Nortel Buzzboard

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It’s been over a decade since I last studied Statistics in college, but I still remember a few things from it (no matter how much I’d like to forget everything about that class).  One thing I know, is that a sample size of 400+ people for a survey is considered “statistically relevant.”

So yesterday morning when I checked out the voting count for the video contest, I thought we had a pretty clear winner.  The Nortel “Piles” commercial had a comfortable lead atop the voting, with the employee-created “sock and sandals” video a good 8-10% behind.  Everyone else was far back in the pack, presumably without any chance of winning.

But as the day went on yesterday, it became obvious that something odd was happening.  Someone has been stuffing the ballot box.  Throughout the day yesterday, “The Nortel Robot” — yes the video that kicked off this contest and caused such a fuss — started getting an inordinantly large percentage of votes.

By this morning, it’s now The Nortel Robot video that has a comfortable lead atop the results — quite a turnaround.  I wonder, is it just a really well-organized “get out the vote” campaign that is working behind the scenes for this video?  If so, McCain and Obama might learn a thing or two about their strategies.  Or might it be something else — someone turning off their browser cookies so they can stuff the ballot box with more than one vote?  I hope not.

So my question to you is, what are you doing to make sure the video you like the best wins? If it’s not the Nortel Robot, apparently not as much as that group.  So “Get out the Vote” — tell your teammates, your friends, your colleagues.  You can see all the competing videos here.  Voting remains open through September 12th.

PS - personally I think everyone is missing the boat, it’s the Nortel “Holes” Commercial that beats them all hands-down, but who am I to influence the vote.