Cross-posted to the EchoDitto Blog.

My buddy Alan had a fantastic piece published last Sunday in the Boston Globe about the (internet) future of polling.

Note, however, that when he talks about "internet polling," he's not talking about the non-scientific polls in the corner of your typical website. In this case, the polling company uses some methodology (phone list, email vendors, etc.) to put together a sample and then delivers the poll through the internet.

Respondents can answer questions at their own leisure and are generally considered to be more truthful. Results are then weighted by the pollster to create a representative sample of the population. Throw in a couple of high profile success stories (California Recall, Tony Blair's last election) and you've got yourself a veritable trend.

In fact, Alan predicts that the sea change in how polls are conducted could come as soon as this year.