Fishing for available data

[robot_hamster]

So my thesis topic isn't coming along all that well. My biggest problem is that I get an idea in my head and then I realize that there really isn't any data available. Since I have a limited amount of time (a little over a year to have everything done), I am sort of limited on what I can do. I don't mind doing field work, but some things just take a long time before you can obtain sufficient data. I talked to a professor about this and they gave me the e-mail addresses of some state employees. Apparently there is a lot of unprocessed data that is laying around. I want to contact them to see what kinds of data they have available and then see if I can fashion a thesis project around it. Basically, I will just be fishing for information... I may or may not be interested in what they have to offer (and I have more than one person I can try). So my question is, how should I go about e-mailing them? What should I say? I don't want to annoy anyone and I don't want to sound desperate. I also don't want to get anyone's hopes up. I don't want to give them the wrong impression, them thinking I am interested in doing x,y, and z when I may not be. Does that make sense?

[Gravity]

I work for the fed, and definitely have a ton of data laying around. If someone contacted me with something along the line of:

Hi X,

I am a graduate student studying ____ at the University of _____. My advisor, Dr. Professor, suggested that I contact you. I would like to study for my thesis, and was wondering if you have any data related to x, y, and z that I could analyze. (Optional: I am hoping to [insert something about what type of analysis you'd like to do].)

Thanks,

Student Name

Department

University

Phone/Email/address/whatever

I'd be happy to help her/him. I imagine that whoever you end up contacting will be ecstatic that someone wants to do something with some of the untouched data.

EDIT: Forgot to reply to part of your question. Regarding your concern about getting someone's hopes up, the people you contact will be able to tell you if they have any data that you can use to study what you are interested in. They'll be able to work with you to come up with a new idea, too, if you would like. I doubt any of the people you contact will have time to be too disappointed if it doesn't work out, if at all - their reaction will probably be more along the line of "oh well, maybe next time" (at least that's how I feel - ha).

Edited February 26, 2011 by Gravity

[robot_hamster]

Well this professor cautioned me on this. They said that other students have told people that they would work on such-n-such project and then disappear. Of course I wouldn't intentionally do that, I just want to avoid giving the wrong impression.

[newms]

I'm wondering if you've checked online sources, since there is a thrust nowadays to have more government data available online - I'm thinking of federal data sets on http://www.data.gov or on the state level like with New York: http://www.nysenate.gov/opendata. Maybe other states don't have as much info available as NY state, but there might something useful already online.

[robot_hamster]

I don't think the data I am seeking is "out there", but thank you for the suggestion.

[Gravity]

Well this professor cautioned me on this. They said that other students have told people that they would work on such-n-such project and then disappear. Of course I wouldn't intentionally do that, I just want to avoid giving the wrong impression.

Ahh ok - I see what the prof's concern is. I think you can avoid that problem by being up front about what you want to do, and what kind of data you would like to work with. Avoid agreeing to work on something that you don't want to. Basically, don't tell the state employee that you will work on something, then fail to work on it. I understand why that would be irritating.

[robot_hamster]

Okay, thanks for the info. I hope that they are as receptive to people asking such things as you are.

[robot_hamster]

I just wanted to update on this. I haven't heard anything back yet from any of the people that were suggested to me. Would it be completely inappropriate of me to try calling them? I only have e-mail addresses for them, but I might be able to find their phone numbers in the directory.