5730  Research project: Correlation between cultural

Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:11:08 +1000
From: Tango Research <tangoresearch@gmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between cultural
identity and tango
To: tango-l@mit.edu
<7f23b1d50908141811q69113a9dv5bb648b0603ca450@mail.gmail.com>

?We all love Argentine tango - but since we come from a
?variety of cultures and backgrounds, perhaps we love it differently?

?To find out whether we feel and relate to tango in a manner
which depends on our cultural identity, I've designed a
?short online web survey.

?Would you take the survey? It will probably take only 10 minutes,
?because I want your immediate reaction, not a considered one.
You can remain anonymous, or you can leave an email address to
receive a copy of the results after analysis.
(Your address and details will not be divulged to others.)

?The survey (in English, Japanese and Spanish) is at:
?https://tangoresearch.webs.com

?And of course, I'd be very happy if you would ask your tango
friends to do it as well.

?Thanks for your cooperation.

Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:07:27 +1000
From: Myk Dowling <politas@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between cultural
identity and tango
To: Tango Research <tangoresearch@gmail.com>
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu

On Sat, 2009-08-15 at 11:11 +1000, Tango Research wrote:

> We all love Argentine tango - but since we come from a
> variety of cultures and backgrounds, perhaps we love it differently?
>
> To find out whether we feel and relate to tango in a manner
> which depends on our cultural identity, I've designed a
> short online web survey.

> The survey (in English, Japanese and Spanish) is at:
> https://tangoresearch.webs.com

It would appear I can't fill in the survey without disabling important
security features of my browser, so I won't complete it. Sorry!

Myk
in Canberra

Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:45:09 -0300
From: Shahrukh Merchant <shahrukh@shahrukhmerchant.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between cultural
identity and tango
To: tango-l@mit.edu

> It would appear I can't fill in the survey without disabling important
> security features of my browser, so I won't complete it. Sorry!

Which made me go to check it out. No conflicts with my browser settings,
but be aware that it makes you go through a seemingly never-ending set
of word-associations. I gave up after 64 of them, without getting any
indication as to (a) when if ever this was going to end (b) whether my
efforts would be wasted if I didn't stick it out till the end (when and
if it really came) (c) whether the real survey was possibly on the
patience of Tango dancers (how long would they click on levels in a
word-association game proposed by an anonymous Tango research figure
until they gave up--the "64" datapoint is mine ... :-) ?) (d) who was
really behind the survey (no indication in the original email nor on the
website) (e) why the need for an email address (albeit optional) "to
receive the survey results" when the obvious thing to do would be to
post the results back to Tango-L?

It may very well be legitimate, but I would suggest that the
survey-taker may wish to answer or address some of these points to get a
better and more useful response (and that others may wish to wait for
the response before participating, just in case).

Shahrukh

>> To find out whether we feel and relate to tango in a manner
>> > which depends on our cultural identity, I've designed a
>> > short online web survey.
>
>> > The survey (in English, Japanese and Spanish) is at:
>> > https://tangoresearch.webs.com

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 07:05:34 +1000
From: "Vince Bagusauskas" <vytis@hotmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Subject: Re: Research project: Correlation between
cultural identity and tango
To: <tango-l@mit.edu>

Shahrukh Merchant said:

> It would appear I can't fill in the survey without disabling important
> security features of my browser, so I won't complete it. Sorry!

"Which made me go to check it out. No conflicts with my browser
settings,
but be aware that it makes you go through a seemingly never-ending set
of word-associations. I gave up after 64 of them, without getting any
indication as to (a) when if ever this was going to end (b) whether my
efforts would be wasted if I didn't stick it out till the end (when and
if it really came) (c) whether the real survey was possibly on the "


There are 100 word associations. 10 minutes to complete the survey is a
conservative figure. I did indicate at the end in the comments that the
survey was far too long and was boring towards the end and it would put
people off.

Also no conflicts with my firewall settings.

