Hi! I was solicited as a subject for this research survey, which raised
certain concerns for me which is why I am contacting you (your e-mail
address is the listed contact for MIT's COUHES at
http://web.mit.edu/research/.)
I'm fairly sure this project was never reviewed by COUHES, and if it
were the instrument presumably was not.
The survey was conducted using the Google Docs platform, which violates
subject privacy as well as any presumptions of confidentiality.
The survey does not attempt to gain informed consent. Subjects are never
informed who the group of researchers are, the title of the research
project or grant, the goal or purpose of the research, or any contact
information other than Yunzhi Gao's e-mail address in original
invitation; subjects do not know who the PI may be.
I understand a student project might be expected to be less rigorous,
but I would expect a somewhat higher level of review.
Amgine
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Wiki Loves Monuments survey from MIT researchers
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2012 13:10:59 -0700 (PDT)
From: Yunzhi Gao <gaoyunzhi(a)gmail.com>
Reply-To: wmca-public(a)googlegroups.com
To: wmca-public(a)googlegroups.com
Dear Wiki Loves Monuments organizers,
We are a group of researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We
are interested in the impact of copyright free media on a variety of
different industries. In my current project our team is studying the impact
that Wikipedia Loves Monuments and other similar projects that make free
images of geographic places are having on our society. With a view to
better understanding how such projects work and how exactly they achieve
their objectives. We are interested in interviewing certain key Wikipedians
that make such projects possible.
I am writing this email to see if you would be willing to be interviewed to
guide us in conducting in our research. I am including a link to a Google
form with 6 (short) questions about WLM. Your replies would be invaluable
in helping us understand how free media is transforming one important
sector of our economy – tourism, and helping people discover new monuments
and places of interest.
You can find the interview questions here :
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dFUtZ0x2ejVMZHFFWm…
Thank you again for reading this email and looking forward to receiving
your replies.
Yunzhi Gao