The Y2K bug was a programming issue caused by a shortcut that displayed the last two digits of the year instead of the full-four numbers (Uenema). There was an assumed possibility that banks would run into significant problems. There were a multitude of other concerns over the bug, and the atmosphere caused individuals to react in unconventional ways. It would be possible to conduct interviews or surveys with people who were 18-65 during the Y2K bug incident. For a broad collection of data, a detailed survey listing precautions and reactions to the Y2K bug that are known would be distributed to a focus group. There should be an option to respond to open-ended questions due to the social-psychological nature of the research. Furthermore, microchipping pets is a highly debated topic of the current day. It is a similar technological issue and people’s opinions about it can be gathered through surveys and interviews as well.
The Nebraska State Capitol and the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 are both rooted in the past and will have no available people to interview. As such, it would be vital to conduct an analysis of previously collected information, namely, research primary or secondary sources. Most of the data can be gathered through organizations responsible for current knowledge of the two topics, historical writings, and museum resources. The majority of the resources can be found online. However, there are certain downsides to simply analyzing previously collected information, such as being unable to draw meaningful conclusions due to the lack of quantitative data, the inability to eliminate errors or misjudgments of data collected by others, as well as possible insufficient understanding of the data analysis tactics. There are three steps that should be followed for successful data collection. They include the organization of the data samples, summarizing the categories of the data, and evaluation that leads to measurable results.
Work Cited
Uenema, Francine. “20 Years Later, the Y2K Bug Seems Like a Joke—Because Those Behind the Scenes Took It Seriously.” Time, Web.