V

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:36:29 +0900
From: Astrid <astrid@ruby.plala.or.jp>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between cultural
identity and tango
To: Shahrukh Merchant <shahrukh@shahrukhmerchant.com>
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu

Shahrukh Merchant wrote:

> (d) who was
> really behind the survey (no indication in the original email nor on the
> website) (e) why the need for an email address (albeit optional) "to
> receive the survey results" when the obvious thing to do would be to
> post the results back to Tango-L?
>
> It may very well be legitimate, but I would suggest that the
> survey-taker may wish to answer or address some of these points to get a
> better and more useful response

I was sent this survey a while ago by a friend who works in an
Australian university and who dances tango. I filled it in because I
thought it was hers. I also, in the comment sections, added a few
questions regarding the research methods and as to who wrote this
questionnarie and what is it's purpose and received no answer at all. In
fact, a few weeks later she sent me another mail, asking me again to
fill in the same questionnaire. When I replied that I had already done
so she wrote:"Thank youuuuuu!" So maybe it is from her, as I thought?
However- I have taken a semester of empirical research and it 's methods
used for psychological studies and have to say that this survey is using
one of the classical methods (giving a list of words and asking people
to rate them on a scale of 1-10 or whatever) and the method is ill
chosen in this case. In my opinion it is unlikely to produce any useful,
significant results. The whole questionnarie is boring, as you already
said, and likely to frustrate and demotivate the person who is filling
it in. It does not facilitate expressing the dancer's thoughts or
feelings, does not hit on the essence of tango but rather consists of a
number of haphazardly chosen ill fitting questions (copied from other,
similar questonnaires designed to research a compeltely different
topic?) which say more about the researcher's lack of imagination,
research experience and understanding of the tango than anything else.
The only thing that speaks in favour of using this questionnaire is the
fact that it is easy to evaluate and that the answers to these shallow
and misleading questions are quickly counted. Which would fit my
impression that the researcher is a lazy one who is not willing to spend
much time on designing or thinking about neither the questionnare nor
the answers.

Astrid

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:33:38 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
From: "johnofbristol@tiscali.co.uk" <johnofbristol@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between
culturalidentity and tango
To: "tango-l@mit.edu" <tango-l@mit.edu>

In my opinion, far to many word-associations. I did get to the end, but
after about no 60 I left my mouse in the same place and just went click-
click-click.

John Ward
Bristol, UK




Get away from it all with Tiscali Travel - https://www.tiscali.co.uk/travel

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:36:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Trini y Sean (PATangoS)" <patangos@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between
culturalidentity and tango
To: "tango-l@mit.edu" <tango-l@mit.edu>

I finished all of the survey, but I don't want to bias future respondents by saying what I got out of doing it. As someone who has lived in 2 different cultures since I was 5, I thought it was interesting. But perhaps not everyone can be as sensitive about cultural differences because most only know one culture intimately.

So I can see where the current discussion lead to the tango survey.

Trini de Pittsburgh

Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:27:38 -0500
From: "Alex Long" <alex@tangofuego.us>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between cultural
identity
To: <tango-L@mit.edu>

After I completed the survey, I checked out the domain name in my browser
address bar to try to determine who was doing the project. It could be
someone other than the domain owner being offered the space on the server.

Survey address :: https://home.exetel.com.au/bodypaint/research.php

Parse the "research.php" to find a (nude) body painting website ::
https://home.exetel.com.au/bodypaint/

"Photographers Page" link from above :: https://www.billpoonphotodesign.com/

It took me about five minutes to complete the survey. I look forward seeing
the results.

It did occur to me that someone might be trying to (obtusely) drive traffic
to the photographer's website or otherwise generate publicity for him. Or,
it could be a legitimate research project by a university student.

Who knows? Who cares? I thought it was interesting.

Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:48:54 +1000
From: Tango Research <tangoresearch@gmail.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between cultural
identity and tango
To: tango-l@mit.edu
<7f23b1d50908171848n5bfe5c4dse6c4808f9a767052@mail.gmail.com>

Some of you have expressed concerns about the tango survey
(relationship between one?s cultural identity and the values they see
in tango).

This survey derived from questions which arose from my experience with
tango dancers in various countries, on different continents. Although
this is a study born out of my personal interest, as an experienced
researcher (I have a MA and a PhD, and one of my research interest
lies in the field of psycholinguistics), I have gone through all the
expected protocols for this study, starting with literature review. I
have decided on the methodology (methods of investigation, procedure,
and analyses) after due consideration.

The survey is an initial, exploratory study to determine whether the
results are sufficiently promising to pursue a more intensive study.
If the results of the survey are promising (I am happy to share the
results with anyone who wishes to see them), I may consider doing this
study as a university project, in which case I have to obtain an
official ethics clearance, for example, to conduct email interviews
(as mentioned at the end of the survey).

I chose to be anonymous and used non-personal email to communicate,
mainly because my personal email would reveal my occupation and
institution, leading people to presume that this survey was one of the
university research projects, which it is not.

For reasons stated above, it would be inappropriate to host the survey
on the servers at work. Public servers did not provide the necessary
database facilities, so the bulk of the survey code is being hosted by
a friend. Traffic diversion is not an aim.

