Cape Informer

The much touted Internet Survey, part 1, is out and available now. Please participate, so we can get our money’s worth this time around.

Take The Survey Here.

My general impression of the 11 item survey is that it is designed very simply. I am concerned that the information which it will gather will be overly simplified, and not especially useful to perspective employers. It may be able to give some real basic insight for a perspective employer coming to the area. However, I would believe that the new employer would likely do their own fact checking prior to coming here.

Update: After taking the survey myself, I was presented with a screen that looks like an overview/total of the responses. If it is an overview, I was the first respondent to the survey. See my capture of it here: Print Capture

Update 2: You can take the survey multiple times and it keeps the answers. Proof

Update 3: You can view the results by just hitting submit. This means that people can review what other people submitted before they choose to answer the survey. This will skew the results also.

I watched tonight as our Economics Development Office provided a litany of excuses for a poorly executed survey. Mike Jackson, the Economic Development Director spoke tonight about the decision that was made to outsource a survey to India. He felt that a language barrier kept results at bay. He talked about the fact that they spoke too fast, or with a dialect that people would be uncomfortable with.

CM Bertolini asked if they were capable of providing this survey in house. He answered her question affirmatively. He stated that he felt that an in house City representative would not be able to illicit answers as well as a third party. I disagree completely with this conclusion. People are disinterested in phone surveys as a rule. They will be more likely to disregard a survey coming from a source that they cannot fully and easily understand.

My verdict? A prime example of a waste of taxpayer dollars from a redundant department. Lets mark the Economic Development Office for a healthy budget trimming.