1. A computer-implemented method of maintaining participation in a research operation for a respective one of a plurality of personal user appliances (PUA's) used by a plurality of PUA users, the PUA's configured to provide communication services pursuant to a single agreement with a communication service provider, comprising: associating data identifying at least one of the PUA users with data identifying a group of persons receiving communication services pursuant to the single agreement; associating demographic data of the at least one of the PUA users with the data identifying the at least one of the PUA users; and gathering media exposure data for the at least one of the PUA users pursuant to the research operation, the media exposure data comprising information regarding exposure to media in a plurality of different mediums.