Greetings!
I'm a computer science researcher at the University of Washington. In the past few years, I've done a number of studies examining e.g. deliberation on wikipedia through policy use and the division of valued work through barnstars.
I've recently designed and built a new discussion interface for improving web based discussions called Reflect (http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/travis/reflect/). Jonathan Morgan presented it at Wikimania this year (http://www.slideshare.net/jtmorgan/wikimania-reflect).
We're now trying to run a study to see how well it works and get insight into the next steps we take in its design. At the same time, we'd like to help Wikimedia gain insight into the development of LiquidThreads.
We are proposing to run a study with the cooperation of Wikimedia. The study proposal is outlined here:
http://abstract.cs.washington.edu/~travis/liquidreflection/index.php/Discuss...
We would love to get your input, particularly on the talk page:
http://abstract.cs.washington.edu/~travis/liquidreflection/index.php/Talk:Di...
LiquidThreads + Reflect is implemented on that talk page, as well as the in-situ survey methodology described in the proposal. Jonathan has seeded the talk page with some discussion topics.
Thank you for your consideration!!!
Cheers, Travis