Harnessing the Power of the Internet
IPR sociologist leads revamp of innovative platform for experiments

Fall, 2009, Volume 31, Number 1

Jeremy Freese

IPR sociologist Jeremy Freese and University of Chicago psychologist Penny Visser received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to revamp the groundbreaking Internet infrastructure project Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS).

TESS was launched in 2002 by Diana Mutz of the University of Pennsylvania and Arthur Lupia of the University of Michigan and originally funded by NSF. Since then, the flexible and cost-efficient data-collection platform has fielded more than 150 population-based experiments from 250 researchers in various fields, from sociology, psychology, and political science to public health, economics, and law.

“It has opened doors for faculty, graduate students, and even some undergraduate students to run nationally representative experiments when they would not have been able to do so in the past,” Freese said.

While TESS has exceeded all initial expectations, seven years in Internet time is probably the equivalent of a mid-life crisis for a Web platform and Web site portal. Thus, Freese and Visser have begun a major overhaul of the site, starting with its design. The site now sports a cheerful Bordeaux-and-saffron facelift with more intuitive navigation. They have also streamlined many policies for submitting proposals and increased the size of experiments that can be conducted. Plans for more improvements are underway, such as expanding data search functions and interdisciplinary coverage.

The start-up costs for launching any kind of large data collection are substantial. But by harnessing the power of the Internet, piggybacking projects on common observational platforms, and using pre-recruited panels, TESS keeps fixed costs low. This allows investigators to include even just a few questions on their surveys and receive their data at a price almost too good to be true—free—once their project has been accepted.

Thus, TESS gives investigators the opportunity to run Internet-based experimental designs on a large-scale, random sample of the population.  A cadre of multidisciplinary, nationally recognized associate principal investigators, including IPR researchers Eszter Hargittai and James Druckman, shepherd a comprehensive, online submission and peer-review process, screening proposals for innovative contributions to science and society. The quick turnaround process also reduces the time it takes to get experiments into the field.

“TESS offers innovative researchers exciting new opportunities to work more quickly,” Freese said. “It also allows them to provide more timely and relevant results to the public and policymakers, hopefully at a point in policy discussions where such information could generate more immediate benefits.”

To visit TESS, go to http://tess.experimentcentral.org.