Last week, I asked a diverse group of researchers to share their thoughts on the future of measurement. The researchers (names below) loosely have 1-3 common denominators across psychology, artificial intelligence, text analysis, social media, and/or advertising research and analytics. As witnessed in the visualization of our discussion (courtesy of Wordle), data was the currency of conversation. Broadly, responses spanned tools, methods, metrics, constructs, and value.I categorized responses into 4 major predictions about what 2009 will hold measurement-wise. In the pdf, available for download below, I've extracted verbatim from all respondents to support the predictions. The discussion took the form of a Google Group, so in some cases, it was necessary to remove substantial dynamics of conversation. I’ve done my best to capture the essence of themes represented and hope this aggregation will be insightful in understanding where things have been, and potentially where they are going.
I walk away with a sense that researchers are optimistic, yet there’s an undercurrent of “let’s get real.” What are we really measuring—what is a meaningful connection, what do we really pay attention to...
In other words, to paraphrase Diane Court (Ione Skye) in Say Anything:
I’ve glimpsed our future, and all I can say is: Go Back.Let’s get back to basics in 2009 and measure something meaningful.
Predictions:
- We will substantially advance our understanding of individuals and the meaningful connections they have.
- We will identify methods to tap what people are *really* thinking, feeling, and paying attention to, meanwhile gaining insight on what a measurement is truly capturing.
- We will determine how to measure the value of social interactions and attach financial value, whether we’re monetizing attention or a new medium.
- We will build better tools to manage-- analyze and visualize-- massive volumes of data, primarily tapping the evolving social graph.
Thanks to the many researchers who contributed:
Neal Burns, University of Texas, Austin Center for Brand Research
Walter Carl, Chat Threads,
Maury Giles, GSD&M Idea City
Sam Gosling, University of Texas, Austin: Department of Psychology
Seth Grimes, Alta Plana
Matthew Hurst, Microsoft Live Labs
Paul Janowitz, Sentient Services
Shawn Kung, Aster Data
Roddy Lindsay, Facebook
Jamie Pennebaker, University of Texas, Austin Department of Psychology
Martha Russell, Media X at Stanford University
Miles Sims, Small World Labs
Marc Smith, Telligent
Daniel Tunkelang, Endeca
