ProLog

David Frum, Bush(43) speech writer turned conservative blogger at frumforum.com (formerly NewMajority.com), posted an interesting interview with pollster Scott Rasmussen about his latest venture in automated polling.    Apparently bowing to the pressure to introduce polls commissioned by a third parties into Rasmussen Reports, Scott recently spun off Pulse Opinion Research, specializing in client-centric polling.

In the interview, Rasmussen announced that Pulse will introduce a service next month that allows anyone on the Net to commission a poll for as little as $600.  The polling mechanism will use Rasmussen’s standard automated telephone inquiry system.

While the system comes under routine fire by critics who question the fairness of automated queries, unedited questions from otherwise anonymous clients will likely only strengthen their arguments.  Still, its a bold step by one of the innovators of the polling industry.  If Pulse can provide more than the autodialer with consultation services on questioning and statistical analysis of the results, it would be the first step into true open source polling.

It’s been a battle cry for some time now.  “Open Source Polling” is the solution to what’s ailing a seemingly flagging industry.  But as with most catchy cliches, a useful definition is illusive.  In the aftermath of the 2004 mid-term elections, Mark Blumenthal comes close, but fails to capture the most important feature: openness.  Jeff Jarvis came closer, siting that polling should be (among other things) efficient, unbiased, free, and, above all, transparent.  These are some of the core tenets of proloquor.net, tenets we’ll explore in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.