Thanks so much for the newsletter [1]! Always a great read...
But have to just say that comments like this: 'it is disappointing that the main purpose appears to be completing a thesis, with little thought to actually improving Wikipedia' [2] are really harsh and a little unfair. The student is studying Wikipedia - they can hardly only be interested in completing their thesis. We need to remember that researchers are at very different stages of their careers, they have very different motivations, and different levels of engagement with the Wikipedia community, but that *all* research on Wikipedia contributes to our understanding (even if as a catalyst for improvements). We want to encourage more research on Wikipedia, not attack the motivations of people we know little about - particularly when they're just students and particularly when this newsletter is on housed on Wikimedia Foundation's domain.
Best, Heather.
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2014/June [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2014/June#.22Recommendin...
Heather Ford Oxford Internet Institute http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/ Doctoral Programme EthnographyMatters http://ethnographymatters.net/ | Oxford Digital Ethnography Group http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/research/projects/?id=115 http://hblog.org | @hfordsa http://www.twitter.com/hfordsa