How we decide that we have decided (was: Re: Sampling)

Dave Crocker dcrocker at brandenburg.com
Wed Jul 30 19:25:41 CEST 2003


Spencer,

SD>   Dave was asking about bias between a sample and a population
SD>   when I didn't have a good definition of the "population" (since

Exactly.

It is the fluidity and informality of the *real* population's boundary
that should make us particularly diligent about whether we are being
adequately inclusive and whether our samples are adequately
representative.

We used to do that.

Now, apparently, we just say "we have no good way to interpret the
results other than taking them on face value".


SD>   we have no formal membership, etc. - it's almost like our
SD>   population is a sample of a larger population).

yup!

d/
--
 Dave Crocker <mailto:dcrocker at brandenburg.com>
 Brandenburg InternetWorking <http://www.brandenburg.com>
 Sunnyvale, CA  USA <tel:+1.408.246.8253>, <fax:+1.866.358.5301>



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