Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on April 19, 2005 07:45 PM
I think that you just missed the whole point of the article Mr. Humble Servant. By blindly believing the published results from this this "study" unfairly skews the real picture. The company that funded this particular study ONLY polled their own clients. In what way is that going to be representive of the average mid-sized company. It definitely skews the whole results right from the start, not to mention the spin that the sponsering company put on the results themselves. As stated in the article, a good defense lawyer can ensure an aquittal by dismissing certain potential jurers and retaining the ones that are most likely to view the issue more consistent with the defendents situation. The one thing that I learned from statistics in college was that the numbers can and will be interpreted in many was. Mostly they are interpreted to support whatever cause the study was commissioned for whether or not the numbers actually support the original theory. So, to answer your question of "I wonder if we can learn something from them?", certainly we can! But we should be allowed to see ALL the data relevent to the study to facilitate drawing our own conclusions instead of relying on some company's interested intrepretation and subsequent spin on the results. BTW - there is nothing wrong with analyzing a report. Especially if it is, supposedly, supporting a specific market trend.
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Re:What can we Learn?
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on April 19, 2005 07:45 PMBy blindly believing the published results from this this "study" unfairly skews the real picture. The company that funded this particular study ONLY polled their own clients. In what way is that going to be representive of the average mid-sized company. It definitely skews the whole results right from the start, not to mention the spin that the sponsering company put on the results themselves.
As stated in the article, a good defense lawyer can ensure an aquittal by dismissing certain potential jurers and retaining the ones that are most likely to view the issue more consistent with the defendents situation.
The one thing that I learned from statistics in college was that the numbers can and will be interpreted in many was. Mostly they are interpreted to support whatever cause the study was commissioned for whether or not the numbers actually support the original theory.
So, to answer your question of "I wonder if we can learn something from them?", certainly we can! But we should be allowed to see ALL the data relevent to the study to facilitate drawing our own conclusions instead of relying on some company's interested intrepretation and subsequent spin on the results.
BTW - there is nothing wrong with analyzing a report. Especially if it is, supposedly, supporting a specific market trend.
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