I am currently conducting a small survey on ICT, Society and Poverty in Mauritius and would appreciate if Mauritian readers could take just a few minutes to fill in the online survey (it won’t take you more than 5 minutes).
The data will be made available here as soon as it is completed. And, if there are enough responses, it will be presented at a conference on poverty in Mauritius, which is to take place beginning of October (I will post details).
Thanks a lot for your help. You can also ask your friends to fill in. The more the better.
hello Christina, this questionnaire survey is a really good strategy of getting an opinion thereby saving time and money.i’m doing a research dissertation on the social impact of IRS in Mauritius.I was thinking of going out and interviewing people…how can I do a survey to have a public opinion on that theme.can you advise me..But there is only one hic..this kind of survey can only attain either your members of your blog or only a customer segment that have a computer meaning limiting a mass opinion of different segments .WELL its a good stratety anyway
Hi Sanjiv,
You are absolutely right. The online collection means can only reach certain segments of the population. So it will need to be complemented by face-to-face or questionnaire in the long run.
In any case, the tool I have used (www.surveymonkey.com) does not allow me to set more than 10 questions unless I upgrade from free to paid account (and at the moment I don’t have funds for this survey). So, the aim of the survey is only to provide some preliminary insights.
As for your dissertation, you definitely will need to go out to interview people if you want a complete picture. But you could use the online tool to test or even complement your data set. Anyway, your supervisor should normally guide you through the methodology process and help you make the right choices regarding collection tools (I personally tend to favour a mixed approach in order to gain both qualitative and quantitative knowledge about the topic).
Hope this helps. Which programme are you enrolled in?
I’m in International Business Management final year programme.Its a nice course but a bit theoritical…compared to other universities abroad.This course is suppose to give me an opportunity to become a consultant .The first day of the course for this semester started 2 weeks ago, the teacher who was supposed to teach us Marketing on the first day , due to confusion at UoM he went to teach to another class and we were all waiting for him in our class, he gave a one- hour lecture to the other class that was not his?No joke! This module was supposed to be every 2 years , now at UoM they are doing it every year ,this means that there will be lots of people with that degree every year thereby diminishing its value …just as MBA..today everybody has an MBA from messenger to director.Quality and value will diminish if UoM continues in that track .No more value for money.Its better to have contacts than having a degree to succeed nowadays, even people are recruited by contacts.., businessmen are more sucessful by contacts than possessing a degree..Well this will be another debate.
well its an interesting survey, really made me think while answering 🙂
promising conference.. where will it be held? uom?
recently there was a survey about IT penetration In Mauritius (or something alike) the resuls were quite amazing.. only 24% have a computer at home, now try to imagine the % who have a decent internet connection..
lots of call centers doesn’t make us a cyberisland 😛
maybe we are working towards cyber island but for the time being we are a telephone switch lol
Hello Christina, here is a useful data for you to analyse the % respond by internet.
The total internet subscribers in the country for 2006 is 142,800 users of which 83,300 are fixed internet subscribers( who can afford a PC Iguest) and 59,500 users are mobile internet subscribers( may be these are the poor segment who can’t really afford a homePC)
Is your survey satisfactorily evolving?
I wonder below what income are people considered poor in Mauritius? I mean on which criteria are we to consider a poor person? Difficult to assess .., is income only a main criteria?
Hi Sanjiv,
Thanks for the figures. But mine are different. What are your sources?
According to CSO official stats for 2006, I quote from the website (http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/ei648/toc.htm):
– The number of internet subscribers at the end of 2006 reached 137,500 (10.9% of the population)
– Broadband internet subscribers stood at 81,069.
– 24.6% of these had access through a
fixed line (including wireless)
– 75.4% of these had access through a mobile cellular telephone.
There is no official poverty line although, on the global scene, the $1 a day or $2 a day threshold is used by UN agencies.
But, more and more people now tend to agree that poverty is multidimensional though some aspects like access to food, water, energy are fundemental indicators.
The survey has yielded some interesting insights but it is still ongoing. If you can encourage additional people to participate, I would in fact appreciate.
I will keep you all posted once I have finished…
hello, my source is the book ‘Mauritius in figures 2006’ from the Central statistics Office…but the numbers difference are not too large.
What is interesting about the concept of poverty is that someone in a rural area can have a poor income but if he grows vegetables,breed chicken or fish sea food from the sea..he is being able to have a convenient living ,thereby he is not poor at all..whereas on the other hand another person can have a better salary than the latter but is incapable of satisfying the vital necessities of food,shelter and clothing for his family.Your survey is a difficult one …you really need a human work force and a reasonable time period to interview people and at the same time assessing the poverty reality according to your research. Another option could be to ask the help of and newspaper L’express to help in that survey in coordination with UoM. GOOD LUCK to all those working on that Survey.
Cyberisland? I have to totally agree with Vicks.
I think that instead of making the island “cyber”, more attention should be given to eradicate the “poverty” in the minds of people and finishing with all those barriers between people and taboos that control and destroy lives over there. Life would become much enjoyable in real freedom. And this should be done not through blogging where the ‘segment is poor’ (to cite Sanjiv).
check today l’express 5 october page 10. statistics of poverty in mauritius