I have been asked to forward this message to the WikiEN-l mailing list. A research institute at Haifa University are conducting a study of Wikipedia, and request the participation of the Wikipedia community.
~Mark Ryan WikiEN-l mailing list administrator
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tsahi Hayat ihayat@com.haifa.ac.il Date: May 27, 2005 4:29 AM Subject: RE: A survey about Wikipedia To: ultrablue@gmail.com
Dear Wikipedians,
We cordially invite you to answer a short questionnaire which is a part of a non-commercial cross-cultural research project conducted at INFOSOC (The Center for the Study of the Information Society), exploring Wikipedia community aspects.
The findings of this study will be published in Wikipedia to the benefit of everyone, personal copies will be also available via e-mail (wiki@shil.info).
Click here for the questionnaire: http://wikien.shil.info/
Thank you in advance.
Research Team, INFOSOC Haifa University
Tony Sidaway wrote:
I have been asked to forward this message to the WikiEN-l mailing list. A research institute at Haifa University are conducting a study of Wikipedia, and request the participation of the Wikipedia community.
Cool! How much are they paying for this?
Wow. I wouldn't have expected this kind of response from a Wikimedian. When I read it, money hadn't even crossed my mind. Did anyone else think there might be money to be earned from this?
Timwi said:
Tony Sidaway wrote:
I have been asked to forward this message to the WikiEN-l mailing list. A research institute at Haifa University are conducting a study of Wikipedia, and request the participation of the Wikipedia community.
Cool! How much are they paying for this?
Wow. I wouldn't have expected this kind of response from a Wikimedian. When I read it, money hadn't even crossed my mind. Did anyone else think there might be money to be earned from this?
You miss my point, I think. This is come chap using the name of a prestigious university to perform a "survey", even successfully exploiting the goodwill of Wikipedia editors to have information about this survey published on our mailing list. All we're told is that this is part of a "non-commercial cross-cultural research project" and we're supposed to go to a non-secure http site registered in Michigan (not, aas far as I'm aware, part of Israel) to fill it in. I wouldn't respond to a chap with a clipboard in the street who told me this. I'd laugh in his face. Who is he? Why won't Haifa university's servers do?
Tony Sidaway wrote:
You miss my point, I think. This is come chap using the name of a prestigious university to perform a "survey", even successfully exploiting the goodwill of Wikipedia editors to have information about this survey published on our mailing list. All we're told is that this is part of a "non-commercial cross-cultural research project" and we're supposed to go to a non-secure http site registered in Michigan (not, aas far as I'm aware, part of Israel) to fill it in.
The _domain_ is registered in Michigan. Check where the actual _site_ is, you might be surprised. (But I'm not claiming it's in Israel, either.) (Traceroute is your friend.)
On May 27, 2005, at 3:56 AM, Tony Sidaway wrote:
You miss my point, I think. This is come chap using the name of a prestigious university to perform a "survey", even successfully exploiting the goodwill of Wikipedia editors to have information about this survey published on our mailing list. All we're told is that this is part of a "non-commercial cross-cultural research project" and we're supposed to go to a non-secure http site registered in Michigan (not, aas far as I'm aware, part of Israel) to fill it in. I wouldn't respond to a chap with a clipboard in the street who told me this. I'd laugh in his face. Who is he? Why won't Haifa university's servers do?
For what it's worth, the University of Haifa do claim shil.info as their own. See http://infosoc.haifa.ac.il/research_eng.htm
Tony Sidaway wrote:
Timwi said:
Wow. I wouldn't have expected this kind of response from a Wikimedian. When I read it, money hadn't even crossed my mind. Did anyone else think there might be money to be earned from this?
You miss my point, I think. This is come chap using the name of a prestigious university to perform a "survey", even successfully exploiting the goodwill of Wikipedia editors to have information about this survey published on our mailing list. All we're told is that this is part of a "non-commercial cross-cultural research project" and we're supposed to go to a non-secure http site registered in Michigan (not, aas far as I'm aware, part of Israel) to fill it in. I wouldn't respond to a chap with a clipboard in the street who told me this. I'd laugh in his face. Who is he?
Even wower. You're completely assuming bad faith. Very untypical of a Wikimedian. May I remind you of [[Wikipedia:Assume good faith]]?
Why won't Haifa university's servers do?
The site is hosted on com.haifa.ac.il, which is not only in Israel, but even a Haifa university server.
Timwi
Timwi wrote:
Tony Sidaway wrote:
Timwi said:
Wow. I wouldn't have expected this kind of response from a Wikimedian. When I read it, money hadn't even crossed my mind. Did anyone else think there might be money to be earned from this?
You miss my point, I think. This is come chap using the name of a prestigious university to perform a "survey", even successfully exploiting the goodwill of Wikipedia editors to have information about this survey published on our mailing list. All we're told is that this is part of a "non-commercial cross-cultural research project" and we're supposed to go to a non-secure http site registered in Michigan (not, aas far as I'm aware, part of Israel) to fill it in. I wouldn't respond to a chap with a clipboard in the street who told me this. I'd laugh in his face. Who is he?
Even wower. You're completely assuming bad faith. Very untypical of a Wikimedian. May I remind you of [[Wikipedia:Assume good faith]]?
Why won't Haifa university's servers do?
The site is hosted on com.haifa.ac.il, which is not only in Israel, but even a Haifa university server.
This is why John Dvorak thinks wikis are a bad idea. While Wikipedia asks its users to assume good will, Dvorak contends that on the Internet the only safe policy is toa ssume total malice unless proven otherwise.
I don't agree with him, and enjoy Wikipedia and am glad that I can help edit it, but I do see his point. There are a lot of creeps on the Net.
On 5/27/05, Tony Sidaway minorityreport@bluebottle.com wrote:
You miss my point, I think. This is come chap using the name of a prestigious university to perform a "survey", even successfully exploiting the goodwill of Wikipedia editors to have information about this survey published on our mailing list. All we're told is that this is part of a "non-commercial cross-cultural research project" and we're supposed to go to a non-secure http site registered in Michigan (not, aas far as I'm aware, part of Israel) to fill it in. I wouldn't respond to a chap with a clipboard in the street who told me this. I'd laugh in his face. Who is he? Why won't Haifa university's servers do?
If you are insinuating that somehow my goodwill (didn't know I had any) has been exploited by someone in order to forward the survey request to the mailing list, you are mistaken. The invitation to take part in the survey has been on the Village Pump for at least 10 days, and nobody has made any objection there about the presence of the invitation. The invitation to the survey can be found at the following URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:VP#Wikipedians_On-line_Questionnaire
Furthermore, the request to forward the information to the mailing list was sent to me (I presume) as a result of my role as mailing list administrator. In that situation, it is not my place to decide if the email should go to the mailing list, so long as the email is not spam and actually relates to Wikipedia. Whether people choose to participate in the survey is their own personal choice.
Personally, I feel that fresh data about Wikipedia users will be a good thing
~Mark Ryan