ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
1
RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES
2
3
Our research had eight parts:

1. Historical survey of censorship (1)
- Requirement/s: Plotting relevant historical events in a timeline that spans 200 years, with the current year (2023) as the midpoint.
- Goal: Capture the development of censorship/idea gatekeeping – both its implementation and resulting pushback.
- Target Findings: Historical patterns of
- Intensity of pushback against implementation
- Reasons for censorship
- Research type: Secondary – online research

2. Survey interviews on censorship (3)
- Requirement/s: Sending different sets of survey questions to the following segments of respondents:
- General Populace
- Academics
- Librarians
- Goal: Capture the respondents’ personal views and anticipated developments in censorship and the future of ideas
- Target Findings:
- The sentiments are supposed to serve as context/nuance of the respondents’ predictions.
- The segmentation is meant to provide a three-dimensional insight into the possible future of censorship and public discourse. The dimensions are from:
          Idea Consumers (general populace), Idea Propagators/Explorers (academics), and Idea Keepers (librarians)
- Research type: Primary – qualitative survey questions

3. AI survey interview on censorship (2)
- Requirement/s: Asking an AI language model (ChatGPT) two sets of survey questions: one asking about trends and future predictions on censorship, and another on the future of ideas and public discourse
- Goal: Leverage AI’s capabilities in reading existing data to generate insights and predictions on censorship and the future of ideas
- Target Findings:
- As the research is similar to #2 except for its respondent, the aim of the research is simply to get insights from a machine that can powerfully read and interpret currently existing data
- Research type: Arguably primary – survey questions meant for a machine

4. Coffeehouse Observation (1)
- Requirement/s: Observing how frequently coffee servers call customer's name vis-a-vis the customer's ethnicity.
- Goal: Capture a slice of our inclination to self-censor given the current socio-political landscape.
- Target Findings: With the assumption that people are too careful not to offend by mispronouncing names, the observation sought to validate whether the tendency to self-censor (i.e. avoid calling the customer's names) correlated with the customer's ethnicities
- Research type: Primary – ethnographic observation

5. Mini-survey on news sources (1)
- Requirement/s: Quick survey on where people get their news.
- Goal: Get a snapshot of where the general populace sources their news.
- Target Findings: The research seeks to understand where we are in terms of news consumption
- Research type: Primary – online survey/poll
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100