. That would change things. Hm. Yes, that revolutionized the practical implementation. But I find it interesting how Mitofsky is lionized and Cooper - well, I sure don't know everything, but in 26 yrs in this world, it's the first I've heard of him.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I'm holding my thoughts on this until I hear from the actual methodological experts - I am no methodologist

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

If I have any followers who are not enormous dorks, the context here is that Warren Mitofsky is widely credited as having invented RDD - several years post 1964. Maybe he changed enough aspects of this approach that it became practical, that's reasonable. Still seems like Cooper would be worth a nod

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So I looked up his 1964 article, and I don't really see how this is in essence different from RDD. I mean, the "crisscross directory" may be an antiquated way of determining active exchanges and blocks, but at core, is there a meaningful difference?

proach, with modifications aimed at making it
acceptably efficient.
By consulting the local criss-cross directory it was
determined that there are 62 3-digit prefix num-
bers (exchanges) serving non-toll telephones in the
Greater Cincinnati area. Of these, five small exchanges
serve business offices only, leaving 57 that serve the
City's domestic or private telephones as well as other
businesses. Each exchange is capable of supporting
10,000 telephone numbers (0000 through 9999).
None of the exchanges, however, is completely filled
and in fact many are only sparsely filled. Furthermore,
individual telephone numbers are not necessarily as-
signed randomly from the available 4-digit combi-
nations; they tend rather to be assigned step-wise in
blocks of 1000. For example, the "781" exchange, rep-
resenting an outlying area, has many numbers in the
0000 to 0999, 1000 to 1999 and 2000 to 2999 blocks,
and is thus only about three-tenths filled. Numbers in
the 3000 to 9000 blocks, for that exchange, are non-
existent and will be assigned for use only when new
customers move into the area. On the other hand, the
"721" exchange, representing a more established area
of the city, has numbers in each of its ten possible
blocks (0004 through 9899, to be exact).
By determining which number blocks are, or are
not, in use for each exchange, it was possible to de-
velop a table of 4-digit numbers, composed of the three
digits of each exchange, plus the first digit of those
blocks known to be in use for that exchange, which
represents all possible existing telephone numbers in
the Greater Cincinnati area. Using the above exam-
ples, here follow two exchanges included in the table:

Thus the use of the 4 digit numbers in the aforemen-
tioned table, as the first four digits of a dialing, create
the possibility of connecting with 99.98 percent of all
residential phones in the community. By using this
table, it remains only to supply the final three digits
for any block to create a potential telephone number.
This can be accomplished by using a table of random
numbers, and such a table was used [1] to develop a
group of 472 telephone numbers for the trial survey
described below.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

I know there are a lot of people on here who know a ton more about surveys and methodological history than I do. Could one of them explain this to me? Wtf is Sanford Cooper?

The Solution to Unlisted Numbers
The solution to the problem of unlisted numbers is the use of random-
digit dialing. The idea of using random-digit dialing was first con-
ceived of and used by Sanford Cooper, now president of Burke
Marketing Research. Cooper created these numbers by working with a
crisscross directory-a directory which, among other things, lists num-
bers by exchange. This kept down the cost of using completely ran-
domly selected digits for the last four digits of the number. Since, as
will be shown, there are more unused than used exchange numbers, the use of completely random numbers would result in many, many wasted calls, and therefore increase costs. The various specific means of selecting random digits currently in continuing use all include some method to cut down on such waste. As of now no commercial firm utilizes crisscross directories for this purpose, for reasons shown a little later in this chapter.

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Reposted by Kathleen Weldon

Josh Zingher @zingherpolisci.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

We've probably learned more about American politics from the ANES than any other single data source. The same is true for the GSS and sociology. Both of these are gone if Congress acquiesces to these NSF cuts.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I should really do this - I would use my UK cookbooks more.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I am pleased to see that scientist made the list, but hoo boy... BASR, 1949

Respondent's job preference for Daughter by Occupation
Actress
Artist
Nurse
Waitress
Model
Teacher
Saleslady in store
Beautician
Secretary
Airline stewardess
Full-time housewife
Scientist
Social worker
Woman's magezine editor

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

What's more, this woman clearly enjoyed her job

This questionnaire appears to be a nice, snappy one - a sort of springtime tonic.
The weather's pretty gloomy right now; it's a "brings-June-flowers" kind of day
in the city. Maybe you can be lucky enuf to space your interviews during showers,
and make those dashes from house to car in the rainless moments. Anyway -- may you
find happy and interesting interviewing on Ballot #171.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Of course, now people are bombarded with requests for their opinion at every turn. I don't blame them for refusing.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Daylight savings = perennial hot topic. But what I find interesting here is how invested the survey org (Minn Poll) was in respondents enjoying the survey. Respondents were expected to find taking a poll a bit of communal fun, not an unpleasant civic obligation or something done for a bit of cash

Our opener this month is our all-time favorite opener, accor-
ding to veteran interviewers. No question seems to get a
respondent more in the mood to be interviewed than questions about daylight saving time. We hope it's as popular this year as it has been in the past.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Early methods research can send you to some weird places

Page from book with a newspaper reproduction within the text. The newpaper headline read "Baby pig care - it PAYS", while the book text indicates that the read score for this article was 60.5% for men and 20.0% for women. A subtitle reads "Hogs May Pull in Non-Readers"

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Reminder that women built polling. "Intelligent farm women" even. Whose attitudes, amazingly, differ from their husbands'.

Women find the Poll questions interesting and often differ in their answers from men in the family. Polk County, Iowa
Grainy B&W scan of photo of woman at a mailbox.

