I'm a graduate student at the University of Michigan School of Information (and also an admin at Wikipedia, username Ffirehorse). I'm considering a long research paper on the dynamics of community at Wikipedia for a class on online communities that I'm taking this term.
My question is about protocol, and the reason I'm asking it is because I'm not having much success in locating on Wikimedia or Wikipedia any policy or guidelines on how to approach the community in terms of consent. Would a community-wide announcement be sufficient? As someone who is already a member of the community, while I'm doing the research, would it be advisable to post some sort of note on my user page that I'm also conducting research?
Or is the sort of activity that I'm proposing (i.e., researching Wikipedia while also contributing as a member) generally frowned upon? If so, I will drop the idea without hesitation.
The research I'm considering would be in the form of unobtrusive observation of norms, practices, routines, and other forms of community-forming activity on Wikipedia, and would not likely involve any direct interaction with Wikipedia users. I'd be happy to go into further detail about the specifics if need be.
Any guidance/feedback would be appreciated.
Thank you, Frank Lester
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