> I just signed off, but I was quite irritated by such presumptive
> intrusiveness. Do Canadian public institutions routinely demand such
> personal information? Do Canadian citizens routinely submit to such
> impertinence? >>
>
>This is known as marketing research, to label it 'nosiness' and to assign
>this action to a people of another country is inexperienced at best and
>impertinent at worse.


While I am not sure I would have used Hank's tone or language, I think he
brings up a good point in his way.  How many visitors _are_ turned off by
such questioning techniques, is a legitimate question to ask when
employing such methods.  We used to have a game when I was in high school
to see how far people would go to avoid those surveyors that have become
as much a fixture in shopping malls as pan-handlers on our city streets.
You can actually see that on the side of the mall where these people are
not there is twice the traffic as on those sides of the mall as where
they are.  Try it.  See for yourselves.  Everyone knows they are their
with their little clipboards and few people want to talk to them.  I
wonder if the stores they are in front of see a drop in sales when these
people set up shop.  If a museum sets up "maketing research" or "visitor
study" either in person or virtually, it does turn people off, especially
if they feel they have no choice as Hank apparently did.  The plethora of
intrusions into our email boxes, telephones, faxes, and front doors have
made most of the Americans I know deeply defensive of their privacy, and
museums need to keep that in mind when employing such research methods.



Matthew A. White
Director of Education and Internship Coordinator
Baltimore Museum of Industry
1415 Key Highway
Baltimore, MD 21230
(410)727-4808
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