With ashes & sparks we wanted to provide a single place for people to log their opinions and create change.

By providing a structured format in which to leave thoughts and opinions, directly linked and referenced to items in the media, or topics of conversation amongst the community, we aim to build a new barometer for public opinion.

But, when it comes down to it, what’s in it for the various individuals and groups involved?

Panel Members

In many cases we found that people voice opinions in a hope that they can add understanding, change the course of events or affect change on an item under discussion.

After all, to be motivated to voice an opinion in the first place, we’d assume some level of interest in the subject being talked about. Whether positive or negative, something would need to trigger you to take the time to engage in the debate.

Many comments and opinions get lost in a sea of commentary spewed across forums, blogs, emails, letters, petitions and other outlets.

Not with ashes and sparks.

By participating you will be able express your opinions in a simple and confidential format. You will be able to record questions you want answered and explain what made you feel the way you do.

Your answers will form part of a wider databank of public opinion that can be presented directly but anonymously to those involved.

[We would like to reward all panel members in a more tangible way. Ideas we have considered include; a dividend scheme, a points system and competition entries. We would love to hear your ideas, please email them to info@ashesandsparks.co.uk with the subject ‘Rewards’ to register your idea.]

Organisations

A key aspect of improving any organisation’s reputation is to build meaningful and lasting relationships with those upon whom we depend for survival. These individuals may be employees, customers,  students, patients, supporters or neighbours in the local community.

Understanding how these groups (often referred to as an organisation’s ‘publics’) truly think and feel about an issue can be a difficult task.

It may be that your organisation chooses to commission some market research, takes a snapshot of comments from the many available media sources or starts some form of opinion poll. These are all good methods of getting to grips with opinion; however, gaining real time information about how your publics have reacted to a particular event or a piece of coverage may not be possible. Secondly, identifying changes in public opinion as they emerge is near impossible.

The ashes & sparks site has been created to capture the opinions of it’s users through allowing them to respond to current events that they hear via word of mouth or in the media. With one standard survey covering a range of areas directly related to news items there are no issues of leading questions. All questioning will be neutral and not sponsored by organisations, thus enabling panel members to leave their feedback on any topical news item they feel passionate about.

Topical news items will be added to the ashes & sparks site as they appear in the news with options for panel members to add up to three of their own subject matters per day.

Each survey will ask respondents to name the media source where they first read, saw or heard the story, a short precis of the story, how that story affected their opinions, how trustworthy they felt the media source was and any questions they would like answered.

Media Organisations

Our unique survey will attempt to gauge how our respondents feel about the media sources they read, watch or listen to.

The standard survey has been created to question respondents on the level of perceived bias in coverage and the quality of reporting.

This information will be extremely valuable to any media organisation in determining its performance.

If you would like more information about the ashes & sparks site please email us at info@ashesandsparks.co.uk

Surely, with so much communication going on out there, it is impossible to understand how everyone really feels about a particular issue?

That started us thinking.

We wanted to identify a way of measuring public opinion in a way that takes on board all of the new and emerging forms of communication. We wanted to be able to track opinion from its first mention in the newspaper right through to global demonstrations.

We wanted to get to grips with how people came to feel the way they did about an issue. We wanted to understand the depth of their feelings and uncover the questions they wanted answered.

Until now our opportunities to voice opinion seem to follow the interests of a particular organisation, asking for submissions or feedback around a given subject or idea rather than reacting to the areas we want to talk about.

With Ashes and Sparks we wanted to create something different – A research site that enables our users to talk about the issues that matter most to them.

We want to shrink the gap that exists between an organisation and its public. We want to uncover the areas you are interested in, the questions you want answered, and present them directly to those that can make things happen.

We believe we have the answer.

We are currently reaching the final stages of our site development. At present we have a panel of Alpha testers working on the site prior to our Beta launch within the next couple of weeks.

If you would like to be one of the first people to use the new site please take a moment to visit www.ashesandsparks.co.uk where you can enter your details to receive a Beta code the moment they are released.

In the meantime we will be working hard to keep you fully informed of what is to come. Please subscribe to our feed or register for a Beta code to be kept up to date with the latest news from the site.

Aren Grimshaw
Research Manager
Ashes and Sparks