Hi Erik, I'd just like to add that there are also some outstanding issues on the talkpage, in particular whether the 6 month followup is to the same editors or alternatively would require a similar watchlist campaign. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research_talk:Dynamics_of_Online_Interactions...
WereSpielChequers
On 4 July 2011 18:29, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi folks,
I apologize I've not been able to pay closer attention to this project; I didn't realize that it was running on such a tight timeline. There are a number of issues with the Harvard survey.
For now I've set the banner campaign to "2012" and ask that we do not run this until we've resolved the issues below. Again, I'm sorry for the last minute notice, but this entire project has moved forward fairly rapidly since it was first discussed here, and I'm afraid we may have to put it on hold for several weeks.
- This page:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Dynamics_of_Online_Interactions_and_...
as well as the current banner suggests that participants will be directed to a "login page". That login page is in fact a wiki signup sheet on meta.
If this is, per the emails going around earlier, still intended to be a survey with 2,000 participants, that's an absolutely hackish way to go about verifying participant eligibility. Everything I can see seems to indicate that it is so. Directing thousands of people to edit a wiki signup sheet is _not_ a good idea (potential for edit conflicts, vandalism, accidental IP address disclosure, etc., as well as reducing likelihood that people will go through with the whole process). Whatever this is trying to do, there are better ways to do it.
We can't go live with this if this is indeed the intent of this page. It's too much of a hack, sorry.
- From the people organizing the survey, I'd appreciate a working
link or copy of the actual survey questionnaire. The one shared previously no longer works.
- I'm also concerned about the massive banner with the Wikipedia
globe that is used for this survey in the current draft banner. This banner suggests a very strong endorsement by WMF/Wikipedia for this survey, when most people in WMF have probably never heard of the project. Moreover, we don't want to assume responsibility for technical problems, problems with the survey design, lateness of evaluation or publication, etc. We have to choose a design and approach that's appropriate to a survey undertaken by a third party.
A less prominent banner with the logos of the institutions undertaking the survey would be my preference.
- Relatedly, as a point of clarification, has this banner been coded
(as the previous editor survey) to only show once to each editor? If not, again, I'm concerned about the intensity and the risk of overexposing our editors to this invitation.
There's a major scheduling conflict between the Harvard survey and a survey that Wikimedia Germany has been preparing. The survey Wikimedia Germany has been working on is a survey concerning editor health. The project predates most of the work done in organizing and making visible Wikimedia research, and unfortunately has no Meta wiki page -- but was planned to be deployed in July.
Again, we have to be careful with the risk of oversurveying and have to stagger and schedule our surveys.
All in all, my preference would be to postpone the Harvard survey to August or September, to resolve the aforementioned issues fully.
Erik
Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
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