The telepanel of the University of Amsterdam
Given the successful acquisition of research by the SRF in the past and the subsidy that was obtained from EUROSTAT the director, the manager of the research committee of the faculty and I were of the opinion that the faculty could take the risk to create the Telepanel and exploit it for commercial and scientific research. If all would work out well the faculty would create its own telepanel, a system for computer assisted data collection without interviewers before the WEB existed. This would be a permanent research facility for social science research like physics laboratories have for their research. However, the difference was that in this case commercial research was necessary to cover for the extra costs for staff and accommodation.
The Telepanel of the University of Amsterdam (STP)
With the head of the research committee I went to a notary to establish the Telepanel foundation of the University of Amsterdam. The next step was that STP had to obtain the space and the personnel to run this organization. The accommodation was found next to the building of the faculty.
With respect to the staff one solution was to take over the best people who so far had worked for the SRF, designing income and expenditure questionnaires. These questionnaires were needed for the EUROSTAT project which was the first paid project that had to be done by STP.
However besides the students who had developed questionnaires on income and expenditure research, we needed for the STP also other man power for different tasks such as:
With the head of the research committee I went to a notary to establish the Telepanel foundation of the University of Amsterdam. The next step was that STP had to obtain the space and the personnel to run this organization. The accommodation was found next to the building of the faculty.
With respect to the staff one solution was to take over the best people who so far had worked for the SRF, designing income and expenditure questionnaires. These questionnaires were needed for the EUROSTAT project which was the first paid project that had to be done by STP.
However besides the students who had developed questionnaires on income and expenditure research, we needed for the STP also other man power for different tasks such as:
- A secretary
- A technician to install computers
- A sampling expert
- A programmer for the data management system concerning participation and non-participation, computer problems and reporting about the results on a weekly basis
- A person responsible for the quality of weekly questionnaires
- A manager of the data collection i.e. the specification of the tasks for the different members of the households and the correction in case of problems and the contact with the respondents, if there were problems
- A person for data processing, data storage, data analysis and reporting of results
- An administrator for the finances
But there was more
This staff was needed to run the telepanel when the panel would exist, but before it was so far, we had to build up the panel. An important issue is to realize that most people at that time, 1990, had no experience with computers. Therefore the introduction had to be done step by step otherwise too many people would refuse to participate. We used a three steps procedure.
Step 1. An interviewer (student) would call a household using our computer system and would ask the head of the household to participate in an interview. Some simple questions were asked about the household composition and about satisfaction with different aspects of their life. After that the respondent was asked to participate in a more elaborate interview that would take place in his/her home. If the respondent agreed an appointment was made.
Step 2. In the second interview first some simple questions were asked again by the interviewer but thereafter the respondent would be invited to fill in some very simple questions on the computer. If it was necessary, the interviewer could explain how it should be don. Mostly that went well and the respondents were impressed that they could work on a computer. Then the respondents were asked to participate in the panel for a longer period. In that case they would get a computer to answer the questions while they could use the computer also with other software like games that we provided. If they agreed to participate, they were told that they soon would receive by mail a package containing the computer and a modem. When the computer had arrived a technician of STP would call for an appointment to install it so that they could participate in the panel.
Step 3. The installer would make the appointment, install the computer and make the contact with the central computer. If that contact was successful, they were member of the panel and would get the weekly interviews. The first two steps were done by students of the university that were trained for this task. The installation was done by a person that was hired especially for this task.
Note that for installing 2000 computers in a year one needs to place 40 computers each week. The installer had quite a task because he had to send all these people the computer and if he knew that the computer had arrived, he had to make an appointment to pass by. That could be anywhere in the Netherlands, given that we had to use a random sample of the population.
It was quite a complex process because at that time the internet was not yet available and most people did not have a computer at home.
This staff was needed to run the telepanel when the panel would exist, but before it was so far, we had to build up the panel. An important issue is to realize that most people at that time, 1990, had no experience with computers. Therefore the introduction had to be done step by step otherwise too many people would refuse to participate. We used a three steps procedure.
Step 1. An interviewer (student) would call a household using our computer system and would ask the head of the household to participate in an interview. Some simple questions were asked about the household composition and about satisfaction with different aspects of their life. After that the respondent was asked to participate in a more elaborate interview that would take place in his/her home. If the respondent agreed an appointment was made.
Step 2. In the second interview first some simple questions were asked again by the interviewer but thereafter the respondent would be invited to fill in some very simple questions on the computer. If it was necessary, the interviewer could explain how it should be don. Mostly that went well and the respondents were impressed that they could work on a computer. Then the respondents were asked to participate in the panel for a longer period. In that case they would get a computer to answer the questions while they could use the computer also with other software like games that we provided. If they agreed to participate, they were told that they soon would receive by mail a package containing the computer and a modem. When the computer had arrived a technician of STP would call for an appointment to install it so that they could participate in the panel.
Step 3. The installer would make the appointment, install the computer and make the contact with the central computer. If that contact was successful, they were member of the panel and would get the weekly interviews. The first two steps were done by students of the university that were trained for this task. The installation was done by a person that was hired especially for this task.
Note that for installing 2000 computers in a year one needs to place 40 computers each week. The installer had quite a task because he had to send all these people the computer and if he knew that the computer had arrived, he had to make an appointment to pass by. That could be anywhere in the Netherlands, given that we had to use a random sample of the population.
It was quite a complex process because at that time the internet was not yet available and most people did not have a computer at home.
A memorable event
We had promised to build up a panel with 2000 households. Obviously we had bought for the panel 2000 computers and modems. At some point in time they were delivered at our office building. We needed all our personnel that was available at that monent to unload the computers and modems. The corridor of the building, where we were supposed to work, was just long enough to put along the wall from the floor till the sealing all these tools for the panel. This was a nice symbol for the task that was waiting for us.
We had promised to build up a panel with 2000 households. Obviously we had bought for the panel 2000 computers and modems. At some point in time they were delivered at our office building. We needed all our personnel that was available at that monent to unload the computers and modems. The corridor of the building, where we were supposed to work, was just long enough to put along the wall from the floor till the sealing all these tools for the panel. This was a nice symbol for the task that was waiting for us.