Wallace-Homestead Poll

Since 1938, Farmers Have Participated in Poll That
Shows Farm Opinions

"We have been lucky enough to get a group of intelligent farm women to do the actual interviewing as a spare-time job."

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Somebody update this; I want to know how much de-gendering of choice of musical instruments has happened. Guitar, surely? But probably not as much as I would like. I once tried to get harmonica lessons, and the instructor asked if I was inquiring for my boyfriend, then turned me down when I said no.

1938 Psychological Corporation Barometer Survey of 2500 Americans in towns and cities, showing 42% of households had at least one person who could play a musical instrument. When asked the instruments played, 88% of women played piano and 5% violin, with no other single instrument getting over 1% and just % misc. For men, 42% played piano, 10% violin, 9% violin, 7% each guita and trumpet, 6% saxophone, 5% drums, 3% accordion, as well as 1% each harmonica and cello and a whopping 17% misc.

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Reposted by Kathleen Weldon

Roper Center @ropercenter.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

During her Cornell University visit last week, CNN Polling & Analytics Editor Ariel Edwards-Levy shared her recently published guide to handling the oncoming deluge of midterm polling. Read the article here: www.cnn.com/2026/09/...

Midterm elections text on white background

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I couldn't get through that, jesus christ

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

He had the nerve to say that it was a service that was particularly good for divorced women who are old enough to know what they want done and to want it done right. Yeah, I bet I'm your core market, buster. Or should I say mark?

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I was quoted nearly $900/month for 3 hrs handyman time. Not plumber/electrician, just change out the hinge on that gate, install some shelves, replace the light fixture stuff. I'm sure that would not have been the price had my shaved-headed veteran boyfriend parked his pickup out front

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

You have to love an occupational coding system that groups soldiers with piano tuners and detectives with manicurists

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Craftsmen, Foremen & Kindred Workers
Annealers; Bakers; Blacksmiths; Boilermakers; Bookbinders; Brickmasons; Cabinet-
makers; Carpenters; Cement finishers; Compositors; Concrete finishers; Copper-
smiths; Cranemen; Derrickmen; Diemakers; Die setters; Electricians; Electro-
typers; Engravers; Excavating machinery operators; Forgemen; Glaziers; Goldsmiths;
Grading machinery operators; Heat treaters; Hoistmen; Lens grinders & polishers;
Lithographers; Locomotive engineers; Locomotive firemen; Log & lumber scalers & graders; Loom fixers; Machinists; Mechanics; Metal molders; Metal rollers; Metal roll hands; Millers; Millwrights; Motion picture projectionists; Opticians; Organ tuners; Painters (construction & maintenance); Paperhangers; Photoengravers; Piano tuners; Pipe fitters; Plasterers; Plate printers; Plumbers; Power linemen & servicemen; Printing pressmen; Road machinery operators; Roofers; Sheet metal workers; Shoemakers, except in factories; Silversmiths; Slaters; Stationary engineers; Stereotypers; Stone carvers; Stone cutters; Stonemasons; Structural metal
workers; Tailors; Telegraph & telephone linemen & servicemen; Tile setters; Tinsmiths; Tool makers; Typesetters; Upholsterers; Watchmakers; Window dressers -
MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES.

Service Workers
Attendents & ushers in amusement places; Bailiffs; Barbers; Bartenders; Beauticians; Boarding house keepers; Bootblacks; Bridge tenders; Charwomen; Cooks;
Detectives; Doorkeepers; Elevator operators; Firemen (fire protection);
Fountain workers; Guards; Hospital attendants; Housekeepers, laundresses & domestics; Janitors; Lodginghouse keepers; Manicurists; Marshals; Midwives; Policemen; Porters; Practical nurses; Sextons; Sheriffs; Stewards; Waiters; Watchmen.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I had the same reaction, like finding out the big new actor is the child of someone famous. I wish all our celebrities were bears.

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Bodies, Emotions and Material Culture Collective @bemccollective.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A feathery feature: @stefanhanss.bsky.social and the Collective’s digital microscopes will help uncover the mysteries of a 400-year-old ‘Feather Book’ held at McGill University Libraries. The project is led by Dr Victoria Dickenson and funded by @sshrc-crsh.canada.ca. Read more on our blog!

sites.manchester.ac.uk

History, Art and Science join Forces to Unlock the Mysteries of a 400-Year-Old Feather Book

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Coded response to open-ended question "what causes tuberculosis", put to those respondents who said it was not "a germ" Other answers from previous page include "inherit it" and "being too cold." But "too much bed sport" is the clear winner here.

Question 2b (Continued)

43 Too much bed sport
44 A hard knook or bang
45 Too much strenous exeroise
46 Too much fast living
47 The way you live
48 Overwork
49 Nervous breakdown
50 Working conditions
51 Overtiredness, fatigue, not enough rest
52 Run down, weak, poor health, loose weight (sic), other diseases

otheR diseAses

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Reposted by Kathleen Weldon

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

When they get back in power, Democrats need to go all-in on higher education. We need a campaign of reinvestment in public universities across the country that makes the Morrill Land-Grant Act look like nothing by comparison *and* a GI Bill of Rights-style program of tuition grants.

20752441427

Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

My favorite expression in this vein is "oil change coffee", like the sort of free coffee you get while waiting for your car's oil to be changed, Maxwell House that has been cooking on the burner of an old coffee machine for half a day.

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Kathleen Weldon @kathleenweldon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I love that you obviously corrected for the typo and did not, like me, stare endlessly at the screen wondering if it was a noodle stand at the beach or whether it was sand from the beach in your noodles

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