Hello,
My name is Jadine Lannon, and I am an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto in Scarborough. Some of you may recognize me as the intern who was supporting the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) in the hiring of the Programme Director for the Access To Knowledge Programme. I have finished my internship with CIS and I am currently carrying out fieldwork for my undergraduate dissertation that will explore the gender gap in the Wikipedia editor community in India.
I am conducting interviews as part of a research study on the barriers and challenges that Indian women face to their participation in the editing of Wikipedia. If you are a female editor who currently resides in India, I would be very interested in interviewing you. Your knowledge and experience as a female Wikipedian will provide me with considerable insight into the challenges, obstacles and triumphs that women experience throughout their participation in the editing of Wikipedia and their interaction with other editors and the community.
The interview will take around 45 minutes to one hour, and will be very informal. Depending on your geographical distance from Bangalore, which is where I am currently based, the interview may take place in person or over Skype or a similar software. In any instance, I will do my best to make sure that you are as comfortable as possible during the interview process.
The data gathered from these interviews will be kept strictly confidential at all times. In the final report, all references to the interview responses will be made anonymously or, in cases where direct quotes are used, with the use of a pseudonym.
More information about this interview and the research project will be provided to you before the interview in an Informed Consent Form. I will also provide you with the list of questions/themes that I hope to discuss with you in the interview. If you would like to receive the Consent form and/or the list of questions and themes before you decide to participate in the interview, and/or if you have any questions, concerns or comments, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me at jaylanns@gmail.com.
If you are interested in being interviewed for this project, please drop me an e-mail at the same address as above (jaylanns@gmail.com).
Thank you very, very much for considering to give your time to contribute to this research.
-Jadine