[Foundation-l] Personal research grant collaboration request

[Angela_]

On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 21:03:56 -0400, Chitu Okoli
<cokoli at jmsb.concordia.ca> wrote:

> I am currently working on a couple of research projects involving Wikipedia.
> Two specific projects involve:
> 1. Obtaining a scholarly evaluation of the quality of its articles by
> comparing Wikipedia articles with those of other encyclopedias; and

This part sounds great.

> 2. Mapping the sociological networks of Wikipedians among each other in
> their wiki activities, and the effects of these networks on their individual
> and group performance in Wikipedia.

This part concerns me slightly. Could you explain what you mean by
this please? What would you be doing other than surveying people? Will
it cause any disruption to Wikipedia? Will the users be aware they are
being studied? Will they be able to opt out?

> In return, they would
> have to send you a letter of support indicating that they will be helping
> you to collect the data you need via surveys, etc.

We might be able to help, but we can't guarantee any particular
response rate since completion of the surveys would obviously have to
remain completely optional to the users.

> However, some of the further research I might need to do could need
> substantial help from the Wikimedia Foundation. One particular idea I have
> in mind would be to conduct a survey of Wikipedians to figure out who they
> are, and why they do what they do. 

What sort of support were you expecting from us here? Do you want us
to host the surveys? Do you want us to create the database where the
responses will be stored? Or would simply advertising them and linking
to them on an external site be enough? Is there any reason the surveys
would need to be on Wikipedia itself?

The research sounds really interesting and I'd like to know a bit more
about how you intend to conduct it and what effect, if any, you think
it will have on our users.

Angela.