Access Panels and Online Research, Panacea Or Pitfall?

In the previous century, survey data were often collected from random samples from the population. Respondents were questioned in face-to-face, via telephone interviews, or by mail questionnaires. Nowadays, in many polls, people are invited to express their opinion through the Internet. Is this technological progress or a methodological hornets' nest or both? In October of 2006, the Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) organized a symposium on this topic. DANS is the national organization in the Netherlands for storing and providing permanent access to research data from the humanities and social sciences. It is responsible for existing data archives as well as developments of data infrastructure in new fields.