Qualitative Research

As any one who has done any type of research sometimes opinions count more than statistics. Yes, it is important to know that a certain number of people are unhappy with this product; its equally as important to know why they are unhappy. Knowing the emotions and opinions of people - going to out and collecting that research is consider qualitative research.

When researching this week's blog post I came across some information on how overseas companies are being forced to restrict certain things in order to let their product into the country. It was interesting to read the interview between international bloggers and Mauro F. Guillén. Guillen actually said that the companies overseas aren't censoring just to censor - they are doing it for protection. This censorship is going out towards all smart phone users as well as Google and their renewal of contracts in Asia. He went on to use Google saying that since Google has the ability to post anything out there and make it available to the public that 

"The technological opportunities are immense and demand a lot of attention. But these concerns are more driven by the flow of information, and the authorities just want to have some sort of control."

The interview went further on saying that America even does this - we just do it a lot less than most companies. It was also interesting to see how why he classifies this as a crisis:

"It's a crisis because your company is making headlines for the wrong reasons. You're under pressure from the Chinese government, or you're experiencing problems in India or the UAE, and you are in the spotlight. It is a problem that involves public relations, but also the mission statement of the company and its principles." 

What I want to see come out of this is the opinions of the employees and the people who live in the countries with the strict censorships. If I was trying to use Google and it turns out that half the webpages were blocked because of "security" it would be frustrating. But then its the double edge sword of if people grew up in a culture that continuously blocks out information they technically wouldn't understand what they were missing. When companies like Blackberry start going overseas for consumers  I would love to see the feedback on the censorship behind the smartphone technology.