A university "research study" into Chris Pronger?

[Phanuthier]

http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=8385

I'm trying not to be too critical, but how very odd and a waste of reserach money. You have those who reserach drugs and cancer treatment and making iPod nano's to iPod pico's (I guess? iPod femto?) ... but research reading HF and listening to the radio?

[JimmytheT]

And this University gets the vast majority of the post-secondary gov't funding in the province. Yikes

[Locke]

Only in edmonton could this crap be passed off as 'research.' Someone should do some research about how much this cost and then get the University to re-imburse the government.

Locke.

[Resolute 14]

What a waste of my money...

[HOZ]

What a brillient idea! Get money to surf the net and talk about hockey.

[Sparks]

Posted by Locke:
Only in edmonton could this crap be passed off as 'research.' Someone should do some research about how much this cost and then get the University to re-imburse the government.

Give me a break. I also hate Edmonton, being a born and raised Calgarian, but the Univerity of Alberta is miles above the U of C in most respects. "Only in Edmonton?" What is that supposed to mean?

The professor, whose area of specialization is the strategic management of professional sports organizations

Do you think the Pronger situation would apply, then? What would you have him spend his time on? Nuclear physics?

His paper, titled A One-Pronged Attack, was part of a conference session devoted to the topic of the Chris Pronger trade.

Hardly sounds like a multi-million dollar research project to me.

I highly doubt this is a big deal, but it seems as though all many people look at is the headline, and then start some massive rant about how tax dollars are being wasted. Likely none of us is an authority on this for starters, likely none of us really know how he conducted his study and what kind of conclusions he came up with, and likely none of us has done any research into how the money is being spent.

[Agamemnon]

Well, for starters the thread title puts "research study" in quotations, though I don't see those words used together in the article. This wasn't a research project, it was a paper the prof wrote and presented at a conference about international hockey issues.

He did his 'research' by surfing the HF board and listening to the radio... I'm sure us poor taxpayers have lost MILLIONS on this paper... for shame! From now on we should have a government panel review every paper topic every professor writes to see if its 'suitable' for public monies.

Where'd the eye-rolling emoticon go...?

edit: oh, there it is..

[metallicat]

There is also a University course on the finances or business of hockey or something, you guys want to complain about that as well?

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

There is also a University course on the finances or business of hockey or something, you guys want to complain about that as well?

Well I'm hoping to take that class, I'm registered in it.

But seriously... this is not a credible study AT ALL ... a year long study? I'm a UofA student, and I am very dissapointed money was wasted on this crap. Seriously, I could have spent 5 minutes talking to transplant about Marc Savard to know how fans feel about players that ask for a trade.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Sparks

I highly doubt this is a big deal, but it seems as though all many people look at is the headline, and then start some massive rant about how tax dollars are being wasted. Likely none of us is an authority on this for starters, likely none of us really know how he conducted his study and what kind of conclusions he came up with, and likely none of us has done any research into how the money is being spent.

It's in the article man ... he read HF for 1 year as his primary "research" ... with other "research" listening to radio shows.

[Agamemnon]

Does anyone know how much money has been 'wasted'? He wrote a paper and used the internet and radio as sources. I highly doubt that he's spent every waking academic moment over the past year working on this paper; more likely he wrote it to present specifically at this conference.

Someone start throwing out some figures as to how much this essay cost, then we'll piss and moan about the 'waste' this paper represents.

Like I said, maybe some of you would prefer the government approve all academic essays. That sounds like the beacon of a free society.

edit: I also don't see anywhere in the article where the prof spent 'a year' doing the research for this paper. Pronger left around a year ago... the guy could easily have just gone through past threads on HF to garner his 'primary sources'.

We need some jump-to-conclusion mats here.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Sparks

Give me a break. I also hate Edmonton, being a born and raised Calgarian, but the Univerity of Alberta is miles above the U of C in most respects. "Only in Edmonton?" What is that supposed to mean?

Sorry Sparks, you made some good points in your post, and I think some of my comments may have been mis-construed, and not well thought out. My "Only in Edmonton" remark was meant to reflect that I believe, that only in Edmonton would they make such a huge deal out of one player leaving, who had only been there for one season. A good season yes, but one season. And they are making an unreasonably huge deal out of it. A 'research' paper is the perfect example.

Locke.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Well, for starters the thread title puts "research study" in quotations, though I don't see those words used together in the article. This wasn't a research project, it was a paper the prof wrote and presented at a conference about international hockey issues.

He did his 'research' by surfing the HF board and listening to the radio... I'm sure us poor taxpayers have lost MILLIONS on this paper... for shame! From now on we should have a government panel review every paper topic every professor writes to see if its 'suitable' for public monies.

I'm assuming he spent enough time to read HF fromt he day he was traded to the day it was published. What is a good estimate to follow threads and the radio, 2 hour a day? That's 730 hours. I academic researcher like him, lets say he spends 2100 hours at work in a year, that is 35% of his yearly salary of about $65,000 a year on this study, or $21,000 minimum.

