The exploitation of the Telepanel
In order to run the Telepanel without loss, we had to get not only contracts for incidental research but also some long term projects. Here we will not mention the different small studies that were done for different clients but concentrate on the projects where observations through time were required.One such a project was already obtained from Eurostat .
The Eurostat project 1990-1991
During the first year of the Telepanel the commercial research was mainly concentrated on the data collection for the Eurostat project. The purpose was to demonstrate that “Complete Automated Systems for Information Processing” with respect to family budget research was possible. Using the telepanel the data were collected with respect to income, regular expenditures and fast moving goods. Using the program Sysfile, developed by Marius de Pijper, the data were transformed from many individual household files to a data base for all households together. This file could be transformed by the Greek program MIDAS in a form that could be used by the Spanish researchers to formulate reports about standard national indices for income and expenditures.
Besides this test on the telepanel also a test of the system in Portugal using portable computers was planned. We developed a program that was able to split the questionnaires in text files and computer instructions. In this way it was simpler for Portuguese researchers to translate the texts of the questionnaires in Portuguese. Because of national specialities the new questionnaires were adjusted before they were tested in Portugal.
To make the final report I suggested to meet in Davos, my favorite place for skating. One week I went skating and the next three days we prepared the final report. This report was presented in Luxemburg at the end of the year. The Eurostat managers of the informatics department were quite proud of the product of our group and thought that it was an important contribution to the automatization of the data collection which in all European countries had to be done. IT would have been attractive for us if the Dutch Statistical Office would have taken over our approach but they were at that time developing their own program for computer assisted data collection (Blaise).
During the first year of the Telepanel the commercial research was mainly concentrated on the data collection for the Eurostat project. The purpose was to demonstrate that “Complete Automated Systems for Information Processing” with respect to family budget research was possible. Using the telepanel the data were collected with respect to income, regular expenditures and fast moving goods. Using the program Sysfile, developed by Marius de Pijper, the data were transformed from many individual household files to a data base for all households together. This file could be transformed by the Greek program MIDAS in a form that could be used by the Spanish researchers to formulate reports about standard national indices for income and expenditures.
Besides this test on the telepanel also a test of the system in Portugal using portable computers was planned. We developed a program that was able to split the questionnaires in text files and computer instructions. In this way it was simpler for Portuguese researchers to translate the texts of the questionnaires in Portuguese. Because of national specialities the new questionnaires were adjusted before they were tested in Portugal.
To make the final report I suggested to meet in Davos, my favorite place for skating. One week I went skating and the next three days we prepared the final report. This report was presented in Luxemburg at the end of the year. The Eurostat managers of the informatics department were quite proud of the product of our group and thought that it was an important contribution to the automatization of the data collection which in all European countries had to be done. IT would have been attractive for us if the Dutch Statistical Office would have taken over our approach but they were at that time developing their own program for computer assisted data collection (Blaise).
Debate about a declaration
A bit later I received a call from our contact person of the informatics department of Eurostat who told me that they could not pay the full amount of the costs of our meeting in Davos because it was a tourist resort. There was a new rule in Eurostat that in such cases Eurostat would reimburse only half the costs. I told him that we had chosen Davos because it lies just in the middle between Amsterdam, Barcelona and Crete and I asked him if this rule would also apply if we had chosen Zürich. He had to admit that they would have reimbursed the full amount. Then I asked him whether he thought that we had not worked there? He immediately started to apologize that he did not assume that. Finally I asked him if he had not seen that we had made together a book about the project, was that not enough proof of what we had done. He agreed and we got the full costs reimbursed.
A bit later I received a call from our contact person of the informatics department of Eurostat who told me that they could not pay the full amount of the costs of our meeting in Davos because it was a tourist resort. There was a new rule in Eurostat that in such cases Eurostat would reimburse only half the costs. I told him that we had chosen Davos because it lies just in the middle between Amsterdam, Barcelona and Crete and I asked him if this rule would also apply if we had chosen Zürich. He had to admit that they would have reimbursed the full amount. Then I asked him whether he thought that we had not worked there? He immediately started to apologize that he did not assume that. Finally I asked him if he had not seen that we had made together a book about the project, was that not enough proof of what we had done. He agreed and we got the full costs reimbursed.
The FNV Barometer 1992-1993
Another larger commercial project that NIMMO was performing on the telepanel was an opinion research project on a regularly basis for the largest trade union in the Netherlands. This project was known under the name the FNV Barometer.
Bas van de Putte who had worked on this project at the SRF continued this research together with a former student of me, Coen van Rij. In total 5 times a survey was done for the FNV in 1992 and 4 times in 1993.
The data collected became more and more important which was clear from the fact that Professor Jelle Visser of the University of Amsterdam and professor Bert Klandermans of the Free University became involved in this project while we had regularly contacts with top representatives of the FNV about the results of our research
Besides the commercial importance of this research for STP this research contributed also to the other purpose of the STP which was that it should provide possibilities for scientific research which otherwise would not be possible. The relevance of this research was such that, inspired by this research, Bas van de Putte got his PhD degree in 1993 while also Coen van Rij finished his dissertation about the explanation of the duration of the membership of the FNV somewhat later in 1986.
Another larger commercial project that NIMMO was performing on the telepanel was an opinion research project on a regularly basis for the largest trade union in the Netherlands. This project was known under the name the FNV Barometer.
Bas van de Putte who had worked on this project at the SRF continued this research together with a former student of me, Coen van Rij. In total 5 times a survey was done for the FNV in 1992 and 4 times in 1993.
The data collected became more and more important which was clear from the fact that Professor Jelle Visser of the University of Amsterdam and professor Bert Klandermans of the Free University became involved in this project while we had regularly contacts with top representatives of the FNV about the results of our research
Besides the commercial importance of this research for STP this research contributed also to the other purpose of the STP which was that it should provide possibilities for scientific research which otherwise would not be possible. The relevance of this research was such that, inspired by this research, Bas van de Putte got his PhD degree in 1993 while also Coen van Rij finished his dissertation about the explanation of the duration of the membership of the FNV somewhat later in 1986.
More acquisition
Later in 1992 it was clear to me and the director of the faculty that we had obtained not enough requests for new research, therefore it was decided to hire a person with experience in Market research for the acquisition. Together with Maarten van Maurik and the director of the faculty we considered different possibilities. One was to use the questionnaires for expenditures for consumer research. Another was to try to get research from Banks given that we had information about the income of the people. Thirdly there was a possibility to apply for research of a high income study that was planned for the next years by the University of Tilburg. These plans have been worked out and the results are presented in a next story.
Later in 1992 it was clear to me and the director of the faculty that we had obtained not enough requests for new research, therefore it was decided to hire a person with experience in Market research for the acquisition. Together with Maarten van Maurik and the director of the faculty we considered different possibilities. One was to use the questionnaires for expenditures for consumer research. Another was to try to get research from Banks given that we had information about the income of the people. Thirdly there was a possibility to apply for research of a high income study that was planned for the next years by the University of Tilburg. These plans have been worked out and the results are presented in a next story.