Hello Raul, Indeed. I was actually not really referring myself to samples taken on the web but perhaps RDD from which some research agencies might derive a representative sample of internet users. I was just wondering is anyone had started to put together a listing of sampling types used by online market research agencies. Kind regards, Luca

-----Messaggio originale----- Da: Raul Roman [mailto:rroman@u.washington.edu] Inviato: lunedì 15 novembre 2004 19.53 A: lucameyer@tiscali.it Oggetto: Re: [Air-l] Convenience vs. probability internet user samples

hi luca

there is no way you can make generalizations to the general or even online population by taking a convenience sample from the web. By doing that kind of "research" you'll probably find a lot of problems when trying to convince anyone about the validity of your results, as you probably know. are you looking for literature about it?

Regards

Raul

Raul Roman, Ph.D. Research Associate Center for Internet Studies University of Washington 323 Parrington Hall Box 353055 Seattle, WA 98195-3055 rroman@u.washington.edu Office: 206.543.5920 Cell: 607.262.0112