Recently, the Topeka Capital-Journal released the results of their annual “Best of Topeka” reader poll. According to CJOnline, the poll
is a “chance [for readers] to say what’s great and compare their favorites with the choices of thousands of others who fill out the annual ballot.” Since I’ve been living in Topeka the poll has been less than impressive, ergo, the results have also been such. A Best of Topeka poll is a great idea, I have to give The Capital-Journal that. They’ve been promoting the cities businesses with the effort since 1992.
Well, it seems that a great idea is about to get better. Topekan Jude Quinn, known as @MightQuinn72 on Twitter, posted to his Tumbler – Part Animal, Part Machine – a call to his fellow Topekans to “create an alternative ‘Best Of Topeka’,” a more thorough, scientifically valid “Best of Topeka” poll. Like gangbusters newTopekans jumped at the chance to make his idea a reality, not only for Jude, but for themselves and for their beloved Topeka.
Case in point – Instead of sitting behind his computer and complaining, Jude has decided to DO SOMETHING to improve his community. I’m inclined to help.
Want to see Jude’s idea come to fruition? Interested parties can send email to rio@seveneightfive.com – ensure you include “Alternative Best of Topeka” in the subject line - or head over to the Wikipage and start sharing your ideas.
“To do what ought to be done, but wouldn’t have been done, unless I did it, I thought to be my duty” – Robert Morrison
Awesome, thanks Marc!
Awesome idea! Way to take initiative guys!
To Marc: thank you very much
To Me: change that goofy picture.
“Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
count me in!
I think you look like a leprachan, possibly sitting on a pot-o-golden-ideas!
Great to hear Joey! Don’t forget to email seveneightfive and give them a heads up.
Is there a reason another media outlet has to be involved in this?
I don’t know that another media medium/outlet “has” to be, but for valid results a large population is needed. More media could yield a larger participating population. I, personally (haven’t discussed this with anyone yet), see it this way. We could do “our” own BoT, focusing on the business that “we” think are “best.” However, the results to that poll would be as generic, bias, and BS as the original BoT poll.
Marc
I did a “Best of ” poll while at V100. Our results mirrored our lister demo just as the Cap Jour’s “best of” mirrors their reader’s demo. I just think that having a media outlet involved taints the outcome and places some kind of doubt in the average Topeka consumer mind.
I understand and agree. Utilizing one method/outlet for dissemination skews the results. However, statistical error is an undeniable part of research, its finding methods to minimize the interferance that becomes key. Any ideas how we could spread the word without utilizing the local media (tv, paper, radio, internet, p2p, etc) and garner a large enough population to reduce the amount of statisical error related to “bias of media outlet subcribers?” I’ll work at coming up with something as well, but currently I’m stumped – stuck in the box you could say.
Marc
Excellent idea!
I thought so too! Hopefully we’ll be able to put something together really unique.
Just to be clear, seveneightfive was approached about publishing an alternative best of topeka list. It is not our goal to recreate a list or compete with the Cap Journal. We prefer to do things differently and unique. We are taking suggestions via email about alternative polls people might like to see, ongoing on http://www.seveneightfive.com. Decisions like creating a ballot of some sort must be taken to our whole staff, which will be next month, and would be a huge undergoing. I will bring this up at the staff meeting and we will let you all know where we can stand and where we can help. If others decide to create an alternative best of topeka list (I noticed there was a wiki created) and are looking for a place to publish the list, we can discuss that as well. I just don’t want anyone to get the impression that we are trying to take over the Best of Topeka list or knock what CJ did. Also, I honestly don’t believe we the capabilities or desire to spearhead a duplicate voting list. On Twitter, we expressed that we were open to alternatives and ways to highlight locally owned businesses and suggestions. Hope this clarifies our position on this matter. I look forward to hearing more about ideas and how seveneightfive can help. Thanks – Kerrice
Thanks for the clarification Kerrice. You are correct about the wiki. Melissa Meek-Shields created a wiki page so folks could collaborate online. Feel free to join the wiki and add your thoughts/ideas! http://bit.ly/wikiBot