However, knowing the "slower" acadamia lifestyle, I can see a few more hours wasted, other threads being read, et al... a better guess is 1000 hours, which costs so a better guess is $31,000.

There you go

[Agamemnon]

If you think he spent 730 hours researching this one essay... I'd ask you to prove it. My guess is that that number is wildly over-estimated. We wrote plenty of papers in University, a 15-20 pager shouldn't require more than about 5-10 hours of research, tops. Often you'd write 4-8 per semester... its not as big a deal as its being made out to be.

Its not like this is a 'year-long project' for the guy... he wrote a freakin paper. It doesn't say anywhere that he started researching the day after Pronger was traded, for all we know he didn't start doing the work until a month or two before the conference.

If he spent 730 hours on it it better be about 300-400 pages long... somehow I doubt it is. Have you seen the paper or research? Do you have ANY basis for guesstimating the amount of time he spent on it other than sheer conjecture? Come on....

[BlackArcher101]

Didn't a woman at the UofC do "research" on girls' behaviour on the red mile during the '04 run to the cup?

About as useless no?

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

If you think he spent 730 hours researching this one essay... I'd ask you to prove it. My guess is that that number is wildly over-estimated. We wrote plenty of papers in University, a 15-20 pager shouldn't require more than about 5-10 hours of research, tops. Often you'd write 4-8 per semester... its not as big a deal as its being made out to be.

Its not like this is a 'year-long project' for the guy... he wrote a freakin paper. It doesn't say anywhere that he started researching the day after Pronger was traded, for all we know he didn't start doing the work until a month or two before the conference.

If he spent 730 hours on it it better be about 300-400 pages long... somehow I doubt it is. Have you seen the paper or research? Do you have ANY basis for guesstimating the amount of time he spent on it other than sheer conjecture? Come on....

When you say "we" I'm assuming as a student? This is a university professor doing this research. It says he followed HF and radio, which is far more then 5-10 hours. Student papers are far, far off of a paper you'd publish and present.

Do me a favour, search HF for the name "Chris Pronger" and time yourself to read the comments. Tell me how much time it told you to just even sample every other post. Factor in time listening to radio's time then tell me how much time you spent on it.

I really, really don't think it took 5-10 hours of reserach and a couple hours to publish a paper that you'd present at a conference. I just don't.

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

When you say "we" I'm assuming as a student? This is a university professor doing this research. It says he followed HF and radio, which is far more then 5-10 hours. Student papers are far, far off of a paper you'd publish and present.

Fair enough... though your guess as to his time is as arbitrary as mine... I've written several, read many, and heard a lot presented at conferences.

Do me a favour, search HF for the name "Chris Pronger" and time yourself to read the comments. Tell me how much time it told you to just even sample every other post. Factor in time listening to radio's time then tell me how much time you spent on it.

So... you honestly think he spent 700 hours to make this one paper he presented at a conference? I've been to plenty of conferences, and heard a lot of papers presented, and not one has ever taken that amount of time to research. You're also mandating that he's read every single reference to Chris Pronger on HF. Why? Where did it say he did that? It looks to me that he read some fan forums, listened to the radio on his way home from work, and distilled the opinion "Edmonton fans are upset about Chris Pronger leaving". I'm not sure how you can just decide to extrapolate that he definitely took 700+ hours to do this.

I really, really don't think it took 5-10 hours of reserach and a couple hours to publish a paper that you'd present at a conference. I just don't.

I guess it depends on how much time he used. If it was 10-20 minutes, then I'd definitely believe it. All it says in the article was that he presented a paper at a conference.

In any event, I think the way this article was presented is totally off base. It was one essay he wrote using the internet and radio for sources to present at a conference. It is not peer-reviewed research. This is not what people mean when they say 'research project', like mapping the human genome or something.

[Phanuthier]

Fair enough, I come from a technical background and I've organized conferences and sit on a one of the largest technical conference committee's in the world, but like I said ... technical conference. I suppose whatever this is doesn't take as much time as a technical paper / preperation. I expect reserach to be extensive, papers to be editted and editted again before being published, presentations to take hours to prepare and presenters to be prepared for questions they'll be asked.

[Sparks]

Originally Posted by Locke

Sorry Sparks, you made some good points in your post, and I think some of my comments may have been mis-construed, and not well thought out...

No worries - I see where you're coming from now (on the "only in Edmonton"). I thought you were talking about the university when you were actually talking about the crazy Edmontonians, and I definitely agree with the latter!

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

Didn't a woman at the UofC do "research" on girls' behaviour on the red mile during the '04 run to the cup?

Yes, I believe that was Mary Valentich from the faculty of social work, among others. I believe, but don't hold me to that - I could be wrong.