Hey Benjamin,

Wha..? Your IRB won't let you interview English speakers who are non-US residents? Would you mind explaining their logic?

Andrea

On 3/21/07, Jean-Baptiste Soufron jbsoufron@gmail.com wrote:

Well I worked on Wikipedia a lot, and I already wrote a few papers. Most of them are in French, but I can translate a few things. Anyway, I would be happy to exchange with you.

Best,

Jean-Baptiste Soufron cersa-cnrs paris 2

Le 21 mars 07 à 00:00, Benjamin Keith Johnson a écrit :

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Hi all,

I'm completing a Master's thesis in Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media at Michigan State University. My topic is, of course, Wikipedia. You may have seen my advertisement for research subjects on the wikipedia-l list or at the Village Pump. I'm doing in-depth interviews with contributors... basically my perspective is Wikipedia as a public good and "why" individuals contribute, following the work of Olson; Ostrom; Kollock & Smith; Bimber, Flanagin, & Stohl; Forte & Bruckman; and others.

I've already received several queries regarding the limitation of interviewees to U.S. residents. Frankly, it's an IRB restriction, and the decision was made that excluding other English speakers is not a liability in a small, purposive sample.

I'd be interested in any comments or feedback, and am willing to entertain questions. Thanks, and have a great night!

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Benjamin Johnson MA Student in Information, Policy and Society Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media 428 Communication Arts and Sciences East Lansing, MI 48824 Cell: 517.230.1272 john2429@msu.edu

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Wiki-research-l mailing list Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l

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*sigh* As though there weren't enough challenges in doing good research on online communities! I sympathize.

Andrea

On 3/21/07, Benjamin Keith Johnson john2429@msu.edu wrote:

Hi Andrea,

Our IRB application here asks if research will be conducted with subjects in another country, and doesn't provide for an "Internet" option like what's provided for the research location, so non-U.S. resident was added to the exclusion criteria. Essentially, the process doesn't sufficiently reflect the reality of doing research online.

Additionally, I am my own source of funding and prefer to do phone interviews, so avoiding international phone call charges is also a practical limitation on this research.

Obviously, I note all limitations on subject recruitment in my work. But for a small purposive sample, I didn't anticipate that this would be such a controversial move within the Wikipedia community. In hindsight, I can see how motivations in users might vary across nationality with regard to issues like the development of article NPOV, though.

Benjamin

Andrea Forte writes:

...

Hey Benjamin,

Wha..? Your IRB won't let you interview English speakers who are non-US residents? Would you mind explaining their logic?

Andrea

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Wiki-research-l mailing list Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l

GerardM gerard.meijssen@gmail.com writes:

Hoi, Use skype if international phone call charges are an issue. Many people working on Wikipedia (and other wikis) use it intensively ..

I am sympatethic towards using Skype (or equivalent more open VoIP-standards) in general, but I'm afraid that setting Skype communication as a requirement for participation for interviewing will skew the respondents in much the same way that only interviewing US residents would.

GerardM gerard.meijssen@gmail.com writes:

Please explain why the selection of only Skype/VOIP users would be such a bad thing.

I agree that a study on Skype/VoIP users and their Wikipedia use could be interesting in itself. But I think it is wrong to assume that Skype/VoIP users necessarily is a representative selection of Wikipedia users overall.

I could guess that they are slightly more unafraid of new technology than the average Wikipedian. Perhaps they have a higher number of foreign associates that they corresponds with regularly. Maybe they have an lower salary (since they invest hours of testing and experimenting to save relatively small amounts) - or maybe a higher (since they are successful at installing new technology)? I don't know. This could be an interesting study in itself.

My point is that this kind of pre-selection most likely will introduce a bias into the results in one way or another.

Benjamin Keith Johnson wrote:

In hindsight, I can see how motivations in users might vary across nationality with regard to issues like the development of article NPOV, though.

According to this (http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue1/pfeil.html) recent paper, they certainly are important. I will echo Gerard and suggest using Skype. As for IRB... they are evil, but hopefully you can deal with them.

Good luck,