thwartedefforts

Me: here’s something interesting… driving around town last night, there was a road block on Elston with signs that said “Voluntary Survey” and an SUV marked “Sheriff” was redirecting people into the Microcenter parking lot
Me: signs all the place that say voluntary survey. we had 5 people in my mustang.
Me: it was about 2am. this woman approaches the car. someone in the car thought to ask “is this a state or federal operation” and she said “federal”. asked me if I’d like to answer questions as part of a survey, completely anonymously.
Me: I said, “this is hardly anonymous, you have the ability to take my license plate number”
Me: which caught this woman off guard. “we aren’t collecting that, sir”.
Me: so I denied to take the voluntary survey, and she asked if I’d consent to an anonymous, voluntary breathalyser test
Me: and I said “no”
Friend: wow, that is really fucked up man!
Friend: It is getting out of control
Me: which apparently was unexpected, because she called over some other woman and said “this guy says he doesn’t want to participate”
Friend: whoa
Me: and the other woman said, “well, they can go” and kind of gave a surprised look at the survey woman, like “duh, it’s voluntary”
Friend: voluntary breathalyser “survey”
Friend: that stinks like week old fish
Me: well, the first part was apparently questions
Me: I wonder if they were supposed to offer the breathalizer if one said they didn’t want to answer the questions
Me: they had like three or four cars lined up talking to them
Friend: Hmmmmm
Friend: How many people will actually refuse such?
Me: exactly
Friend: Is it not really a violation of your privacy to even stop you without due cause?
Me: when we were talking later, it came up “I bet they were thinking, ’shit a car full of educated white people, better not push it’”
Friend: Bingo
Me: it’s not unreasonable search if it’s “anonymous”
Me: apparently
Friend: Did it look like busts were happening?
Me: no
Friend: Right I remember those bullshit rulings about the road blocks
Me: but the sheriff car gave it an air of legitimacy

Here’s a Google map of where the voluntary survey checkpoint was.

Update (2007-08-04): idolatrare found this survey methodology description (Pilot Test of New Roadside Survey Methodology for Impaired Driving DOT HS 810 704) that very closely matches the experience (up to the part about actually participating, which I have no information on). Check out this bit in “Basic Survey Technique”:

As the motorist came to a safe stop in the bay, the data collector recorded basic demographics based on observation (e.g., the number of passengers, use of a safety belt by the driver, and the gender and ethnicity of the driver). These data were recorded so that we would have descriptive information of potential subjects who refused.

Anonymous should mean no identifying information. However, they only made a claim that taking the survey was anonymous; one does not have a right to privacy if one refuses the survey, apparently.

See also the Executive Summary.

Not that anyone seemed to have any trouble breaking the ice or starting up a conversation, but TECHcocktail should have some kind of bingo game, treasure hunt, or something like that. This way, people have another excuse to chat each other up, can check things off, gather points, and there can be prizes at the end that you can effectively “earn” rather than just get lucky and win.

To get things started, here’s a sample list of point generators and things to find:

• If you’re a recruiter, you get one point for each minute you accidentally talk to another recruiter thinking they are in technology and looking for a job.
• You get one point for each person who introduces someone else as their significant other.
• If you unexpectedly meet an old significant other of your own, give yourself 10 points.
• Getting interviewed by someone who is carrying a tape recorder nets you a point. If you have to spell out a domain name into a tape recorder, you get one point for each letter in the domain name.
• One point for each domain name someone drops like it’s a household name but you’ve never heard of it. Two points if you’re the only one within earshot who has heard of that domain. Three points if you’ve actually been to the domain in question.
• One point for each person who, apparently being so new to this Internet thing, appends every domain name with .com, no matter how many times you say .net, .org, or .us.
• One point for each founder of a company whose product is not live yet. Two points if they have a known/estimated release date. Three points if it’s next week. Four points if the product is already live.
• One point if someone says “web two point oh”. One point for “web three point oh”. Two points for “web one point oh”.
• Three points when someone utters “ontology”. Subtract four points if it’s immediately followed by “Sorry, I’m not sure who’s familiar with that term”.
• On your trip to the restroom, you acquire one point for each person talking on the phone in there. Two points if they’re typing into a blackberry.
• One point for each mention of “D&D”, “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” you overhear. Two points if it comes up in a conversation you’re having.
• Distribution of professions:
  • One point for each “project manager”.
  • Two points for each “founder” or “partner”.
  • Three points for any “designers”, “programmers”, “system administrators”, or “network administrators”. Bonus if they make known their “flavor” (Flash, Air, .NET, Cisco, Linux, Windows, OSX, PHP, RoR, Oracle, etc). Extra bonus if they’ve written a book.
  • Three points for each “lawyer”.
  • Zero points for recruiters.
• One point for each claim of “Internet Celebrity” status. One point if you recognize their name. Bonus if someone overhears and is awestruck.
• If you hear someone say “It’s my blog” and the person they are talking to responds with “What’s a blog?”, double your points (I kid you not, this actually happened).
• One point if a conversation you’re having gets cut short when someone needs to take a phone call. Two points if it was a legitimate phone call. Three points if they come back to continue talking after their phone call is finished.
• One point for each person who hands you a business card that is actually for the business they are talking with you about.

Overall, it was an enjoyable couple of hours. Free drinks are always nice. I’m told by those from Arstechnica who were there that the previous ones had more actual tech people and fewer, ahem, recruiters. I was kind of hoping to find some people to fill in the expertise gaps in the projects I’m working on or people to bounce ideas off of, but honestly I didn’t really know what to expect. I did definitely met some interesting people, people that I plan on following up with.

And then there’s this conversation August (aka Mayor Awesome) and I had:
“So, there don’t appear to be too many technology nerd chics here.”
“There aren’t even that many true nerds for that matter. But, yeah, it’s a sausage fest.”
“Shit, there’s even a sponsor for this sausage fest,” pointing at a logo for Poll Everywhere projected on the wall.
“See, even they know it’s mostly a big buncha guys.”