One participant (well, in the end, non-participant) expressed security
concerns. The only aspect of the survey mechanism that may have
triggered the reported security alert is that the survey mechanism
uses a "cookie" to control the survey session. This is the intended
purpose of cookies, which are no sort of security threat to anyone.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie for a discussion of
cookies, from which I quote:

----------
?Being simple pieces of text, cookies are not executable. They are
neither spyware or viruses, although cookies from certain sites are
detected by many anti-spyware products because they can allow users to
be tracked when they visit various sites.

Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies,
and the time frame to keep them, but rejecting cookies makes some
websites unusable. For example, shopping carts or login systems
implemented using cookies do not work if cookies are disabled.?

---------
Another participant remarked "too many words the same". The words
have been carefully chosen from an extensive literature review. Words
that appear to be synonyms to one person may be significantly
different to another. The survey is also in three languages, and
synonyms in one language may not be so in another.

The survey includes 100 words (which were selected from an initial
pool of 178 words), as clearly stated at the beginning of the word
test.

--------
Please position the cursor and click once to indicate how much you think
this word is important to your tango. Please make a judgement based on your
intuition (without giving it a deep thought). You will see 100 words
altogether, but the whole test should be completed within 10 min if
you respond to each word within 6 seconds.

-------

In order to further emphasise this, I have modified the text on the
word-page to not only indicate that you are up to word-N but
reiterating that it is "out of 100". For those who felt that it got
boring, if this was due to the proximity of particular words, note
that they are delivered in an order randomised for each participant.

The optional inclusion of email address provides a means of direct
delivery of survey results on completion of the research. The survey
is not confined to members of tango-L, and hence publication of the
results on tango-L is not sufficient. Some survey participants do not
belong to this, or any such group, but still wish to be advised of
results. I underline that email address is optional. Note also the
assurance that addresses will not be divulged.

I thank those tango-L listeros who have participated, and would be
grateful if you would ask others to participate - particularly those
of Japanese and Latin background, since they are currently
under-represented.

Questions and constructive suggestions are always welcome. However, as
I cannot attend to this project as much as I would like to (I am doing
this outside of my work), my responses may be delayed.

Thank you.
TR

Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:42:37 +1000
From: Myk Dowling <politas@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Research project: Correlation between cultural
identity and tango
To: Tango Research <tangoresearch@gmail.com>
Cc: tango-l@mit.edu

On Tue, 2009-08-18 at 11:48 +1000, Tango Research wrote:

> Some of you have expressed concerns about the tango survey
> (relationship between one?s cultural identity and the values they see
> in tango).
>
> This survey derived from questions which arose from my experience with
> tango dancers in various countries, on different continents. Although
> this is a study born out of my personal interest, as an experienced
> researcher (I have a MA and a PhD, and one of my research interest
> lies in the field of psycholinguistics), I have gone through all the
> expected protocols for this study, starting with literature review. I
> have decided on the methodology (methods of investigation, procedure,
> and analyses) after due consideration.
>
> The survey is an initial, exploratory study to determine whether the
> results are sufficiently promising to pursue a more intensive study.
> If the results of the survey are promising (I am happy to share the
> results with anyone who wishes to see them), I may consider doing this
> study as a university project, in which case I have to obtain an
> official ethics clearance, for example, to conduct email interviews
> (as mentioned at the end of the survey).
>
> I chose to be anonymous and used non-personal email to communicate,
> mainly because my personal email would reveal my occupation and
> institution, leading people to presume that this survey was one of the
> university research projects, which it is not.
>
> For reasons stated above, it would be inappropriate to host the survey
> on the servers at work. Public servers did not provide the necessary
> database facilities, so the bulk of the survey code is being hosted by
> a friend. Traffic diversion is not an aim.
>
> One participant (well, in the end, non-participant) expressed security
> concerns. The only aspect of the survey mechanism that may have
> triggered the reported security alert is that the survey mechanism
> uses a "cookie" to control the survey session.

No, the problem is a Javascript issue. I don't block cookies. But I do
not allow any Javascript to run that is not from whitelisted site (using
the NoScript Firefox extension, https://noscript.net/). This is a very
useful security tool which acts to stop cross-site scripting attacks.
Unfortunately, although there is clearly Javascript being attempted, it
is not announcing itself properly, so I don't get a domain name I can
whitelist.

It would seem likely that your survey forms are mimicking a cross-site
scripting attack, by linking to Javascript code being stored on a
different website. If you tell me what that website is, I can white-list
it, and run the survey.

Myk,
in Canberra