1934 1936 1938 1940 1946 1954 1955 1957 The history of the data economy 19 Timandra Harkness is a presenter, writer and comedian, and author of Big data: does size matter? small samples to assess the whole. While working as director of research for New York advertising agency Young & Rubicam, Gallup began to widen his focus beyond studying consumer responses to journalism and advertising. This sampling approach could equally be applied, he thought, to public opinion on politics and social issues. In 1932, his research helped his mother-in-law, Ola Babcock Miller, to run as Iowas secretary of state. In 1934, Gallups predictions came within one percentage point of the congressional election results. The final overthrow of the newspaper straw poll by more statistically robust methods came in 1936. Now running the American Institute of Public Opinion of his surveys to produce a regular syndicated column, America Speaks. Gallup challenged news magazine the Literary Digest to beat his methods with its straw-poll forecast of the presidential election results. He judged, correctly, that the Digests straw poll over-represented people with telephones and cars, who were unlikely to vote for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate. Gallups surveys used a quota system to match the electorate demographically, and he correctly predicted a Roosevelt victory. The Literary Digest closed down not long afterwards. The following year, Gallup polling arrived in the UK. Harry Field, a Briton who had worked with Gallup at Young & Rubicam, was despatched to the London School of Economics (LSE) to find a suitable leader for a British Institute of Public Opinion (BIPO) to mirror its American cousin. Field convinced research student Henry Durant to take on the job. The role must have appealed both to Durants political leanings and his lack of private means. The son of a warehouseman, he had won a scholarship to Christs Hospital school and then worked as an insurance clerk before studying sociology at LSE. The 150 per year salary from the BIPO would help support him and his wife while they pursued their 46 Impact ISSUE 33 2021_pp44-47_DataEconomy.indd 46 26/03/2021 10:12